“You had to,” I repeated with disbelief. “You made a fool of me. Do you have any idea what it cost my family? Sienna?” His Adam’s apple bobbed, but he remained silent, his expression never wavering. “Does your son know?”
“No.”
I let out an incredulous breath. “So you left not only me believing you were dead, but also your own son.”
“I can explain.”
“How?” My voice turned high-pitched with each word as tears burned in my eyes. “Because frankly, no amount of explanation could ever justify what you’ve done.”
“Kai will understand. He knows how far his mother was willing to go to end me.” He must be delusional if he truly believed that. “In time, so will you. Jacqueline even tried to use her family at the Black Oil. I needed protection, and the safest thing to do was to die.”
I didn’t dignify him with a response, because now… it was even more apparent he was only thinking of himself. “Why would you put us all through this?”
“I thought… it would push Jacqueline over the edge. Or make her move on, best-case scenario.”
My brows furrowed as I repeated, “Push her over the edge? As in… kill herself?”
He shrugged. “She made everyone’s life hell.”
I stared at him, dumbfounded, wondering if I ever knew this man at all.
“Who pulled you out of the car?” I asked instead. “I heard the gunshot and then you…” My voice cracked and I couldn’t finish the sentence.
“A man I hired. It was meant to be believable and…” He trailed off.
“And?”
He took a deep breath in and released it slowly. “And make the police believe Jacqueline had something to do with it.”
I was at a loss for words while I stared at him wide-eyed, not believing my own ears.
“I’ve seen some scumbags in my life,” Kian gritted with a dark expression, “but you take the cake, Jonathan.”
“I doubt it, considering your background,” Jonathan scoffed.
“You left Sophie high and dry at the mercy of an emotionally unstable woman with connections to the Black Oil Syndicate. It never occurred to you that Sophie, her family, and even your own son could have been killed as a result?”
“Jacqueline’s family with the Black Oil ties had washed their hands of her.”
“But not of Kai,” Kian said. If looks could kill, I was convinced Jonathan would have been dead right now.
“Please, don’t you act all high and mighty,” Jonathan hissed. “You’re a killer through and through. How many innocent people have died because of you?”
“Don’t you fucking dare,” I chimed in, my voice trembling withfury. “Don’t you dare turn this. There’s nothing you can do to make yourself look or feel better.”
Jonathan took a step toward me, but immediately stopped as Kian pointed his gun at his forehead. “Don’t you fucking take another step or I swear… I’ll kill you and you can rot with this yacht and your ex-wife.”
My ex-lover’s eyes found me.
“This kind of life—his life—is not for you, Soph,” Jonathan said quietly, desperation lacing his voice. “He’s a killer.”
My spine snapped upright and my eyes flashed with fury. “And what are you, Jonathan?”
“I’m not a killer.”
He was right; he wasn’t. He was much worse. He was an emotional manipulator. A toxic narcissist who left his son and me at the mercy of his crazy ex-wife while we mourned his loss.
I shook my head, tears streaming down my face and my body shaking. “Kian’s not?—”
