A throat clear. “If you two are finished, we need to get started,” my dad says.
Did this man get a personality transplant?He’s serious, but any other time my not providing my undivided attention would’ve landed me a swift reprimand— not a clearing of the throat.
“We’ve updated you on Aaron Bishop’s capture and being one of the highest priorities to retrieve, second only to his daughter Ariah’s safe return, but what we haven’t told you is that Ariah Bishop is Ariah Bradford.”
My head snaps up— eyes going wide in shock. A Bradford?
“What the fuck?” Lev shouts but quickly shuts his mouth at my father’s stern glare— now that’s the man I grew up with.
“How’s that possible?” Sebastian voices, saving Lev.
Shifting his furrowed gaze from Lev, my father surveys the room, his jaw flexing as though he’s trying to find the right words to explain the bullshit lies they’ve been telling us for all of our lives.
“We can’t give you all of the details. Just know it was for her safety that she was hidden. And as you’ve observed, it was for a good reason.”
He stands, moving to his desk to retrieve something before he continues, “The Filiae Bellonae has been a shadow organization we’ve known about for generations, but they’ve kept themselves hidden, only striking in recent years.”
I look to my brothers. We all have a variation of the same look— confusion, frustration, and shock. How could they keep this from us? Why would they?
“How… why would you not tell us any of this?” Owen inquires as if hearing my inner thoughts.
Expecting our questions, a screen rises from the stand at the front of the table. An image on the monitor appears.
“Elise Lockwood, or Seline Bishop as she’s been going by, was high on our radar, but we couldn’t confirm our suspicions until Ariah’s arrival to town.”
“Lockwood? As inthe Lockwoods?” I ask, remembering one of the families that left Edgewood when they felt snubbed for not being part of the founding families because they had no male heirs at the time. Women aren’t allowed to be Fraternitas members. It’s not allowed and will never be done.
“The very same. Seline Bishop was born under the alias of Seline Stephens, a name she was given at birth to hide her true identity. She was given up for adoption to a family to hide her true lineage but raised under the tutelage of the Filiae Bellonae.”
We stare at the birth certificate of both names. This group has been planning for a long time.
“Do we know who the members of their leadership are?” Wyatt asks. His hands balled into fists, no doubt trying to reign in the rising anger— evident by the reddening tips of his ears nearly matching his ginger hair.
“Not enough. They’re hiding in plain sight. We’re slowly gaining some insight based on the members we’ve identified.”
“Do we think Samantha Davenport is a member?” Lev voices.
“We’re still unsure. After she was taken and assaulted, we believe she may not be a member, but suspicion remains. We’re just lucky the idiots that took her didn’t realize that the pin she was wearing had the GPS chip in it,” my father replies.
When news of Sam’s rape broke, I felt horrible for my initial suspicion of her, but then I remembered who she is. Would someone stage their own kidnapping and rape? That would be vile even for her usual antics.
My father continues, “We’ll be keeping an eye on her, but for now, given all that’s occurred, we will pull back on our surveillance to give her time to heal. She’s bruised and has a broken cheekbone so she’ll be home resting for the foreseeable future.”
“How can they be so hidden? Why don’t we know more?” Lev starts. He pulls his hair from its bun and redoes it, a sign of his mounting frustration with being so far out of the loop. But Lev knows we never get all of the information. He needs to tread lightly here.
“If we had known even a quarter of this information, Ariah might not have been taken. We could’ve done more,” he growls.
Rubbing the back of my neck, I finally recognize where his frustration lies— his guilt. He’s trying to make sense of a fucked up situation.
“You were all told what you needed to know,” my father barks, his patience with Lev’s outburst spent. “With the information you did have, you didn’t discover enough to do what’s required. See that you all rectify that moving forward. You’re all dismissed.”
We rise from the table, silent as we make our way to my side of the house, so we can discuss everything festering after the cluster fuck of information dump we just received.
“How the hell did we not know any of this? How were we supposed to keep her safe without knowing all of this?” Lev snarls, punching the wall as we enter my room.
This is more than just guilt. I snort, “Let me guess, you’re team Ariah now?”
He works his jaw, glaring at me.
