Thirty-Nine
SCARLETT
W e’re escorted out to the yard of the mansion where a large table is set up under a gleaming canopy covered in twinkling lights. The moonlight reflecting off the pool beside us makes it look oh so magical.
On the table is an assortment of delicious looking foods, enough to feed a village, and there are place settings for at least fifteen people around the long table. I notice Warren Servite, Ace’s father, is standing at the head of the table with a woman with blonde, almost white, hair dressed in a white lace dress. She is stunningly gorgeous and instantly I know that has to be Ace’s mother.
Apparently, she is a former model who comes from a very well-connected family. That and the fact that Ace’s sister Wynter is a spitting image of her. Ace lowers a hand to my back and guides me to a seat beside him, with Bass sitting to my left, Alec to his left, and Beck to Alec’s left .
Thankfully, Agent Servite sits at the head of the table to Ace’s right, with an empty seat next to him. The Smoaks sit to his right, then the Silvers, followed by two empty chairs and finally the Servites at the end of the table. I sit uncomfortably, not knowing what to expect when two more guests emerge from the house. Both equally dressed to impress, the man with dark brown hair and the woman with beautiful blonde curls.
“Carlisle, Priscilla, so glad you could join us,” Agent Servite says.
“My apologies, Servite, you know how long this woman takes to get ready,” answers the man Agent Servite referred to as Carlisle.
“Of course, my dear Priscilla, you’re looking marvelous. Please, before you sit, I’d like you to meet my guest of honor,” he says motioning me to stand. “This is Scarlett Steele, Ace’s girlfriend.”
At the mention of me being Ace’s girlfriend, they both stiffen. A crude look appears on the woman’s face as the man, Carlisle, clears his throat turning to Ace.
“I wasn’t aware you were in a relationship, Wallace,” he says, ignoring our introduction.
“From the moment I met Scarlett, I knew I had to have her as mine,” Ace says, hugging me to his body as he places a chaste kiss on my cheek.
“Of course, you’re beautiful, my dear,” Carlisle says, looking at me.
His wife however is still looking at me with scrunched brows and a fake, thanks to all the Botox, smile on her face.
“I am Carlisle Prescott, and this is my wife Priscilla.”
And there’s the reason for their insolence. These are Carrington’s parents. Of course they’d be upset to find out Ace, their daughter’s one and only obsession, has a girlfriend who is not their daughter.
We take a seat as three women dressed in French maid uniforms serve us our plates. I look up from my spot at the table and see the empty seat in front of me. I turn to Ace questioningly, and he scowls at me shaking his head as if he knows what I’m thinking. I raise a brow and he grunts, lowering his face to the plate placed in front of him. I scoff and turn toward Agent Servite.
“Agent Servite,” I say, causing the murmuring to stop as everyone’s focus is now on me. “Are we still expecting someone? I think it’s rude to eat if not everyone has arrived.”
“You are absolutely right, my dear, where are our manners? My guest should arrive any minute now.”
“What is it with all the mystery tonight, Wes?” Malcolm Smoak asks him, and I hear the other’s whisper in agreement.
“Well, my dear Malcolm, you know I’m known to enjoy playing games, and tonight, we’re in for a treat.” Servite stands turning to me. “Tonight’s game is more of a mystery. A murder mystery. A mystery that will be solved by the time we all leave here tonight.”
Everyone looks around at his words murmuring quietly to each other.
“Who killed Silas Smoak?” Servite blurts out, making the crowd go silent.
Malcolm pushes back against his chair standing furiously. “Is this some kind of joke to you, Wesley? You mentioned you never found my father’s murderer. That they were just some lowlife addicts, a robbery gone wrong.”
I turn to Agent Servite, and he winks at me, a slow grin appearing on his face as he faces a very irate Malcolm. “Oh, I’ve known all along who murdered your father, my dear Malcolm, and they’ve been under our nose all along.” He looks at me and I feel Ace’s hand on my thigh squeezing tight. I turn to him, and he looks at me, a silent warning to keep quiet on his face.
“Stop with the riddles and games, Wesley. Do you or do you not know who murdered Silas?” Stephan Silver asks, annoyed by his friends' games, though he also doesn’t look surprised by Servite’s dramatics.
