Chapter 22
Twenty-Two
E lias
Avra gasped. “You can’t make vows with your mother’s soul.”
“Then how can I get you to believe me?” I asked her.
Seeing her look at me as her enemy again felt as if something had pierced my soul.
Having her bombard me with her anger and fury was one thing. Still, the energy of utter hurt, pain, and betrayal around her frightened me.
Losing her wasn’t an option.
Whoever took those pictures, made that recording, and fed those thoughts to her about me would face a long, agonizing death. They knew nothing of the lengths I’d go for her.
My people had risked their lives to uncover all of Ozias’s plans. They had formed an extra shield between him and Avra.
Everything inside me churned, and I couldn’t control any of it. I hated this feeling and never wanted to experience it again.
We’d made a deal, yes. However, it was a ruse to cover what we actually wanted—a future together, one where we chose each other.
I had to make it right.
“I don’t understand any of this. I want to trust you.” Her voice broke as she swallowed down her tears.
Seeing her so heartbroken and wounded wrecked a part of me I never knew existed until her.
Each time she looked away, as though the mere sight of me was too much to stomach, I felt as if I’d fallen into the most bottomless pit of hell.
But I couldn’t fight her on this. I couldn’t fix something I had no hand in.
Ozias.
It was the only explanation. He took my mother from me, and now he wanted Avra.
Over my dead body.
“Can you tell me what the recording said?” I reached out to take her hands, but she crossed her arms, refusing my touch .
I replayed her heated words, trying to understand what could have turned her against me.
Then I remembered her asking, “How could you make me love you knowing that you would destroy my world and take everything from me?”
Why would I do any of those things?
That was bullshit.
Lies and nonsense.
I ran a frustrated hand through my hair. “I want a future with you. I don’t want to ruin or steal anything. I’ll never rob you of anything.”
Her green eyes shined bright with so much doubt.
“I’m committed to our marriage.” I held up the hand with the ring she slid on my finger at our wedding.
“So long as your father deems it necessary.”
Fuck. Ozias.
I fisted my hand and lowered it. I would never forgive Ozias for destroying everything I built with Avra. “I won’t be a part of anything my father is trying to accomplish.”
She snorted and looked away for a second. “Until you get your child. Then you’ll get rid of me.”
How could she believe that bullshit?
I lunged forward, taking her hand. She stiffened and then tried to jerk out of my hold, but I held firmly and tugged until she was near me.
“Let me go,” she hissed.
“Not until you hear me.” I glared down at her. “And by hearing me, I mean listening to my words. ”
She blew out a frustrated breath and muttered, “Just say it.”
“That thought”—I lowered my face to hers, staring straight into her eyes— “never entered my mind.”
She parted her lips, gazing at me so openly as if she wanted to accept my words.
But the doubt remained, burning bright.
These wounds she believed I had caused festered so deep. All I could do was give all I had to heal them.
This woman fucking owned me and couldn’t see it.
“I want a future with you. Children and then grandchildren. Generations to follow us as we grow old together.”
Her lips trembled, and a whirlwind of dark emotions played over her face. She lowered her chin, dropping her gaze to my chest.
I couldn’t let her hide from this. We had to fix it.
“Our future is together.” I cupped her face, lifting it back up. “I’ll accept never having a child if it means having you always with me.”
Her eyes widened in complete disbelief. “You would give up having children to pass down your name, your legacy?”
Again, she tried to glance away as though it was too hard to hear me, but I refused to let her budge.
“Each time I saw you in danger, I felt as though I was losing my mind. First, with the idiot on the street, then during the standoff with you and Pello, and then when you publicly handled Francesca. Why can’t you see that the idea of not having you with me is too unbearable to think about? Let me hear this recording that has condemned me. ”
“All right, you want to hear it. Listen and then explain it back to me.” She grabbed her phone and played the recording.
My heart sank. To anyone who heard it, it sounded like I was plotting against Avra and her family. Each word, stripped of the true meaning and context of my orders, left me vulnerable to all of Avra’s accusations.
“Now tell me it’s a lie.” The pain in her green eyes pierced deeper than the earlier icy stare.
All I could do was offer her the truth.
“I was instructing my men in Ozias’s camp to prepare for a coup. My intelligence made me suspicious that Ozias was planning something against your sisters, and I wanted to act first. I don’t expect you to believe me, but I would give up everything I have, everything I am, to protect you and yours.”
“Eli, don’t say things like that. This hurts so much as it is.” She shook her head, wrenching free.
I wouldn’t give up, and I followed her as she escaped to the living room. I blocked her before she could close the door and lock me out.
She walked away from me, went to the farthest sofa near the window, and sat, covering her face with her palms.
