Chapter 27 #2
“It wasn't that hard to break into your dressing room, considering there was no security and no lock.” Lafayette shrugged innocently. “After you left my wife and I, I busied myself with stealing your hairbrush while my wife used the bathroom before our departure. One little trip to a family friend associated with one of the hospitals my family owns, and your DNA sample became Subject B,” he smiled. “To protect your anonymity, of course.” Ugh, he was speaking like he’d done me a fucking favor and it made my stomach churn.
“And so,” he gestured to the papers, and I looked back down at them to see that Lafayette and Subject B were fifty percent related, the results saying that they likely shared a parent and were half-siblings.
“You're Subject B, Alistair. And you are one of us.”
He’d just unloaded a lot of information at me, and I'll admit, I was struggling to take it all in. What I couldn't deny though, was the results right in front of me. I had no idea whether or not they were faked or not, but the truth was right here in front of my face.
I'd never questioned whether or not Wanda and James Finneson were my parents. I'd lost my dad when I was six, so young that I barely had any memories of him. I wished the same could be said for my mother.
The mention of my mother brought another question to the forefront of my mind. “Are you the reason my mother left Phoebe?”
“No.” Lafayette's immediate answer made me believe him for some reason. I wanted to understand my mother completely uprooting her life on a level nearing desperation. “But I'm assuming I'm the reason she reached out to you.”
My head whipped from the test results to read his face. “You spoke with her?”
He nodded. “I met with her. She admitted to sleeping with my father, and that James Finneson wasn't the father of her child. She claims he always knew that you weren't his, and he hadn’t cared. That he loved you like you were his own. And then she said she'd call you.”
Tears bubbled against my eyes at the mention of my father knowing all along.
Why had he stayed with my monster of a mother after learning of her infidelity?
Why would he do that to himself? He’d never treated me like I was anything less than his son.
And I didn’t give a shit what these test results said.
DNA or not, I wasn’t the son of Archibald Rhodes.
I was, and would always be, the son of James Finneson.
“She did,” I scoffed, addressing the topic again in lieu of getting out of my head. “But she mentioned none of this.”
“I figured as much.” He sighed, shaking his head.
“She was offered a ridiculous sum of money to contact you and attempt to set up a meeting. I assumed when we never heard back, she took the money and severed contact. So, I took matters into my own hands and thus, our meeting after your opening night show.”
Lafayette spoke as if all that exposition was enough, like he hadn’t just ripped apart the entire idea of my whole life with just a few strung along sentences and allegedly factual test results.
I’d obviously be getting to the truth of whether or not I really was, by blood, a Rhodes sibling. But that still begged the question…
“So why are you here, Lafayette?” My words sounded like venom, even in my own ears. “Assuming I believe all of this, that still doesn’t answer why the fuck you decided to kidnap me to my own house.”
“Well, the house part is because I sent a message to your publicist saying you needed a moment to yourself, not to disturb you because your bodyguard was with you, and you would be at home if she absolutely needed you.” So that’s what he’d been doing with my phone before destroying it.
The only breath of relief within that was the fact that Priyanka had to have at least been unharmed for him to believe she’d see my message, think it was me, and not think that anything was wrong.
“You can’t be reported missing if you’re in your own home, of course. Just without the bodyguard.”
His words about Van…he’d alleged in the message that Van was with me, as to not worry Priyanka. Which was the most alarming, since I hadn’t seen Van since I’d done the interview at The Gab. Lafayette’s earlier words came back to me. If you want to make sure he keeps breathing…
I wanted to scream at him and demand he tell me where the fuck Van was, but he kept speaking, finishing his previous revelation.
“As for why I’m doing this, it’s a bit complicated.
” He sucked air through his teeth, making a clicking noise as he shook his head.
“But I’ll simplify it for you.” Suddenly, he reached behind himself and retrieved the gun, aiming it at the middle of my chest again.
For the first time since I’d been in this situation with Lafayette, I felt fear.
Now that he’d revealed everything, I didn’t think much was stopping him from pulling the trigger.
“My father might have been feeling guilty as his death nears, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to share the family inheritance with another fucking sibling. ”
He clicked the safety off the gun, but I barely heard it over the sound of my laughter. Lafayette’s eyes widened in surprise as I tossed my head back and started guffawing, unable to control myself from falling into hysterics.
“What the fuck is so funny?” He kept the gun aimed at my chest, his grip like steel, unwavering and without fault.
I had to wipe my eyes from laughing. I truly couldn’t believe that all of this, all of this, was because Archibald Rhodes was about to die and leave his family all of his wealth.
“You’re doing this because of money. Really?
” I refused to stop myself from shaking my head at him.
“I don’t know if you’ve heard, but I don’t need your fucking family money.
