The tears kept streaming down my face as she spoke. My whole body trembled. I didn’t know how I was still standing. The Valery in front of me was a stranger. I didn’t recognize the hatred, the manipulation, the coldness. God, how had I not seen it?
“You’re probably wondering why I dragged your precious ‘Mama Kate’ into my revenge? Because I hated her too. She was perfect, loving, gave love to everyone. But she wouldn’t act to force her brother-in-law to admit the truth, to claim his child. Yes, Kate knew who my father was. When I saw how she treated you, I hoped she might care for me too. I told her who my father was, but she said she couldn’t do anything for me. Such a fake saint. Acting like a second mother to you, when I had already made sure you lost your first. It drove me crazy that she was there for you, as a mother, when I’d gone out of my way to take yours.”
“You’re disgusting,” I sobbed, hatred boiling in my stomach. “I thought you were my sister.”
“Well, big scoop, we actually have the same mother. So technically, yes, I am your sister.”
“What?” The shock hit me again, harder than before.
“Yeah, see how twisted that woman was? Passing off her own daughter as the child of a maid. Delivering me to her predator of a husband, telling me to smile and take it. Why do you think she didn’t like you spending time with me when we were younger?”
“I… I didn’t know… I had no idea.”
“You never know anything. That’s why I couldn’t stand you. I had to pretend every day to love you when all I wanted was to see you disappear. This war should have wiped you all out, but you and your husband survived, and Marquette decided to marry you off. You became untouchable, but I still had a littlehope because Konflict wanted to kill you. But unfortunately, my idiot cousin was in love, and I didn’t notice until too late. When I found out he was the escort screwing you every night I knew he’d never kill you so the poisoning before the Marquette party was perfect. You should have died that night, and Marquette would have been blamed. Konflict, with his hot temper, would have gone to waragain, and this time I hoped he’d die there.”
“I always knew there was a reason I never really liked you,” Konflict said, voice cold and detached. “If you weren’t fucking Krash, I’d have put a bullet in your head a long time ago.”
“Go on, keep talking,” my so-called uncle said. “I want to know where the rest of us fit into your twisted plan. I still don’t see how we ended up with an anonymous tip that Serenity was being held captive and had to be extracted tonight.”
“I know,” Viper—the man who’d brought us back—spoke up. “I may not be on Emberwick, but I kept an eye on you, Valery. Your work was flawless, totally unsuspected. Everyone trusted you. Nobody would have guessed, except me. I trust no one. Especially not an anonymous informant. Here’s what happened: Once you were sure Konflict wouldn’t kill his wife, and after you failed to poison her, you convinced her to run away, telling her she had to fight for her life. Serenity, she was the one who planned your route, and I bet she insisted you run.”
“She even told me she was pregnant and wanted me to be godmother. So I thought I was safe.” I turned to Valery, voice breaking. “Are you even pregnant?”
“She’s not,” Krash answered, voice hollow. “That was just another lie, to keep us off balance.”
“Wow… I… I have no words,” I whispered, heart in pieces.
How could she have gone so far as to manipulate me with a fake pregnancy? She was diabolical. The more I thought about it, the more I realized she’d done things right in front of me and I’d been too blind to see. Like the time Eleana Sawyer came tomy office, wanting to buy my casino. Kalash would never have let her in. It must’ve been Valery who gave her access, and then pretended to want her gone. How many more things like that had she done, right under my nose?
“Well, I guess it’s clear now that Serenity’s kidnapping by the Sawyers was staged. The only reason it failed was because she was rescued. And our little criminal mastermind here realized that now that Serenity knew her husband loved her and would never kill her, it would be even harder to reach her with him protecting her. So the only way to get to the protected was to eliminate the protector. Contacting the uncle who swore to protect his niece and telling him she was being held hostage and would be executed soon. That was a clever move, I’ll admit. Still, the plan would have collapsed if anyone saw the two of them together tonight, giving us all a demonstration of their love, like they just did. No one could believe that a man who’d die for his woman was actually planning to kill her. I knew Valery’s strategy was to isolate Serenity from Konflict so he could be eliminated. Nobody would have questioned it. Then she could have gotten rid of Serenity later. Being so close to her, it would have been easy to make it look like she was just collateral damage in the attack. Very, very clever, I’ll give her that. Too bad I figured it all out ahead of time. Honestly, I found it thrilling to wait in the dark, hidden under the trees, just to watch you arrive and confirm my theories. There’s a kind of pleasure in realizing you were right. But, all the fun’s over now. I’m bored. I’ll leave you to your family drama,” Viper said, before turning and jumping into the speedboat.
“Viper! You could have warned me. I came here for nothing. And damn it, I lost a few men in a battle that didn’t even need to happen,” my uncle growled.
“Yeah, but where’s the fun in that? And well, they were weak anyway. See you around.”
“Fucking little shit,” my uncle hissed. Then he turned to me. “Serenity, I haven’t seen you since you were ten, and now you’re a woman. My relationship with Vince soured after my last visit here. I promised myself I’d never deal with him again. I heard he was killed, but I didn’t look into it. I regret not keeping in touch with you, not checking up on you. When I heard someone was trying to have you killed, guilt ate me alive, and I wanted to make things right by coming to save you. I should have checked the facts first. If things had gone wrong tonight, your husband could have died because of me. I’m sorry for that.” He turned to Konflict. “No hard feelings about earlier?”
Konflict looked at my uncle’s outstretched hand for a long moment before finally shaking it. “No hard feelings. But next time your men attack me, I won’t be so forgiving.”
“I believe it. You look fierce. Take care of my niece.”
He came up and hugged me, strong and brief. “You were tough even at ten and you’re even tougher now. Get rid of the snakes around you. Put a bullet in that one. She doesn’t deserve to breathe the same air as you,” he whispered in my ear.
He stepped back and signaled to his team—or what was left of it—to leave the yacht. They disappeared, leaving us with Valery.
“What a night!” I heard Draven say. “Seriously though, what are we doing with the brain behind all this? That was a touching story, but her punishment needs to fit her crimes. K, what’s the plan?”
“Since she’s responsible for my mother’s death, I think I’d like to kill her a little every day for a year. Putting a bullet in her head would be too easy.”
“Oh, you mean the acid thing where you stick her leg in a tub and make her watch it dissolve? Please, let me do that!” Draven offered with a twisted grin.
I had no idea how he could joke at a time like this, when I was literally speechless. It hurt to know I’d trusted someone Ithought I knew. My sister tried to kill me. Wow. I really didn’t know if I’d ever recover from that.
“Sis, do you have any particular, exciting revenge you want to take on her? After all, you’re the most affected. Well, Krash too. If you want to each take an arm and dip it in acid, I’m game,” Draven added.
I was angry, but mostly I was sad. Sad to lose the one person I thought would always be by my side. We’d been through so much together, and I couldn’t accept this ending. I knew Konflict and Krash would kill her and she deserved it. But I didn’t want to see it.
“Do what you want with her,” I said, my voice hollow.
