Chapter 44 – Fernanda & Patrick’s Wedding
ADRIEL
FERNANDA & PATRICK’S WEDDING
My mother looks happy, laughing with my father. They don’t appear as though they ever even missed me.
I chuckle to myself. But my chest tightens.
Why would they? I was given up like I meant nothing. Left alone in a dark world without anyone who cared what happened.
A fist curls at my side as I grab a drink from the waiter who passes a tray. Tipping it to my mouth, I swallow the entire thing, savoring the burn as it goes down. I don’t even know what the drink was, nor do I care. But I need more if I’m to survive it here with all of them.
My line of attention zeroes in on my twin.
Raphael.
The lucky one. The one who never had to endure the things I did just to survive. He was with our mother. He was loved. While I was anything but.
The need to kill him unfurls in my gut until all I see is red.
I needed to come here. To see them before I leave my surprise. To watch the way they are with one another.
The pain cuts like a knife. But I’m used to that, aren’t I?
It was easy to slip into their wedding.
Find out who’s attending. Murder one of them and pretend I was him. And bam, I’m in. Had to create a fake ID using the dead guy’s name first, of course. But that wasn’t too difficult either.
My family has no idea who I am or what I’ve become. Nor how long I’ve been watching them all. Waiting to make them pay, especially her.
My mother.
The woman who gave me up.
All evidence points to her. She never married my father. She married some other asshole, who’s now dead. But maybe my father did know. Maybe he didn’t care either. It wouldn’t surprise me. It’s one thing I was never sure about when I went digging.
So many bodies piled up at my hand. The ones from the orphanage. The nuns who hurt me. Lied to me. One of them talked. She was there when Granny handed me to her, wailing in her arms. Probably crying for the same mother who wanted nothing to do with me.
But did she ever bother to find out if I was safe? If I was cared for?
The answer to all those questions is NO!
Mommy never came looking for her abandoned son.
My life started in the gutter, and I lived there my entire childhood.
I was a foster kid. Beaten. Bruised. Wholly disregarded.
But things changed when I was in my teens. A couple adopted me. And no, it wasn’t some happily ever after. It was worse. So much worse than I could’ve imagined.
My chest rises and falls with anxious breaths.
No. Not here. Not now. Control yourself. You’re not a child anymore. You’re a thirty-eight-year-old man.
They’re gone now. Thanks to me. It’s my job to take out the trash, and they were my first. My parents ended up with their throats slit in their kitchen. And me? I ended up with all their money.
And my other parents, the ones laughing right now? They’ll suffer the same end.
“Excuse me,” a woman says, bumping into me from behind.
A little girl who I know is my niece, Sophia, is beside her. The girl stops, looking up at me through inquisitive brown eyes, her brows tugged.
“Do I know you?” Sophia asks.
“No, young lady.” My mouth snakes up at the corner. “I don’t think so.”
“Are you sure you’re not one of my daddy’s friends?”
“I am definitely not,” I laugh. More like enemy.
“Sorry about that,” Elsie remarks, grinning as she pulls the girl away. “We have to go take some family photos.”
Why the hell did that sting so fucking badly?
As she pulls the child away, Sophia continues to stare at me from behind her shoulder.
It’s a shame I’ll have to kill her father too. None of them will survive.
I’m coming for them. All of them.
They can try to run, but there’s no hiding from me.
I’m ready to play.