18. EMMA #2
Ace takes the glass from my shaking hand before his words come out in a whisper. “Are you okay?” I look up and meet his gaze before I nod with my answer. “Yes.” I turn my gaze to Ryan, still wondering why he is here, so I ask. “I don't mean to be rude for asking, but what are you doing here, Ryan?”
He looks up, meeting my gaze before his eyes snap over to Ace causing my brows to furrow as I look up to Ace, meeting his gaze before he looks back to Ryan. “This isn't my doing, you tell her.” Ace growls. My eyes widen as my lips part and my heart slams against my chest; have I been set up?
My eyes snap over to Ryan as I watch him nod before his words ring through my ears.
“I came for many reasons, Emma. The first being to help and keep you safe, to make sure this goes smoothly.” He pauses and my look is questioning, annoyed with these fucking hushed secrets, games, bull shit that keeps arising, my tone harsh and annoyed when it spills from my lips.
“I'm really not in the mood for you to beat around the bush. Why are you here? What are you hiding?”
I look back over to Ace as he holds his deadly stare on Ryan, the black in his eyes darkening. And Ryan clears his throat drawing my gaze back to him before he says. “I went to Russia to visit someone that you know, but you haven't seen her since you were a little girl.”
My head snaps back with a questioning look. Who could he be talking about, and her?
“Her?” I ask in question before he nods.
“Yes, her. Emma, I have been keeping this person in hiding waiting for the right time and now is that time, for you to know.” My heart beats against my chest walls at a rapid pace ready to explode, causing my breathing to increase as he continues. “ Your Mother is alive Emma.”
His words echo in my ears. Your mother is alive. Shocked and trying to catch my bearings but all I can hear are Ryan’s words ringing in my ears, over and over again.
“My What?” I snap. Finally able to get the words from my throat.
How? How can this be true? I saw her. In the coffin. I remember, I was young, really young, but I remember. This is some kind of sick fucking joke, right? I mean people don't really come back from the dead, do they? But he said she's been in hiding? Why? And why with Ryan?
What the Fuck!
I feel Ace's hand on my thigh, but I am still lost. Until Ace's voice pulls me from the lost place I have been in, causing me to blink several times before I look over at him.
“Snap out of it, Baby Girl.” I blink a few more times and it is like a light switch is flipped in my head causing my eyes to snap over to Ryan.
Hot rage filled with fire encases my vision and my judgement.
I launch from my seat straight for Ryan, intending to release a portion of the emotions, the fire inside me.
But Ace's hand wraps around my throat before he slams me back down on the couch, his face inches from mine as he stares into my eyes. “Not a good idea, Baby Girl. Breathe.”
I grit my teeth and take a deep breath, trying to calm myself, because he is right, I do need to watch myself with Ryan's position and power, and my thoughtless action. But I am filled with a dangerous anger, needing to release it before I explode.
Ace's hand loosens its hold around my throat before he stands to his full height, sliding his hand from my neck, standing between Ryan and I.
I lean to the side, shooting daggers at Ryan.
“You mothafucker! How could you keep her from me!” The words hiss from my tongue, trying to contain my racing heart, the emotions that are starting to mix with the hot rage inside me, never a good mixture.
Ryan doesn't say anything, maybe he doesn't know how to tell me, or has a reason, no matter, the words roar from my mouth. “ANSWER ME!”
“Baby Girl, calm down.” My breath catches in my throat as my eyes widen; he did not just tell me to calm down .
Looking up to Ace, meeting his gaze, my words are filled with a deadly venom as they explode from my mouth.
“Do. Not. Tell Me. To Calm Down!” My lip curls.
“I want answers now. I'm fucking done playing these games.”
“I will give you all the answers, Emma. Are you prepared to hear them?” I deepen my stare with Ryan, swallowing hard, I give him a small nod.
“Your father tried to kill your mother, because he was told she was having an affair. She never had a chance to prove her innocence, so he tried to kill her, and almost succeeded, but I found her. I kept her hidden until she was well enough to move to Russia, knowing if your father knew she was alive, it would have caused a war, and an even worse death for her. ”
The words snap from my mouth. “You're a powerful man, you could have kept her safe with me. I had no one, Ryan!”
“It's not what your mother wanted, she didn't want this life, she wanted to stay dead.”
My heart breaks. She didn't want me. She left me. I feel every ounce of energy I had, drain from my body as I fall back against the couch.
“I took her to Russia, to give her what she wanted, and to keep... the woman I love, safe.” My eyes snap back up, wide, my mouth parted. “What? You caused all of this!”
Ryan shakes his head. “NO! Your mother and I didn't fall in love until after she was almost killed and I sent her to Russia, we stayed in contact, I visited.”
“Are you fucking joking right now, Papa?” Ace growls.
“No, I'm not, it is what it is, what's between April and I had nothing to do with Charles trying to kill her, Rocco was the reason for it.”
“Glad I killed that mothafucker then, wish I had made him suffer longer. He probably tried to rape her like he tried with me, and when he didn't get what he wanted…”
“He went to Charles and told a lie to cover his ass, yes.” Ryan speaks up.
Bile rises in my throat with the memories of what I endured, but I quickly swallow that down, not letting that emotion out to mix with all the over nerves and feelings mixing.
Ace sits beside me as I try to calm myself, my breathing slowing, taking my hand in his, laying it on his thigh, before Ryan continues to explain.