Servite’s gaze finds me, a sinful grin turning up the sides of his mouth until all his pearly white and perfect teeth are showing. My body shakes uncontrollably.
“Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome my second guest of honor, the beautiful, difficult to hunt down and nearly impossible to find, Lilith Steele.”
A woman wearing a dress made from the most delicate of black silks emerges from the mansion. Her dark hair is perfectly combed and cut into a blunt bob right above her shoulders while clear blue eyes glimmer in the moonlight illuminating her face beautifully painted with makeup. She looks nothing like the woman I last saw three years ago.
Nothing like the woman who abandoned me and ran off. Nothing like my mother.
I stand as she emerges to her seat at the table directly in front of me. A sly smirk on her face as she looks at me over. I feel Ace’s grip on my waist trying to steady me and her eyes travel to where his hand sits on my body. Her smirk widens, and a light chuckle escapes her.
“Hello, daughter,” she says, and my breathing falters. My heart pounds so fiercely in my chest I can feel it in my temples. My vision blurs and my skin feels oddly cold, an electrifying shock radiating through me. My mother, here in front of me, at this table filled with these powerful and corrupt individuals. The worst thing is she looks like she fits in, like she’s one of them.
The memories of her beating me and screaming at me day in and day out for any little thing. Taking off and never coming back for me. The last few months I lived terrified of making one wrong move and costing those around me, my real family, their future. Everything is too much, and I can’t take it anymore.
I turn away from Ace pulling to get away from him but his grip on me tightens. I push and claw at him, screaming to let me go but he doesn’t listen. I suddenly feel sick and dizzy as I look up to Ace, his face blurred, and my body grows numb .
Everyone at the table is looking at me as if I’m the one in the wrong, the one who is overreacting. I feel a tear fall on my cheek, but I refuse to give her the satisfaction. It’s the first tear I’ve shed in front of her in years. I look to Ace who is watching me solemnly. Dark blue dilated irises, the color of the ocean at dawn. That’s the last thing I see before my eyes give out.
“Hush little angel don’t you cry, momma’s gonna sing you a lullaby. Sweet little baby don’t say a word, momma’s gonna buy you a mockingbird.”
My body feels sick, weak, and broken. My mind is numb, empty, and dark. Memories of her singing me to sleep when I was just a little girl, memories of a better time. I wonder sometimes if they’re even real or just my body’s way of fighting back against the abuse it endured.
They say when you undergo such traumatic events your mind plays tricks on you, creating calming scenarios that never occurred, our bodies’ own coping mechanism. At times like this I believe it was all a figment of my imagination. Lilith never genuinely loved me. She would leave me alone all day with the neighbor, supposedly to work all day and night, but why was it necessary if it was just the two of us. Then once Chaz, Jade and Roman moved in, the working stopped, and we still managed to have a roof over our heads, and food on the table.
“Hush little angel don’t you cry, momma’s gonna sing you a lullaby. Sweet little baby don’t say a word, momma’s gonna buy you a mockingbird.”
I sometimes wonder if it’s even her voice I remember singing to me, or someone else entirely.
I awaken dripping in sweat, startled by the dream I was having and find myself lying on a large bed in a dimly lit room .
The surrounding walls are a dark red, with black curtains. The wind flings open the two large doors leading to a small balcony overlooking the yard of Servite Manor.
I suddenly remember where I am and what happened just before I awoke here.
My mother. Lilith Steele standing before me, looking like a completely different person. I walk over to the door of the bedroom and find it locked as I try to wiggle the doorknob free. I move over to the balcony and hear voices coming from outside. I quietly step out trying not to make a sound as to inform them I am awake. I look down and find the men still here have moved to the grass area beside the pool. I can barely hear them, so I step a little closer, nearly leaning against the railing. I see everyone except for the Horsemen standing in front of me.
“You murdered him!” Malcolm yells as he steps toward Lilith, crowding her.
She reaches up, slapping him across the face. “You mind your tone with me, Smoak,” she shouts, Agent Servite stepping toward her.
“Now, now, Lilith, no need to get violent. Just tell him, tell them what you told me.”
