Page 29 of Maddening Fixation

The Bentley lunged forward, and the convoy thundered after it like an army marching toward war.

Engines roared across the countryside.

Trees blurred into streaks of green.

I watched the landscape race past without truly seeing it.

Instead...

I saw Sarah, her broken body lying motionless beneath the eighth-floor window, her skull crushed against the unforgiving ground below.

I heard my father’s voice, cold and unwavering as he condemned me without a moment’s hesitation, calling me a murderer while I begged him to believe the son he had spent a lifetime refusing to love.

Then came Sergei.

I saw the faint smile that had curled at the corner of his mouth.

The smile of a man who knew he had won.

He had murdered my sister. He had framed me for it.

And he knew no one would ever believe my side of the story.

Now...

Yarina was standing beneath the same roof as those monsters.

Every beat of my heart echoed through my skull.

I closed my eyes for the briefest moment.

“They should’ve killed me when they had the chance.”

Neither man replied.

Because both knew... I wasn’t speaking to them.

The Flynn estate appeared over the next hill.

Ancient stone walls stretched across acres of perfectly maintained grounds.

Towering iron gates guarded the entrance like the jaws of some sleeping beast.

For generations, the Flynn crest had stood proudly above those gates.

A silver raven perched upon a sword.

The family motto carved beneath it.

Blood Above All.

I stared at the words.

A humorless smile tugged at my scarred mouth.

What a beautiful lie.

Blood had never mattered to them.