“April and I thought it was best to keep this from you until the time was right, let you learn what you did, to be brave, independent, strong, be who you became to prepare you for this day. The day you would go up against your father, Emma.” He pauses before he asks. “Are you truly ready for that? ”
A wickedly twisted laugh erupts from my throat, feeling every emotion that has been on the verge of exploding, like a nitrous car soaring across the finish line.
But my finish line... is ending my father.
“My father will receive a long and slow torturous death, paying him back for all the times he hit me, all the times he used me, how he was willing to sell me to Luca.
How he tried to kill me, but not before trying to hold me down while Rocco tried to get his feel on me, for his sick and twisted fun.
I promise you, you don't need to worry about me, neither of you.” I look between Ace and Ryan before I stand, Ace quickly jumping to his feet. “I'm going to the restroom, chill.”
I walk to the small bathroom, to take a second without eyes watching for me to break into a puddle of tears, or snap and loose my fucking mind, or both.
I'm honestly on the fucking verge of both, not going to lie.
ACE
I watch her walk away and I'm not fucking sure what I should be preparing for next with her.
She looks as if she is in a daze, shocked to learn her mother is alive, on top of the mess we already have swallowing us.
I'm not sure if my father is right here by telling her this now.
The life has been sucked from her face, there is no light, no twinkle in her eyes, the smile that always tugged at her lips is replaced with a frown.
I look over to my father and shake my head as I shoot daggers at him. “I think you were wrong for this, Papa. You left her alone with that monster.”
“If Charles learned April was alive he would have destroyed our empires, and we would have lost it all, and he would have never let Emma leave.”
“So you're letting her fight your fight now?” I shake my head at my father, disgusted with him right now. Not understanding why he did this to her, she trusted him.
“I did what had to be done and what April asked of me. I kept security on Emma her whole life, I didn't intervene with Charles, knowing if I had he would have questioned me. Sometimes Ace, we lose and pay the price to gain more.”
“So you fucking used her?” I snarl.
“NO! She became the woman her mother wanted her to be, nothing like April, shy and quiet.
Emma isn't scared to stand up to a boss and for what she wants, she's twisted, and strong.
She is the perfect Queen to rule our empires with the power they now hold together.
Son, you need to understand something, and I'm telling you this because I can see how deep it goes for you when it comes to her. You may not always be here for her, and if she were to lose you, it would basically put a target on her back, the sole owner of our very powerful empires.”
My fathers words strangle me; he's right.
I get it. I see now. She needed to endure that life, like I had to endure the torturous training I went through, to create the Devil inside her, like the Devil was created inside me.
This whole time she was being prepared and didn't even know it, but it doesn't make it right, but nothing is right in this world.
EMMA
I slide my ass up on the counter, leaning back against the wall in this little bathroom, letting my eyes flutter closed as my head falls back against the wall.
Deep breath in through my nose filling my lungs with air, then slowly exhaling from my O shaped lips.
Repeating these steps over and over, clearing my mind, calming my racing heart, the thought of my mother being alive somehow brings a bit of happiness to me, curling my lip to a smile.
Before falling again, as tears fill my eyes, no longer able to hold them in any longer.
I wish this was not kept from me. I needed her, I had no one to turn to, besides Pop, but, things like, having to tell your grandfather that you started your period, is not something any thirteen year old girl wants to tell their grandpa. I needed her for that along with many other girly needs.
It was hard growing up as a female in this world.
I was alone all the time, guards watched me instead of a caring nanny that would guide me through life, instead I had to find out on my own.
Pop taught me what he knew and how to live in this world, but the rest, it all came from tireless hours of studying and snooping around spying. Which I got good at.
Maybe that is why I am so independent, have trust issues, and probably the reason love terrifies me. Because the only two people that I have loved are gone, well I thought they were. My mother is alive.
I'm not sure how long I have been sitting on this counter before I peel my back from the wall, sliding from the counter, I drop to one foot before the other follows, standing in front of the mirror.
Seeing the person I was before, the person I tried to hide away, the darkest twisted version of myself has resurfaced.
Rolling my eyes at myself letting out a sigh, slightly shaking my head, I wipe the tears away that have soaked my face, before I step out of the bathroom.
I walk to my seat next to Ace as he looks up and meets my gaze, holding it while I sit next to him.
Ryan has disappeared, not sure where he has gone in the little plane we are in, but I feel Ace's arm wrap around my shoulders, pulling me against him as I lay my head on his chest. “I'm not going to ask you, because I already know you're not okay.” Ace asks.
The famous, are you okay; Fuck No I'm not okay.
I shake my head against his chest softly as my words come out in a whisper. “Did you know?”
“I didn't know for sure, but when Papa told me he was visiting April, someone you knew, I put two and two together. Baby Girl, he needed to explain this to you, not me. I didn't know for sure and didn't know the details so it wasn't my place to say anything when I wasn't sure.”
“I know.” My words whisper out, a single tear falling to my cheek as I nuzzle against Ace's chest. His arm tightly wrapped around my shoulders, finding comfort for just a minute before every emotion I have, is turned off. I am no longer letting myself feel this pain.
After the plane lands, the three of us quickly get into a car before it drives away from the airstrip in a hurry, the familiar sites around me, knowing we are in Maine, and it is time.
“Hope you guys are prepared to walk, we've got a few miles to go.”