” I gestured around the room, suggesting the entirety of the house.
“I did all of this completely by myself. Even if another test proved I was his son, I wouldn’t take a fucking cent from him. ”
“You say that now,” Lafayette scoffed. “Until you see the dollar amount. Only those who had to endure years of being a Rhodes deserve part of the inheritance.” He looked around the room, his head lingering upwards as he stared at the chandelier.
“You’re right, though. You don’t need the money.
Clearly you didn’t have the difficult childhood that comes with being his son. ”
The scoff I let out was lethal. “Because I had it so easy, right?”
“You were free of family and its faults. And believe me, they never end.” He shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. I can’t let you live after everything, anyway.”
I cackled one loud outcry, completely ignoring his threat on my life. “Free of your family, sure. But I didn’t have it easy. Nowhere near.”
“Please.” Lafayette waved the gun around the room. “Look at this place.”
“Did you miss the fucking part where I said I did this myself?” I knew I probably shouldn’t have, but I stood up, rising up out of my chair in anger.
Lafayette wasn’t pointing the gun at me anymore, too surprised by my outburst. I kept going, because I needed him to know that just because I’d escaped the horrors that came with bearing the Rhodes name didn’t mean I hadn’t endured horror by another name.
“All of this is because I escaped the bullshit my mother put me through.” Once I started rattling off, I couldn’t stop.
All of the trauma, all of the things I’d buried within myself came barreling out.
If I was going to die, here in the life I’d built for myself, I was going to die honest.
“Do I not look like someone who's had pain?
Do I not look like someone who was hit and beaten for no reason?
Do I not look like the son of a woman who would get so drunk, she'd leave him after school for hours? Do I not look like someone who had to fight off his mother from slitting his throat with a broken beer bottle?” All of the memories blurred by my recollect, a collective of pain that I'd sworn I'd moved on from.
My face was wet, and it wasn't until I wiped my face with the back of my hand that it registered that I'd had hot, angry tears sliding down my face while I'd been listing off the horrible things I'd be forced to face.
“Countless mottled bruises, one beating too many.
That's what my mother gave me. And you have the audacity to stand in front of me and think I had it easy.”
If I'd been expecting for my words to sway Lafayette, to appeal to his emotions, I was sorely mistaken. If anything, he looked bored. He couldn't care less about the dark parts of my soul that I'd just shared.
Tilting his head in mock understanding, Lafayette finally said, “Is that all?” The scoff that followed was leaded. As was the gun in his hand as he raised it back, even with my chest once again. “That's nothing compared to my life. Nice try, though.”
I closed my eyes, fearing that the bullet with my name on it had finally decided to come out to play.
The front door opened instead, jolting my eyes open as both Lafayette and I turned to see someone stumbling through the entrance and everything felt like it was happening in slow motion.
Lafayette pulled the trigger on his gun instantly, the sound harsh and off-key.
A body hit the floor, struck by the bullet meant for me as they slid roughly against the marble floor.
“What the fuck!?” Xoah screamed, clutching at the bullet wound on his arm, red blood seeping out between his elongated fingers.
Lafayette didn’t seem as ruffled as I would have expected by our surprise houseguest. He took a look at me but kept the gun pointed at Xoah. “Sit back down.”
The only reason I decided to listen to him this one time was because he’d just fucking shot Xoah.
As I sat down, my pulse quickened. Was Lafayette about to kill Xoah in front of me?
Why the hell was Xoah even here? My brain was a little too occupied to remember if I’d said anything to him about coming over, or vice versa.
The crazed Rhodes man in my house sauntered over to Xoah like he hadn’t just shot him but was going for a leisurely stroll around the neighborhood instead. He pointed the gun at Xoah until he stood over him menacingly.
Xoah started laughing, staring down the barrel of the gun. “Oh, god, you’re so fucking stupid.”
I couldn’t see Lafayette’s reaction, as his back was facing me now, but judging by his words, it wasn’t all too pleased by Xoah’s declaration. “Fuck you. Tip for the future? Don’t antagonize the guy with a gun.”
“Don’t be so fucking stupid then.” Xoah said with ease.
From where I sat in the chair, it looked like Xoah had already stopped bleeding.
In fact, if I wasn’t mistaken, it looked like he was healing from the gunshot already.
It was all but confirmed as we all heard the sound of the bullet wedging itself out of Xoah’s skin, his Orb genes clearly attributing to his escalated healing.
Lafayette waved the gun in front of Xoah’s face, completely ignoring the fact that the bullet he’d just shot Xoah with had just wormed itself out of his body without a care in the world. “Fine, I’ll bite. How am I so fucking stupid?”
Xoah smirked, like he’d been waiting for Lafayette to take the baited phrase and usher out a response. “Because I didn’t come alone.”