“Kill me, you mean,” I said. “Then raise our son as one of you.”
He nodded and turned his back to me, laughing bitterly as he snatched up his wine glass. “He even brought the rest of the family at Dawes House in on it.” He turned back to me as he said it, gesturing with his glass and sloshing some of its contents onto the rug. “Oh, not the part about you and I having a past together. He only told June and Pearlie about that bit. The rest of them just thought he’d brought you here so I could prove I was finally the dutiful son and seduce you, impregnate you.” He eyes blazed, bright with rage as he ground out through clenched teeth, “And, yes, murder you.”
I could only stare at him, so many emotions competing for dominance.
Whit downed the last of his wine. “So, I went to New England to have a little chat with dear old Dad, set him straight. I demanded to know what game he was playing.” The muscle in his jaw twitched, betraying how furious he was even just remembering the conversation. “Turns out you were an experiment, Zellie. You survived your pregnancy with Henry so well, you were so strong, and Henry was stronger than he had a right to be without any supplements. It was similar to howmy mother had been when pregnant with me and how I was as a child. Genetics, maybe? Your abilities are hereditary, so maybe it made you different in other ways as well. He wanted to study you, study Henry, figure out how to replicate the success.”
I shook my head. “No. That’s not true. I wasn’t just some experiment!”
“Not to me, Zellie.Neverto me.” Whit’s expression grew dark. “I told him to go to hell and that I’d kill any bastard who tried to take either one of you away from me. That didn’t exactly go well, as you can imagine.”
“And?” I prompted, although not sure I wanted to know the rest.
Whit set his glass on the table then shrugged nonchalantly. “And I ripped his heart from his chest before he could mine.”
I stared at him, eyes wide. “You killed him.”
“I did,” he confirmed without a hint of remorse in his voice. “I told you I would protect you no matter the cost.”
“And your trips up north?” I managed. “The injuries, the bruises?”
“Asserting myself as head of the family,” he said without elaborating.
I’d always heard that when watching a horror movie, a director will leave the monster unseen, letting the audience’s minds fill in the gaps with their own imagination, often with images more horrifying than anything that would’ve been on film. But somehow, I didn’t think that was the case this time. I had a feeling that my imagination couldn’t even begin to do justice to what my beloved had wrought. To protect me. To protect Henry.
My God.
“Give them back,” I ordered, my voice little more than a whisper. “My memories. I want them back. I need to know what you’re saying is true.”
“I can’t,” he said. “Not just by wanting to.”
“Then how do you have yours?” I pressed, my anger returning in a rush.
“They came back when I killed my father,” he replied without hesitation. “I don’t know how or why. Maybe it was the fact that my subconscious realized the main threat to you and Henry was gone at that point. Or at least I thought it was.”
“Was everything a lie, Whit?” I asked, afraid to know the answer but needing to hear it anyway. “Why did you allow Henry and me to stay here? Why did you fuckingmarry me?”
“Everything I feel for you—felt for you even before I had my memories back—is true. It wasnevera lie, Zellie.” He came toward me, eyes pleading for understanding, but halted when I flinched at his sudden movement. “I thought I could protect you better if you were here, keep anyone outside of Dawes House from trying anything as a way to get to me. I made it very clear that you and Henry weren’t to be touched without my permission.”
“Why would they listen to you?” I asked, eying him warily.
“Because I’m head of the family now,” he said. “We have rules, customs. They’re centuries old and run deep. Which is partly why June and Pearlie weren’t going to let me forget that the role comes with one critical responsibility. June was impatient for me to get on with it, but I think Pearlie hoped you would become one of us instead.”
The full magnitude of the betrayal hit me, knocking the air from my lungs, crushing me. My so-called family at Dawes House who had seemed to love and embrace me as one of their own had all been a ruse.
Whit’s phone buzzed with a text message from CP.
Cora. Was she a part of all of this, too? His sister I hadn’t even met?
I set his phone on the coffee table and stepped back.
“We need to go, Zellie,” Whit announced with a glance at the message, his tone abrupt. “I’ve made arrangements for us, security until I can completely cement my place as head of the family, abolish the reprehensible practices that have gone on for far too long.”
I nodded and slowly edged backward toward the hallway.
He had to be out of his fucking mind.
If even half of what he was saying was true, there was no way in hell I was going anywhere with him. I pivoted and rushed to Henry’s room, then grabbed the duffle bag that was in the top of his closet and started pulling clothes from his drawers and shoving them into the bag.
