Chapter Thirty-Six
R aven
I sat up in bed with the file, looking through it while Slade sat next to me. We were both dressed, and I was trying to figure out how I was going to cope with this. The DNA results were staring me in the face. The DNA testing results indicated that Lars Alston is not excluded as the biological father of Slade King, with a probability of paternity at 99.99%. I read that and re-read it several times. He was Slade’s father...did that mean we were...half siblings?
Gross. I froze, thinking about the possibility. The things we had done...
“What’s wrong?” He must’ve noticed the change in me.
“Are we...” I gulped, not able to spit it out. “Are we siblings?” My eyes moved to his and his widened. I don’t know if he had even thought about that.
He shook his head and licked his lips. “No.” He rustled through the file and found some more results. The DNA testing results indicated that Lars Alston is excluded as the biological father of Raven West, with a probability of paternity at 0.00%.
My body relaxed. So we weren’t siblings. Thank God. I still couldn’t believe it. All this time I thought Father was truly my dad. All this time I questioned what I did to make him hate me. Or how a father could be so cruel to his daughter. It was all a lie.
“What exactly does this all mean?”
My thoughts ran wild. If Father wasn’t my real father, then who was mine? Why was Mother not with him? Did she cheat on him? Was he a bad guy? Did he not want me? I continued to flip through the papers as he started talking. “My adoptive parents were friends with yours growing up. I never had the chance to get the full story from them before they died, but I guess the King paid them off because they found he murdered my real mother because she didn’t want to have any ties to the mafia. She wanted a normal life.”
I frowned. “Then why didn’t he just keep you? If you’re the heir to the throne, he should’ve wanted to keep you around and get you trained up to be King.”
He shrugged. “I’m assuming he didn’t want the reminder of her around, and thought it would be better for them to just take me and raise me elsewhere.”
“What brought them back here?”
“Lewis said they got tied up in the King’s bullshit and lies, and thought the perfect way to get back at him was to bring me home. I assume he never wanted me near you because he knew his lies would eventually catch up to him. He wanted you to be the Queen, to marry someone else, so he wouldn’t have to face his past. I think they were going to tell me the truth, and that’s what got them killed.”
It was such a weird reality, knowing my whole life was a lie. That Slade’s life was a lie. I glanced up at him, and wondered how he felt about it. How did he cope with the news? He was a closed book most of the time, “How are you handling all this?”
He swung his legs over the bed and stood up. “I’ll feel better when it’s over and he’s out of power. He’s corrupt and doesn’t need to be ruling the country.”
I placed the file down and glanced at my phone. It was noon, time for me to meet Anna at the dress shop. “I have to go.”
His eyes met mine, but he didn’t say a word. I took a deep breath. “The wedding has been moved up.”
“To when?”
“Saturday,” which didn’t give us a whole lot of time since it was already Wednesday. I knew Anna and Father would work their magic. Not that I cared anyway. Even if Slade didn’t follow through with his plan, I would do mine.
I wasn’t going to go through with this marriage. I wasn’t a royal anyway, and somehow I was going to figure out how to make that known.
His gaze narrowed, “Whose idea was that?”
I slipped my feet in my boots. “Mine.”
His jaw ticked and I knew the anger was coming. “Why?”
“You pissed me off. Saying that you wanted me to go through with it, I figured if you weren’t going to do something, I would.”
“And marrying that fucker is the way to do that?”
“Nope.”
“Quit with your cryptic bullshit and tell me what’s going on.” I grabbed my keys from the nightstand. “You were taking too long, so I took action. I told him I wanted to get married on Saturday. The rest, well, I guess you’ll have to come to be there.”
I went and unlocked the door, leaving him in my room to ponder his thoughts. I just made my move, now it was his turn.
I MADE IT BACK FROM the dress shop around two-thirty, right around the time that Julianna was being picked up from school. The estate seemed quite busy when I got back.
I walked outside in the courtyard to several people in business suits, along with women in short dresses. I immediately wanted to disappear.
What the fuck?
When people saw me, their smiles grew wide, as if they knew something I didn’t. I looked around for a familiar face in the crowd but didn’t see anyone until I saw Zeke standing in the corner, fornicating with a tall blonde.
Rolling my eyes, I tried to find Father. Nowhere in sight. Huffing, I decided it wasn’t worth my time and walked back inside to the quiet. I went into the kitchen and that’s where I found him drinking a cup of coffee.
“Who are all those people back there?”
He lifted the cup to his lips to take a sip, then glanced at me briefly, as if I was an annoying fly he wanted to swat. “They are here for the wedding ceremony.”
I scoffed. “It seems like they are here for something else, especially since Zeke is having his pick of the fucking liter. Can you get them to leave? Julianna should be home any minute.”
The death glare he gave me told me he didn’t give a fuck. “They are here for your wedding, they aren’t going anywhere.”
“This is bullshit.”
He raised a brow, “Excuse me?”
“They aren’t here for the wedding. The girls are here because you are trafficking them, and the guys are here because they are buyers. I’m not fucking stupid. Get them off the grounds. I don’t care what you do on your own time, but this shit is not okay around my daughter.” My breaths came out quickly.
He slammed his cup down and stood up. “Watch your tone.”
