Chapter 16 Endgame #3
“Sid…how exactly were you planning on getting away with this? Eventually the truth would come out. How long did you think you would be able to keep this charade up?”
Sid shrugged, completely at ease with his explanation.
“At first, the plan was to fabricate as many miscarriages in the first trimester as I could get away with. Those would be easy to fake, given that a first trimester fetus is barely visible in all the expelled blood and uterine tissue,” he explained.
“But the longer you remained pregnant, the less likely Darren was to cause you physical harm, so deciding when to stage a miscarriage was difficult to determine. The next phase would be to falsify fetal genetic anomalies that weren’t compatible with life, which would result in obvious termination.
Basically, I would try to stall for you for as long as I could.
But now, I’ve run out of time much sooner than I thought I would, and I won’t be able to continue the charade for you any longer. ”
I was beside myself with how well Sid had planned for this little ploy to last. He could have easily kept this going on for years if done right.
But what was even more crazy was that he had successfully managed to fool both me and Darren for so long.
But now that the veil had been lifted from my eyes, what the hell was I supposed to do?
“So why are you telling me this now? You could have gone to the grave with your little secret and kept us all in the dark. What the hell am I supposed to do with this information, Sid? I can’t continue this lie on my own, especially now that I know my body is going to eventually revert to before.”
A dark shadow cast over his eyes as he returned my gaze.
“By tomorrow, none of it will matter anymore, Jaden.”
I furrowed my brows at him. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
Sid continued to walk his leisurely pace down the shore, prompting me to follow him.
“I considered finally going to the police, confessing to everything I knew, but I recently came into contact with some very powerful allies of yours that appear to have united outside of Darren’s control or knowledge.
” I found my mouth suddenly incredibly dry.
Had Sid actually found Jason? “Your friends convinced me that going to the authorities was a fruitless endeavor, and they wanted to handle this the only way they knew for sure would finally bring down an empire. And I agreed.”
I, too, strongly agreed with the assessment.
Even if Darren was arrested, there was no guarantee the courts would actually do any good, or if prison was even strong enough to hold a man like him.
I doubted the effectiveness of the legal system wholeheartedly at this point.
Even if I were free, if Darren was alive, then I would never be safe from him.
“And what are my allies planning to do now?” I asked carefully.
“Well, they already released the information about the destruction of the contents contained within the server farms. But my reveal of the letter Diana had written? Now that had come at quite the surprise for us all. And all of this has led to a very real uprising within the underground community that now seeks to unseat Darren’s rule. ”
“How interesting,” I commented, but then paused for a moment. “Wait, you knew about the letter?”
He shook his head. “Not until I overheard Darren and Daniel arguing about it. Apparently, they either forgot I was in the room, or didn’t care, likely expecting my discretion as usual.”
I smiled internally at the fascinating turn of events. So my reveal of Diana’s letter had made a bigger impact after all.
“So now what?” I asked, my questions seemingly never-ending. “What are they going to do?”
Sid cleared his throat as he coughed into his sleeve again. “They tell me that tomorrow, they plan to lay siege to this estate.”
I nearly tripped over the damn water as I sputtered to an abrupt stop.
They were going to attack the estate? But that was impossible.
They had failed to successfully kill Darren at the country estate with far less security measures.
How the hell did they plan to succeed with this one?
Matt had to have explained to them of all the various defensive strategies Darren had established here.
“Tomorrow? How the hell do they plan to pull that off? This place is a fortress.”
Sid shook his head. “I don’t know, Jaden, but they clearly have some kind of plan. They are well aware of what they are up against at this location and have already developed some kind of strategy that I didn’t bother to try to understand.”
I was suddenly hit with a devastating blow of déjà vu. I had gotten my hopes up once before, and now I was potentially going to have to relive it all over again. Because I couldn’t fathom how they were going to pull this off.
“Why tomorrow?”
Sid coughed again into his elbow, his voice shaking uncomfortably as he turned to answer me.
“Apparently, there is a very important meeting taking place here with all of the heads of the neighboring and global crime families and gangs. A meeting that your allies have been waiting for Darren to organize.”
My mind ran rampant with theories. Were they looking to clean house all at once. This was one hell of a sweep they were looking to operate. But it felt like nothing short of a goddamn suicide mission to me.
“And what will be my role in all this?” I asked tentatively.
Sid shrugged. “From what I understand, they plan to draw Darren away from the house for a period of time, which will also include a good portion of his security team. I don’t know how they will do this, but when they do, that is when the attack will occur.
So your only priority should be to secure your own safety the moment he leaves. ”
I almost scoffed. Like I was going to sit out another fight when I knew Darren wouldn’t be there to stop me this time.
“You know I don’t like to be benched, Sid,” I warned sardonically.
He paused again to stare out into the ocean, the water licking at his ankles as he looked on toward the horizon.
“Yes, I do know,” he commented lightly. “Which is why I left you a little something in the top right drawer of my desk, in case things go south and you need one last Hail Mary. Something I’m sure you’re more than familiar with.”
I looked at him with confusion, about to ask him what he meant when he started to suddenly lean forward and stumble in place, wincing and groaning in pain.
“Sid,” I called, reaching out to catch him before he lost his balance. But his weight was too much for me to hold and we both fell into the wet sand, the waves crashing into us. “Sid!”
Response was quick as the sound of guards mobilized into action, Sloane calling my name from the distance.
A pained grimace twisted Sid’s face as his hand moved to clutch his chest, his breathing becoming erratic and short. “I’m sorry, Jaden,” he gasped between groans. “I’m so sorry.”
“Help!” I shouted as I held his trembling body close, trying to keep him elevated. Sloane reached me before the rest of the guards did, but by then, Sid’s eyes had closed and his hand had fallen at his side, completely limp.
The guards took Sid from my hold and quickly began performing CPR.
When the chest compressions and oxygen mask proved useless, the guards trained as medics brought out the defibrillator.
They tried reviving Sid for a good ten minutes before they finally called it quits.
He was pronounced him dead right there on the beach.
I knelt in the wet sand in stunned silence, watching as they collected Sid’s body and carried him off to who knew where. At this point, I was in a state of shock, so much so I could barely register Katherine and Sloane calling my name.
“Jaden, look at me!” Sloane growled, her Russian accent flaring to life and finally drawing my attention. I blinked up at her, focusing on the healing angry scar on her cheek as she held my face in her hand. “Are you alright?” she asked.
I sucked in a deep breath and nodded. “I’m fine. Just shocked, I guess. The man just died in my arms.”
But he had done so much more than just that. Sid’s efforts had abruptly set in motion something I had never anticipated—a real fighting chance. Of all the people I’d come to know in this wretched life, I never expected Sid would be one of the many keys to my potential freedom.
My eyes closed with a silent gratitude I would forever struggle to appreciate, given all the harm he had contributed to. But in his final moments, I was grateful for the acidic bite of guilt that could eat away at our misplaced loyalties and fears, and make us commit one final act of redemption.
Goodbye, Sid. Better late than never, I guess.
Now that I knew I wasn’t pregnant, the floodgates of possibilities rushed open. I was no longer bound to the limits of pregnancy and the sudden relief that I was not currently carrying Darren’s child brought on a feeling that left me breathless and hopeful.
Given what happened last time, I shouldn’t be this optimistic that another attack would be successful.
But they were coming after the estate this time, which meant they had better have a damn good plan for bypassing all of the security measures and dozens of armed guards that patrolled the property.
It seemed almost impossible, and the more I thought about it, the worse my anxiety got.
Tomorrow might very well be the end of the road for everyone. And I needed to do everything I could to ensure there were no more detours.