I followed her, kneeling on the carpet before her, and tugged her hands down.
I waited until she lifted her gaze to mine. The emotions of moments earlier seemed null in her irises. An unreachable, detached void stared at me.
No. No. No.
She had to hear me. I had to get through to her .
“There’s been enough bloodshed in your family. All because of mine . But I would never add to it. I would never want to involve myself in something designed to hurt or bring you down.”
“We are born enemies,” she stated without any inflection.
“Our family ties made us that way. Our marriage changed—” I broke off, thinking of the right words. “We are something else.”
A tinge of sadness tunneled through me as the realization hit me. If Avra walked away, would I survive this?
“I want to burn down the world for you, with you, and nothing will make me change my mind. Not even my father.”
She shook her head, tracing her fingertip on mine, the barest touch of something like affection. Her shoulders remained stiff, showing me how much this disconnect between us pulled on her physically.
“I’m…” She took a deep breath. “I’m confused by the recording. Your words felt so cold and calculating. The way you laughed while discussing me.”
“My men often joke that if I pushed you too far, you wouldn’t hesitate to slice my throat. They find every chance to mention it. They became your biggest fans after the day you told me to make it hurt following that incident with the little girl and that idiot who ran away.”
She shook her head. “I don’t know what to think.”
Please tell me what you feel. I refused to think it had all been a lie. It couldn’t evaporate in an instant. What we shared, the barriers we’d broken down, and the vulnerability we allowed only with each other weren’t things done frivolously. They meant something to us.
She loved me. She said she loved me.
“Don’t think,” I argued as gently as I could. “ Know that I’m telling you the truth. Know that I love you.”
“You love me?” she asked with shock in her tone as she stared at me, her head cocked slightly and a crease forming between her brows.
Why was she surprised by this?
I couldn’t believe she was unprepared to hear those words, especially after the other night in the bathtub.
I squeezed her hand. “I mean it. I love you, Avra. The last thing I want to do is ruin what we have and what we are building. I will never want to hurt you.”
When she closed her eyes and sighed, it told me everything I needed to know. She still didn’t believe me.
I poured my heart and soul out to her and kneeled before her, and it wasn’t enough.
The knowledge that she couldn’t trust my words shredded my soul.
“I will prove it.” I stood.
She remained on the couch. “Eli, what are you doing?”
The immediate worry in her voice showed the first traces of emotion since she sat.
“Like I said. I’ll prove I’m telling you the truth. I’m going to speak to my father right now.”
“This doesn’t make sense.”
I looked at her. “I’ll tell you what makes no sense. I’m the villain in a story I didn’t even know I belonged in, and since Ozias is at the root of this, I’ll find out from the source.”
I should have dug deep into Ozias’s business. I was well aware he planned something, but putting my name into anything went too fucking far.
“You truly don’t know?”
I clenched my jaw as I reached the living room door. “It is all I’ve tried to get you to believe since I walked through the fucking door.”
“Eli.” She stepped in my direction, and I raised my hand, telling her to stop.
“No, I never want any doubt between us. I swear it to you now. On my life, on my mother’s place in heaven, I will never help him with his pursuits. I would never do anything to hurt you.”
I turned, stalking through the house and heading to the garage. Once in the car, I tore down the road.
I would reach that son of a bitch as fast as possible.
Visions of killing him with my bare hands filled my mind, choking him, watching his eyes bulge and the veins on his face and in his eyes burst.
My fingers flexed with every scenario of death I played out, each one more violent than the last.
As I approached the estate, I sent a few voice messages to my top lieutenants telling them to gather every scrap of information circulating about Ozias. I wanted rumors, gossip, any tiny mention of that fucker’s name.
I ran the family, and they obeyed me. Ozias had his little team, but everyone around him knew the truth .
Years of work, of proving myself, of dealing with the same shit as my soldiers garnered loyalty my father could never think of receiving. In a war between us, he’d come out the loser.
His ego kept him from accepting truths. Now, he’d face facts.
He was my genetic donor only, never a parent, and not a father in any form or fashion. I was his son. But he wasn’t my boss. He’d ceased earning my respect when I was a child. He’d been the recipient of my loathing since the day he struck my mother. And since the day he killed Eudora Vitalis, he’d been on my shit list, one of the people I’d love to see suffer and beg for mercy.
I pressed my foot on the pedal harder, despising every mile that made up the distance between me and Ozias. I wanted to be at his stupid house now. I wanted to get this over with and return to Avra.
I was coming for answers.
And no matter the risk, the costs be damned, I would stop whatever bullshit schemes he wanted to put into play.
My wife came first.
Always.
It was time to show her how much I meant that.