Chapter 20 Yara #2
"William was in the business for quite some time," my mother said, wrapping her arm around William's waist. "He's rather good at it, but now," she trailed off, looking up at him.
"Now my father found out," William bit out, looking over my head.
"He wasn't happy with the way I lived my life, and I already knew he wouldn't leave the company with me but with my son.
The perfect little bastard," he added, making me see, for the first time, the hatred he felt toward Xavier.
"But it's okay." A sinister smile spread over his face.
"After tonight, none of them will ever see us again, and our newest client can't wait to meet you.
" Dragging his finger over my throbbing cheek from when Rhett hit me, he kept on grinning, and I couldn't believe that I didn't see what was underneath the surface.
"Are you all done with your little reunion?" Rhett asked, stepping closer to us. "Can we get down to business?"
"Soon," William said. "I want to take a picture of her like this. I want him to see what he has allowed to happen. My darling son thought he was smarter than me, going to my father behind my back, telling him he suspected I had something to do with his mother's death."
"But," I whispered. "Didn't she die from cancer?"
"No," my mother answered instead. "The old crone just wouldn't die.
Her bloodwork was getting better, and she was going into remission, which obviously was fucking up all our plans.
You see—" she stepped away from William, "—we needed her gone so that I could take her place.
The old man wasn't happy about it, nor did he want to hear about the divorce.
This little Harvest thing they're doing, it's apparently for life, and William couldn't get rid of her without losing his trust."
"Yeah," William said. "There was a clause in our prenup, should we get divorced, that I would lose everything and you can see how I couldn't allow that to happen."
It dawned on me, the more they talked. "You killed her.
" It wasn't a question, but a statement.
A fucking truth and the reason why Xavier hated both my mother and me from the start.
It wasn't just because his father remarried.
It wasn't because he didn't want anyone to take his mother's place, but it was because he knew.
He somehow knew what his father was up to, and he confronted him about it. He probably attacked him because of that.
"You should have seen the look on Xavier's face when my father agreed to send him abroad for a few months after the wedding." William snickered. "He thought he got one over me, but he didn't. He couldn't prove I had anything to do with her death, but he suspected I had something to do with it."
"In reality, it was me," my mother added, smiling as if it was the greatest achievement of the century.
"A little bit of insulin under the tongue and no one would know what went wrong.
Doctors couldn't figure it out and they simply wrote it off as her body simply shutting down from all the chemotherapies she went through and the treatments. "
William stepped behind her, pressing his lips on top of her head. "You did so good, my dear Even I was shocked."
And I am disgusted. Disgusted by these two people who have no qualms about another person's life. Disgusted by the fact that I shared blood with the monster in front of me.
"So, your plan is to sell me, and then what? You're just going to disappear and—"
"Oh no," she interrupted. "Did you really think we were just waiting for the perfect time to finally sell you?
No, no, no. We've been building an empire with our friend up North.
You probably haven't heard of him, but Judas Blackwood is a good friend of ours and he's been helping us during this time.
You're just the cherry on top of a cake.
He wanted you for years and now he could finally have you added to his collection. "
His collection? I had no idea what I felt anymore—anger, fear, disgust, but the pure fury brimming in my veins was more prevalent than anything else.
I wanted these two to pay for their crimes. I wanted them to burn in hell of their own making.
"And let me guess—" I looked at the three of them, moving from Rhett, toward William and then my mother. "The missing girls, that was you as well?"
"Well, of course," my mother said. "Rhett was an excellent addition to our group and we wouldn't have been able to do it without him."
I looked at him then, this guy that wasn't much older than me, and realized he's been doing this far longer than I first thought.
I thought he was just insane, talking shit, but I failed to see evil that was right in front of me.
There was nothing I could say to either of them, so I kept my mouth shut but that didn't stop them from spilling more poison all over me.
"Blackwood will be pleased when he sees you," my mother said. "He likes them young, and even though you're slightly older, he still wants you. He's been waiting for you all these years, and now's the time. Tonight, we will fly to Seattle and then from there to Winworth, where he's based."
Monsters were often presented as these disfigured beings, as shadows in the night, but the world had forgotten that real monsters lived among us, breathing the same air as us, pretending to be part of society when they just waited for the perfect moment to spill their depravity.
The hope I felt earlier in the night was slowly dimming, until only a flicker of it stayed inside me, making me finally see that there was nothing I could do to change their minds. They didn't see me as another human being.
They saw me as a product, something transactional, something that could make them money and if there was one thing these two loved more than anything else it was obviously money.
But if I could survive all these years battling with my mind, then I could survive this.
I could survive them, and I promised myself I would find a way.
This wouldn't break me. They wouldn't break my mind like they were hoping to. I can see now that breaking me and making me weak was what my mother was trying to do all these years, but I was stronger than her. I was stronger than any of them.
The knowledge that they were responsible for Sarah's death, and for my father's death, was what fueled the fire further in my heart. The knowledge that my father wanted me, fought with her, tried to keep me safe, wasn't something that hurt me. It only made me sad that I never got to meet him.
I never got to know him, and it was all her fault.
"I think we should get going. We don't have much—" Rhett started when a loud knock came from the front door, making all three of them turn around. "What the fuck," Rhett whispered, frantically looking at the pair in front of me. "Were you followed?"
"No," my mother hissed. "We were careful."
"Then who the fuck is that?" Rhett pointed toward the doors and I'd be lying if I said that the mere vision of the three of them sweating didn't make me happy.
The knock came on again, louder this time, impatient, and I hoped as hell it was someone I knew. I hoped it was someone who could help me take them down.
Silence followed the second knock, but before any of them could move, the sound of the door getting knocked off its hinges splintered the air, making me close my eyes when the familiar voice broke through the room. "I can't believe you all started without me."
My eyes flew open, seeing the person standing there all alone.
Xavier entered the room, looking at his father first, then my mother and then Rhett.
"Did you really think you could take her, and I wouldn't know where you went?
" He laughed, his cold eyes cutting through the thick air as he moved his gaze between the three of them.
"Did you think I would use her just to let you get away with all this? "
"What the fuck are you doing here?" William bellowed, making a move toward Xavier, when a gun appeared in the air, held by the man who up until recently, pretended to be my fairytale.
"Not so fast, old man," Xavier said, tilting his head. "You should've known that I would have one last thing down my sleeve, and your own ego made you forget that I was always one step ahead of you."
Xavier walked inside the room, not sparing one glance at me, and I'd be lying if I said that didn't hurt. I'd be lying if I said that my heart didn't start thundering the moment he appeared, completely forgetting he was the one that got me in this situation.
"You came for her," my mother spat out, her voice filled with disbelief.
"No," Xavier denied. "I'm not here for her.
I knew you wanted her. I know all about your plans, and the fact that you wanted to sell her to Judas Blackwood, so I used her.
That dress she's wearing—" he pointed toward me with his gun.
"It has a built-in microphone, so I'd say thank you for your confession, but I already knew what you did.
I just needed proof. A proper proof that would take you down. "
William looked at me, then at the dress I was wearing and then at Rhett. "You were supposed to strip her!" he thundered. "You know the drill, change their clothes, bathe them, and then do everything else."
"I-I," Rhett stammered.
"He was too busy promising he would rape her," Xavier added, and had I not known better, I would've said that his voice wavered when he said that.
But I was done believing anything he had to say.
I was done with his entire family, with this city, with everyone involved.
"But you don't have to worry, Rhett." Xavier looked at him.
"Where you're going, I hear they don't like rapists.
They don't like kidnappers, so I'm sure you'll have a great time. "