Chapter 10
VOLATILE
I stared off into the ocean, the cool waves biting at my bare kneecaps as my feet dug into the wet sand below.
All I could think about was diving off into the water, swimming away until I found my dog's remains. But with Sloane standing on the shore watching me, I knew she wouldn’t let me get very far.
And then I decided I didn’t give a shit anymore, and dove under the water anyway.
Kicking my feet, I swam for the surface and began to make my way through the water as fast as I could. I didn’t even care that the salt water was making the graze on my side sting like a bitch. I wanted to find my goddamn dog.
“Jaden!” Sloane called. “Jaden, come back!”
I could hear her dive into the water, swimming aggressively to catch up to me, but she was no match for my level of internal destruction and sabotage. No one was…except Darren...
Self-hatred propelled me through the waves, the guilt and shame keeping me afloat despite the overwhelming mountain of grief offering to drag me to the ocean floor. It was where I belonged for what I’d done, for my own stupidity.
It was my fault my dog was dead. Darren had warned me repeatedly, threatened her hide several times, even electrocuted her to prove his word. And still, I didn’t listen.
You never fucking do, you selfish piece of shit.
You’re so fucking stupid, Jaden.
Camaro’s fate was tragically no different than Clive and Owen’s.
Failure got you killed around here, especially if that failure involved me.
And I was the only contributing factor to Camaro’s “failure” in keeping me safe.
Still, she didn’t deserve her fate, but I did deserve the pain of her loss. And so did Darren.
He would learn very soon, because now, the only thing I had left to fucking lose was my sanity. And to be honest, I wasn’t sure I even wanted it anymore.
You never really realize how exhausting self-loathing can be until you find yourself struggling to keep your head above water after only a few minutes of rage swimming.
It gave Sloane the chance to finally catch up to me, and when she did, I elbowed her in the face the second she grabbed for my waist.
“Get off me, Sloane!”
“Jaden, stop!”
“Get off me! Let go! Stop!” But she didn’t let go, and instead dragged me back to shallower water while I thrashed in her arms. “Let me go!”
When we were closer to shore, she shoved me down until my ass hit the sand and the water was barely touching my ribs. Fighting her, I ripped off the stupid neckless Darren had given me yesterday and chucked it into the ocean, never wanting to see it again.
Ignoring my protest, Sloane wrapped her arms around me and pulled me into her chest where I collapsed against her into another fit of tears.
“I’m sorry, Jaden,” Sloane murmured, stroking back my wet hair. “I’m so sorry. I know how much she meant to you.”
I had nothing to say in return. All I could do was cry.
My heart was broken into tiny pieces I no longer recognized, and they would never again fit back together.
The one light I had in this dark world I was forced to live in was snuffed out right in front of me, and on my birthday, no less. And I was once again alone.
But then I felt another set of slender arms wrap around me from behind.
“I’m here, too, Jaden,” Katherine murmured softly. “I’m here, and I’m not going anywhere.”
I sniffed back my own self-pity to appreciate her, appreciate both of them. “Thank you.”
The three of us sat there in the water under the warm sun for what felt like hours, not saying a single word, but also not needing to.
My pain was witnessed and shared, though Sloane and Katherine could hardly shoulder the weight of the grief and guilt I felt, but I was still grateful for their strength all the same.
When I had finally expelled the last of my tears and my body started to shiver, only then did Sloane leave to fetch us some towels. Alone with Katherine, we both stared at each other through puffy, bloodshot eyes, my anguish an infectious disease I didn’t wish upon anyone.
“What can I do, Jaden?” she pleaded. “Tell me, what can I do? Is there anything?”
Sniffing back my tears, I searched in my depleted mind for a solution, any kind of tonic that could remedy my heartbreak, but all I could find was the sticky black tar of despair that clogged my veins.
I felt numb inside, no pulse to be found.
But as I recognized the hope lingering in Katherine’s eyes, the ooze in my heart began to grease the rusted wheels in my brain.
“What if I told you there was?” I replied, the wheels spinning faster now, inspired by a small drop of derangement and a sudden tidal wave of blood-red vengeance.
She stared back at me with a familiar kind of determination. “Tell me.”
Now may finally be the time I play that Ace I’d been hiding in my sleeve for too damn long.