“I was there that night, the night that Silas was robbed and murdered, but I wasn’t the one to do it. A colleague informed me Silas was selling information about The Gallows to the mayor of Providence. He had a black book of all the clients and was using it to fund his reelection campaign. He knew that the Servites and the Silvers were hoping to get him to step down in order for you to assume his place, but being the arrogant bastard that he was, he refused to step down. So, he needed a little push.”
“So, you admit it. You killed him,” Malcolm says. My mother shakes her head, and she lets out a maniacal laugh.
“I’m not finished, Malcolm, and don’t you dare interrupt me again. I was there to scare him. We faked a robbery. We were going to find some information we could use as blackmail to get him to resign, but my partner felt we needed to take more drastic measures to ensure the concealment of the ledger remained secret. It was then that he shot Silas in the head once, then twice for good measure.”
“And who was it that shot him? Who was this partner of yours?” Stephan asks.
“Chandler Wolfe,” she says nonchalantly, and I gasp in horror.
My heart falls as I see two men carrying a beaten and bloody Chaz, throwing him on the ground in front of the group.
“This is the man who killed my father?” Malcolm asks her, furiously as he steps toward Chaz.
But gent Servite is the one to answer. “Yes, this is him.”
“And how do we know she is telling the truth?” Stephan asks, and the look in his eyes as he glares at Lilith is the only reason I’m siding with him.
“You dare question me?!” my mother shouts out, appalled that they would question the legitimacy of a damn criminal and pathological liar like her.
“No need to get ecstatic, Lilith. He confessed willingly. Well, after a few blows,” Servite says like it’s the most normal thing to talk about beating someone and bile rises to my throat.
“And why is it you so willingly gave him up? Were you not in a relationship with him?” Headmaster Servite asks her.
“He was a means to an end, he meant nothing to me,” Lilith sneers, and her admission makes me sick. A means to an end. That’s exactly what I said about Ace. I knew we were the same.
Stephan paces back and forth. “What are we going to do now?”
“You all will retreat to your homes as if tonight never happened. We had a small intimate dinner to celebrate my nephew’s new relationship, and everyone went on their merry way. I’ll handle the rest,” Agent Servite assures them and they all nod in agreement .
“And the girl?” Malcolm asks, turning to him.
“She’s mine to handle.”
At his order, Headmaster Servite, Malcolm Smoak, and Stephan Silver retreat to the house but not before Stephan turns to my mother one last time.
“It’s good to see you again, Lilith,” he says with a grin. “I must say though, as beautiful as you still are, that daughter of yours is a work of art. Like nothing I’ve ever seen before.”
She scoffs and glares at him, and he retreats laughing.
My body is frozen looking down at the scene in front of me. My mother is standing beside Agent Servite with Chaz bloody and beaten kneeling in front of them. I suddenly see Ace emerge from the pool house with another man dressed in black, wearing a red hooded cloak. I can’t see his face but notice it’s painted like a skeleton, the same way Ace and the Horsemen had theirs painted the night of the Saints and Sinners party.
Maybe it’s one of the other three.
They walk over to where the others stand, and for a moment everyone is silent. I see Ace raise his arm out, and I squint my eyes to see what he’s holding in his hand. A gun. He’s pointing a gun straight at Chaz’s head.
Right as I try to react to what is happening in front of me, I hear a loud bang as Chaz’s lifeless body falls to the ground right before my eyes.
I scream louder than I have before and suddenly all eyes turn to me. Tears spilling out of my eyes with no end in sight. Ace’s face looks mortified as he sees me watching them. Agent Servite and Lilith grin widely at me and the fourth figure’s face remains impassive. I scream again as large, strong arms wrap around me gripping me tight as I kick and scream, trying to squirm free.
I hear Bass and Beck arguing about how they need to keep me quiet. “It will be all over soon sweet angel. Your eyes are too pure to see the evil that lies before us,” Bass whisper’s in my ear.
Suddenly, Alek comes to stand in front of me grasping something in his hand. “Sorry, love, it will only sting a little,” he says with a wide grin before piercing my arm with something sharp.
A sudden cold sensation emanates through me as my body weakens, and my vision gives out. That’s the last thing I remember before it all goes dark.