I don’t know what provoked me to do it, and I shouldn’t have said a fucking word, because once I did, all hell broke loose. “No. I’m not your daughter, anyway. I really don’t have to listen to a word you fucking say. Mother should’ve gotten out when she had the chance.” I walked away, but it was a big mistake.
There was some rustling behind me and the world went black.
MY HEAD POUNDED AS I opened my eyes. Black and white spots invaded my vision. The cold concrete felt familiar against my skin. The room was pitch black and there were screams in the next room.
Dungeon.
He’d really gone off the deep end, locking me in here so I could listen to the torture going on in the next room. A switch flipped and my eyes squinted from the brightness of the light. Once they adjusted, the man of the hour walked in with a look so cruel it could kill me.
“Couldn’t keep your fucking mouth shut, could you?”
I sat up, placing my back against the brick wall, and looped my arms around my legs. “And you can’t seem to keep me out of here. Must really hate me to lock me up so much. Probably why you’re making me marry that monstrosity, huh? So you can get rid of me? Because you’re not gutsy enough to just fucking kill me. You want to find a way to torture me for the rest of my life. Well, Father, you’ve done it. Congratulate yourself, you’ve won the dick of the decade award.”
I didn’t know what my problem was, but my mouth just wouldn’t shut up. I was over the bullshit. Over the lies, and over dealing with him. Knowing that he wasn’t my real father, made me want to do my own torture.
Feeling even more proud of myself, I poked the bear further. “You know, I was wondering what happened. How could Mother love a cold-hearted asshole like you? Did you poison her with your words? Like you did your first wife? Oh, better yet, did you kill Mother like you killed Slade’s mother?”
His brows shot up, and I’d caught him in the fucking lie. “That’s right, Father. I know exactly who you are, and even better, I know who the real King is. So, when you make me marry Zeke on Saturday, it won’t help your case. Once the press finds out, you’re royally fucked.”
Even though I knew it wasn’t the right thing to say, even though I knew he would find some other way to fuck me over and hurt me, I did it anyway. Once I found out that he wasn’t my real father I wanted to find some way to hurt him. To put him through the same suffering he put me through. It didn’t phase him and he became the same monster he was when I was a kid...
A SCREAM ESCAPED MY lips when he tugged on my hair, pulling me to the chair where he would enact his torture upon me. How could I have let this man around my daughter? What kind of person was I to think he could ever be a good human being?
I was slammed against the chair, and my chest and arms were strapped down. Taking advantage of my legs being free, I kicked and screamed bloody fucking murder. I knew no one would be able to save me. They originally deposited me in the dungeon on the estate, but transported me to one of his other torture chambers off the grid.
Zeke was in the room and he helped restrain my legs. The fact that he was here, only meant Lars had something evil planned for me.
For the purpose of the wedding, they had to keep me alive...for now. All I had to do was make it to the wedding day, if I could do that, then I could go through with my initial plan.
Lars was quiet...too quiet. He was arranging tables around me, placing tools just so, and checked my straps. His malicious gaze met mine. “Are you comfortable?”
Comfortable? Are you fucking kidding me? He’d lost his Goddamned mind.
He’d reached a whole new level of crazy. “I know what you’re playing at. Trying to show me who’s boss?” My gaze switched to Zeke. His cruel eyes never left mine. An uncomfortable shiver went down my spine. This wasn’t going to end well for me.
It was now that I really missed Slade. He always made me feel at ease and safe. I could be myself around him, not some stupid Queen who didn’t have a backbone. I just wanted to go home. A tear escaped my eye. I can’t show them weakness.
Lars looked at Zeke, nodded and walked out of the room without a word. Fuck. Zeke enjoyed putting his hands on me any way he could. He came closer, and my heart raced. I didn’t want him to touch me. I didn’t want him near me.
My vision became blurry as if they’d given me some sort of anesthetic when I was knocked out. My breathing quickened, the room was dark and gloomy, with a small lightbulb above my head. A metallic taste entered my mouth and shortly after my tongue went numb.
Zeke chuckled, “You should start feeling the effects of that drug entering your system. I had to make you compliant this time. The first time, you fought me too much”
Suddenly the temperature in the room dropped. I tried lifting my fingers but couldn’t. My arms and legs were restrained, but I tried my hardest to move. He placed a blindfold over my face, and something in my mouth. I tried to scream but nothing came out.
“Don’t worry Raven, I’m going to take my time with you, and then once I’m done, your father will have his time with you. On our wedding day you won’t be able to fight. You’ll be a Broken Queen begging for release. You won’t get it. You’re going to be chained to me for the rest of your life. That man of yours won’t want anything to do with you once we’re done.”
All hope that I’d had in the past vanished. I was completely and utterly hopeless.
Over two days I seemed to be in and out of consciousness, slowly drifting in and out of reality. Nightmares of past trauma surfaced, reminding me how fragile I was. The things done to me by Lars and Zeke during my lucid moments were atrocities I didn’t wish on my worst enemies. Thoughts of Julianna and Slade, the thought of freedom kept me from giving up.
A gasp escaped my lips and I was awoken with a start when ice cold water was thrown on top of me. I lifted my head off the ground as goosebumps broke out on my arms, and the tattered clothes melded to my body. Cold shivers raced down my spine and my teeth began to chatter.
“Time to wake up, Queen. You have a wedding to get to.”
I laid my head back down, dreading the day ahead, not sure I would survive it.