12. Emmett
Emmett
“You had a very interesting evening.”
I stand by the old, sturdy pillars that hold up the huge Italian-style terrace overlooking the backyard of the residence my father rebuilt for my mother years ago, when the gravelly voice speaks, but I ignore him.
Fall came too quickly this time, but then again, I’ve always been keenly aware of the changing seasons.
With the current condition of my heart, after this season, I estimate that I won’t be able to see another fall, so I stare at the browning leaves falling hurriedly to the ground, ignoring Grandfather’s idle commentary.
Dying people tend to do that.
“You even had the audacity to declare vengeance, an order that even I have never given.”
Hearing the ill-concealed anger in his voice, I decide to temper it some more.
“Why didn’t you?” I ask nonchalantly, not bothering to turn around to look at the old man in the wheelchair behind me.
“When your own daughter strangely disappeared, you did nothing. When your wife was murdered, you did nothing. Are you jealous because I did something you’ve never had the guts to do? ”
A loud thud sounds behind me.
I sigh and then turn around, only to see the livid expression on Grandfather’s face.
“How dare you?” he demands, anger lighting his eyes. “You know nothing of the matters you speak of!”
I actually do know the depth of this man’s ruthlessness, especially after what happened to my grandmother, but he can’t know that I know.
“You’ve grown daring and insolent lately with no respect for me at all!” he snaps.
I almost laugh.
I’ve never had any respect for this man.
Not when my mother was around, crying herself to sleep in fear of this man, and certainly not since she’s been gone.
“Does my behavior make you angry?” I ask instead, keeping my voice soft and calm.
“You—”
“If you’re angry, I can always lie and pretend like I adore you and worship the ground your two little hot wheels roll on if it’ll make you feel better.”
I watch him pound another fist on the arm of his wheelchair again with a grin.
I had a bit of fear for this man when I was a kid.
He’d stand towering over me, and all I could do was look up, fighting hard not to tremble, not to pass out, nor to make a sound that would show my fear.
He’d look down at me and demand that I prove my worth as the heir.
And that’s all I’ve been doing since then. He should be proud of me.
“You’ve really turned into something, Alessio,” Grandfather says angrily, referring to me by my Italian name. “Are you not happy with my decisions? Didn’t I help you today?”
“Which decisions? The enmity between Vaughn and I?” I stare at him.
“Making Vaughn and I rivals was always your strategy. I expected there’d be a day it all comes to a head.
” I pretend to mull it over. “Or do you mean the thing with your little candidate? Enlisting his unwanted so-called daughter as your pawn?”
Grandfather suddenly smiles, but it looks creepy, the same way a crow does in the dead of winter.
“A neat move, wasn’t it?” he says calmly, his facial expression dissolving back into impassivity. “It took years to find your one pressure point.”
“Years? How capable of you,” I mock.
“It took that long only because the girl disappeared from that little town, otherwise I would’ve found her sooner. She came back and made everything easier,” he says, watching me. “I should reward her for that. Had she not come back, I would’ve failed.”
The blood in my veins starts simmering with each word he utters.
“Should I be thanking you?” I seethe, not bothering to hide my displeasure.
“Thanking me? You should be listening to me!” Grandfather snarls. “Not only is the girl yours, but putting the decision in her hands means you already have this in the bag, isn’t that already good for you in this battle to my throne?”
I stare at him.
How long has this decrepit cripple known about Angel?
From the way he’s looking at me and what he just said, it seems he knows how close Angel is to me and the reason why.
“Even when you know everything, you’re still doing this?”
“Absolutely!”
Something clicks in my head just then.
“You did it all on purpose then? Finding her, luring her out, and then egging your little friend on to provide an ample opportunity to declare it to everyone that night,” I state, calling him out. “I don’t believe it was a coincidence that you just happened to be there that night.”
He keeps smiling, looking thoroughly pleased with himself.
“I only saw an opportunity and grabbed it. I wasn’t going to pass up on a bitter family reunion,” he says with a shrug.
“And how did you do that?” I grit out.
“By breaking through all the layers that were hiding the girl, of course.”
Fuck, I knew it!
I knew it wasn’t possible for that airhead Melissa to just find Angel. Not with mine and Spider’s efforts to keep Angel hidden all these years.
“Where is he?” I demand, striding forward to block his path. “Give him back!”
He looks up at me, clearly enjoying my agitation. “Who are you talking about?”