“Are you able to talk to your father unsupervised?”
Katherine’s brows furrowed, but she nodded. “Yes.”
“How soon could you get a message out to him?”
She blinked a few times at me, her lips folding in on each other as she thought to herself. “I suppose right now, assuming Daniel is busy so I wouldn’t be interrupted. What message?”
“The evidence I told you about at Dominic’s funeral that cleared your family’s name? It was in the form of a letter from their mother, Diana. She confessed to orchestrating her death to frame your family with the hopes of starting a war.”
Katherine remained silent as she listened, her hand still rubbing soothing circles into my shoulders that continued to shake from the cold.
“But…why would she do that?” Katherine whispered, hurt in her voice.
“She thought your family was strong enough to win the war, and if Warren and his syndicate didn’t survive it, Diana’s sons would be free of their father and his horrid influence.”
Katherine scoffed. “Foolish woman.”
I nodded in agreement. “To be fair, she was dying of ovarian cancer and probably wasn’t thinking all that clearly. Desperate mothers can do foolish things.”
Katherine sighed softly as she looked down into the clear water. “And what foolish thing would you have me do, Jaden?” she asked softly.
Foolish wasn’t exactly the word I would have used. Volatile would have been more appropriate.
“I revealed Diana’s letter to Darren, Daniel, Scott, and Sloane weeks ago. But Darren burned the letter to destroy the evidence. He said it would cause chaos in their world if anyone found out the truth.”
Katherine sighed a fresh breath of anger as she held me, but her facial features remained schooled. “Yes, I imagine it would.”
“I think it’s time your father heard the truth…along with everyone else. Even if there’s no physical evidence, rumors alone can crumble entire kingdoms.”
She paused as she stared back at me, unsure of my request. “You want to unleash the chaos,” she stated, trepidation tainting her voice.
“Absolutely.”
Katherine remained silent for another minute as her eyes drifted over to the ocean.
For decades, Katherine had been raised to be loyal, passive, and obedient to Daniel, and I was asking her to betray him, to knowingly commit an action against him.
I couldn’t blame her if she didn’t have the ability to overcome her conditioning just yet, but I hoped a crack could be found somewhere that I could dig my fingers into.
“This will likely get a lot of people killed,” she muttered to herself.
“Hopefully the right ones.”
I just had to hope that Katherine’s father still had enough sway in their world to convince people the rumor was true and worth acting on.
Katherine released a slow, heavy breath from her nose, a decision finally settling in her mind.
“I don’t even fucking like my father,” she suddenly said, taking me by surprise. “But for once, maybe he can actually be of some use to me.”
I smiled in return. “Let’s hope so.”
I just had to pray to the universe and every god known to man that it had the effect I was expecting it to. Coordinating chaos was becoming a full-time job, but I was only too happy to jump into the role as often as I could.
“Come on, you guys, get out of the water,” Sloane called from the shore, holding up a couple of towels.
Katherine and I stood from the water and made our way back to the beach.
I allowed Sloane to drape a thick beach towel over my shoulders while Katherine took the other and wrapped it around herself.
Sloane had clearly already dried herself when she grabbed the towels, her clothes still wet but no longer dripping.
Together, the three of us walked back up the grassy lawn toward the house when we noticed a tall figure appear on the back patio.
When we got closer, I realized with disgust that it was Daniel. He stared down at us with disapproval as we rounded the stone railing he was currently leaning against to walk up the stairs.
“Why the fuck are you all wet?” he asked Katherine, his voice tight with anger.
“We went swimming,” I answered bluntly for her.
Daniel’s eyes shot to mine. “I didn’t fucking ask you, Jaden.
I was talking to my wife.” I shrugged and brushed him off, knowing his time would be coming very shortly.
“Get upstairs,” he ordered Katherine, causing her to side-eye me with the ghost of a smile before quickly scooting around her dick of a husband to disappear into the house, hopefully off to make a very important private phone call.
“I don’t care how you want to celebrate your little pity party, but you’re to leave my wife out of it. Understand?” Daniel scolded.
I snarled at him. “Fuck you, Daniel. If she wants to join me, I won’t stop her.”
Daniel’s eyes lit up with ferocious anger.