“Father. Gold digger,” she purrs, running the tip of her finger around the edge of a serrated knife. “I’d say it’s good to see you, but I’d be lying.”
“You can’t do this to us!” Cadance screams. “Your father has powerful contacts, and they’ll kill you if you touch us!”
“Shut up, Cadance,” Amos barks, piercing me with daggered eyes.
“Don’t tell me to shut up,” she screeches, and we all collectively cover our ears. “I’m in this mess because you never listen to me! I told you to kill them weeks ago, and you dismissed me!”
A squeal leaks from her lips when Athena presses the edge of the knife up under her chin. “What did you expect, cunt,” she says, nipping her skin. A trickle of blood seeps from the flesh wound, and Cadance whimpers. “You’re a woman. Only good for one thing, and you couldn’t even do that, could you?”
ChapterForty-One
Drew
Cadance screams when Athena slashes her panties, and the lace scatters like dandelions on the wind.
“What are you doing?” Horror washes over the stepmonster’s face as she tries to move her arms to cover herself, but it’s futile because Charlie’s rope-tying skills are legendary, and there’s no way that bitch is getting out of that chair alive.
“Quit your sniveling.” Athena kneels. “No one here is interested in your used-up cunt.” She drags the tip of the knife across Cadance’s belly and lower into the top of her bare pussy. Bile crawls up my throat, and I hope she finishes whatever this is fast because I’m seriously grossed out by Amos’s wife’s skeletal frame.
Athena straightens up, glowering at her stepmother. “As I thought. No evidence of a cesarean, and everyone knows you’re too selfish and lazy to push.” Athena prods her knife into the swell of Cadance’s surgically enlarged left breast. “You were never pregnant.” She snips her bra through the middle, and the straps fall to the side, exposing Cadance’s naked chest to the room.
I have never found the female form more unappealing, especially when she starts that whiny sniveling again.
“The bitch is defective,” Amos snarls. “Just like her predecessor.”
It’s hard to stand by and not react to that, but Athena’s got this.
“Say that about my mother again. I dare you.” She steps sideways, standing in front of her father.
“She was a failure in every regard. Couldn’t get pregnant, then she does, but it’s a fucking girl. I screwed that bitch daily for years after you were born, and she never got pregnant again. She knew the importance of an heir, and she couldn’t deliver the only thing I needed of her. The happiest day of my life was the day she was diagnosed with cancer, but she couldn’t even die right. The stupid whore was recovering, but I took care of that.” The look he gives her is pure evil, and I don’t say that lightly.
“No.” Athena gasps.
“It’s true. I injected her with poison every day for months until she finally died.”
Athena slaps him across the face before raising her knife.
I dart forward and snatch her wrist midair. “Not yet,” I whisper in her ear. “Think of all the fun we’ll have with him back at the hotel. You can go to town on him then. Pay him back for your mother’s suffering.”
Slowly, she lowers her arm and falls back against me. My arm curls around her waist protectively as Amos snarls.
“Another fucking defective female. I sent you to seducehim, and you let him seduce you instead,” he hisses. “So goddamned weak. You’re a slave to your hormones just like every other woman in my life.”
“Stop saying that,” Cadance says in between sobs. Yep, we’ve progressed to that. “I’m not defective. My tests were all perfect.”
“You lied. My daughter was right about one thing. You are a gold digger.”
“I didn’t lie,” Cadance screeches, glaring at her husband, and we step back, silently agreeing to let this play out and see how it might work to our advantage. “I didn’t fake the tests! Why would I when I have wanted to be a mother my entire life?”
“You’re the defective one.” Athena says in a calm tone, now fully back in control as she points her knife in her father’s direction. She steps out of my embrace and thrusts her shoulders back. “You’re shooting blanks.” She throws her head back and laughs. “I bet my mother could’ve had tons of children with other men. Maybe I’m not even yours.” She tilts her head to one side. “Wouldn’t that be like winning the lottery.”
“Hate to break it to you, sweetie, but I had paternity confirmed when you were a baby. Unfortunately, you’re mine.”
“But Arlo isn’t.” I step forward.
Athena nods, casting a subtle glance at her stepmonster, but I’m already on the same page. I crouch in front of Cadance, keeping my gaze glued to her face because being this close to her scrawny body already has my skin itching like a thousand fire ants are dancing on my flesh. “I just want the truth,” I say, softening my tone and forcing a seductive smile on my lips. “Give it to me, and we’ll let you go.” The lie floats easily off my tongue. “We know Amos is the mastermind behind everything that happened to the Ford family. He will pay the price for those sins, but you don’t have to. Why should you suffer for his fuckup?”
Amos grits out a harsh laugh. “He’s playing you, honey. Don’t tell him shit because it’s all lies. We’re going to die with the truth buried deep inside us.”