I glare at him, knowing better than to go into details about Angel’s missing brother.
It’s clear this old man is not happy with me. He’s suspicious and wary of me, and he’s about to act, to remind me of my place.
Which means he’s about to punish me… again.
The first time was when I knowingly derailed a plan he had put in motion for years to marry Eli Beaumont’s daughter, Astraea.
That was never going to happen, ever, but I had a role to play to ensure that Astraea remained safe for two reasons.
Alex King is my friend. I’ve always known he was in love with Astraea since we were kids.
And two, I needed to ensure a formidable strong tower for someone who will need to be protected after I seize from existing among the living.
I ended up losing my father, gaining Grandfather’s almost unendurable wrath, and having to fight for my survival in the trenches as penance for my rebellion of not marrying Astraea after this cripple ordered me to do it.
But I’ve never been one to tolerate mistreatment.
I never take Grandfather’s punishments with a smile.
I always fight back and he hates that.
“Why the girl?” I demand.
“She’s special,” he says simply. “You already know that.”
“If you’re planning t?—”
“Let me stop you right there. My goal has been the same from the moment you were born, and I’ll continue doing everything I can to uphold that goal to my last breath.”
“To make me into your minion?”
“Is that how you see it?” he counters, but I remain silent. “Actually, it doesn’t matter how you see it. What matters is the future.”
The future? Please. I don’t have a future.
By God’s grace, I’ve already lived to this point. I don’t think it’ll go on like this anymore.
But before I go, I need to leave no doubt.
So, it’s time to turn the tide.
“Don’t you feel any sympathy for your grandson?” I ask instead, not bothering to give him the satisfaction.
“Sympathy? What is sympathy in this life?” He presses a button on his chair, and it moves away. I have no choice but to follow behind him. “Sympathy is for the weak and Vaughn is not weak. In fact, his offering this morning proved just that.”
Knowing that he wants me to ask what Vaughn presented him, I stay silent, not bothering to ask, and that agitates him.
“You’re not even curious?” he asks coldly.
“I don’t waste my time over worthless things.”
Grandfather looks over his shoulder at me with a sharp gaze.
“I wonder if you’ll still feel that way in just a moment.”
And with that, he presses the little button on his wheelchair, rolling forward, leaving me standing there with an odd feeling.
Scar appears in front of me.
“I like her,” she says with a smile, obviously referring to my Angel. “She’s stunning and quite a spitfire, if I have to say so myself. We decided to be friends.”
“What a shocker,” I mutter, still annoyed.
“What?”
“You making a friend.”
She launches a fist at me, which I easily avoid. After all, I trained her. I know all her moves.
“Do that again and I’ll have to reciprocate,” I tell her calmly, to which she huffs angrily.
“Why are you such a jerk?!” Scarlet mumbles, snatching her fist from my hand, looking like an agitated kitten, ready to fight.
I eye her. “Did your new friend make you switch personalities?”
She ignores me and asks, “What exactly are you planning?”
“What do you think?” I counter.
Scar scoffs and shakes her head. “Is there anyone in this world who can predict your thoughts or your actions?”
“You tell me,” I mutter.
“Your thoughts are like a deep abyss. Anyone who dares to decipher them is in danger of oblivion.”
“And yet here you are, still asking. Brave much?”
“It’s called self-preservation, cousin ,” she says sardonically.
“From what? Me? I’m perfectly harmless.”
Scarlet deadpans at me, “You’re literally about to blow the Family to Kingdom come and you’re preaching about being harmless? Since when did you start taking acting classes? It’s scary how good you are!”
“What war?” I say indifferently. “Why would I fight my own family?”
“Cousin, please, it’s just us here,” she says in a low voice. “After everything that has happened, it was all going to come to this no matter what. Besides, with your unforgiving nature, one way or another, you were always going to retaliate blow for blow.”
“That’s a very interesting novel. When will it be published?”
“You can be sarcastic all you want, but I know all the crap you’ve been secretly doing these past eighteen years is now finally about to be used.”
I pretend to be blasé, as if I don’t understand what she’s talking about, but then again, this is Scarlet, a girl that I took under my tutelage the day she ran away from home at the tender age of nine and came to me bleeding and crying from the beatings her father gave her.
“Is that so?” I hold Scarlet’s gaze.
“Yes, it is so, ” she counters sarcastically. “And I know you’re using Ivy as the moving chip, but from what I saw, she’s not willing to be your pawn.”