Chapter 33
Chapter
Thirty-Three
OBSIDIAN
M y chest has been hollowed out. Scraped clean from the inside.
I stalk from the room, unsure where I’m going, just knowing that I can’t be in the same room as her any longer. Can’t stand to look at the fucking liar.
When I think of all the things I shared with her, I want to be sick. She knows me in a way that no one else does and why? Because I believed every piece of bullshit that came out of her mouth. What a fool. I’ve always prided myself on not being able to be led around by the dick. Who knew I had to be worried about my heart?
I was fooled by a fucking con artist.
The shadows gather around me as I make my way through the manor and find myself in Kol’s wing.
I’m so devastated and heartbroken, I don’t know what to do with myself. Don’t know what I’m even doing here. What the hell is Kol going to say that’s going to make this better? Nothing can make this better.
“Kol!” I shout over and over as I walk aimlessly down the hallway, having no idea where he is, but knowing I need my brother.
Growing up, I was always the closest to Kol. He was my confidant, and now I need him to tell me that this pain won’t last forever, lest I do something stupid.
“Kol!”
The sconces flicker in the dim hallways while I charge down them but settle when Kol steps out of his bedroom wearing only dark pajama pants. I probably interrupted him and Rapsody.
I cringe. It’s just a reminder of what I’ll never have again with Ariana.
“What the hell is going on?” he says, moving toward me, his expression a mix of anger and concern.
Now that I’ve found him, it’s as though I can’t push the words past my throat. It feels tight, and my breathing comes out wheezy.
“Hey, hey, hey.” Kol clamps me on the shoulder. “Relax. Breathe.” He pulls me into one of the sitting rooms. “Here, sit down.” He forces me into one of the chairs. “Now count with me and breathe.”
He leads me through a breathing exercise, and eventually the tightness in my throat relaxes, and I’m able to breathe.
“I don’t know what that was.” My voice is hoarse.
Kol sits across from me. “Could have been the start of a panic attack. Rapsody used to get them sometimes. Reminded me of that.”
Unbelievable. This woman and her lies will be my end.
I close my eyes, remembering the words Ariana just spoke to me. They were like an arrow and my heart was her bull’s-eye, leaving it a bloody pulp mess.
“What happened?” Kol asks, voice grave.
“She lied. She’s been lying this whole time.” I push both hands through my hair and rest my elbows on my knees, staring at the carpet.
“Who? Ariana?”
I nod, unable to say her name.
“What did she lie about?”
Her feelings for me. That she loved me.
I don’t admit that out loud. “She’s a con. She’s been stealing from us.”
Kol looks at me in confusion, and I bolt up out of my seat to pace.
“The first lie was when she showed up. She didn’t tell me she was the one who saved me on the beach.”
Kol blinks a few times. “Wait… she saved your life? What about this Leah person who’s been staying here?”
I shake my head. “Everything’s a lie.”
“Sid, you’re not making sense.”
Ariana was the one who saved me. Did she know that I’d been apathetically trying to take my own life that day? Had she known when she showed up and used that information to manipulate me? If she knew I was trying to end my life, she knew I was lost and broken and that made me an easy mark.
The pain in my stomach makes me bend over with a hand pressed to it. God, to think that she may have known all along feels like another sort of betrayal.
“Fuck!” I stand and shout at the ceiling.
“Calm down. Start from the beginning and tell me what’s going on.”
So I do. I manage to get my thoughts together long enough to explain the sordid story to him.
When I’m finished, he flops back in the chair and blows out a long breath. “What a mess.”
Unshed tears burn in my eyes. “I was an idiot for ever thinking someone could love me like that.”
“Sid, I saw you guys together. She may have lied about?—”
“I don’t want to hear it!” I shout.
My cell phone rings from the inside pocket of my suit, but I ignore it. When it starts up again, I pull it out to see who it is.
“It’s Ash.” I toss the phone to Kol. I don’t want to talk to my big brother right now.
Kol swipes the screen to take the call. “Yeah?” His gaze flicks over to me. “Yeah, he’s here. Sure, we’ll meet you there in a minute.”
I groan. “What the hell does he need us for this late at night?” It’s well past business hours.
“Two men just showed up at the gate saying they’re Ariana’s father and brother. Wouldn’t leave. Insisted that they need to see her. Said she’s not answering her phone.” My face transforms into a scowl as Kol stands from the chair. “Let’s go.”
“What the fuck are they doing here?”
He shrugs as we make our way out of the room toward the communal part of the house. “Who knows, but let’s try to figure it out. Try to keep your shit together.”
I want to say fuck off, but somehow, I keep my mouth shut. Kol leads us to one of the living areas in the main part of the house, and I see the guy I saw Ariana at the bar with, her “brother” Bastion, and another man who’s probably in his late forties.
The moment I see him, I want to shove my fist through his face for what he did to his daughter, how he raised her by using her in his cons. Maybe if he hadn’t, she wouldn’t have tuned out to be such a fucking liar and what we had would have been real.
But it looks as though someone beat me to it. Both men have obviously been worked over. Between them, they have bruises on their faces, a swollen lip, and a cut on the forehead. That at least brings me some level of satisfaction.
Asher looks between Kol and me, obviously sensing that something is off. “What’s going on?”
Kol nods for Asher to join him on the other side of the massive room, and the two of them walk over there, leaving me with the two pieces of shit.
“What the hell do you two want?” I say.
“We need to see Ariana,” Bastion says, then looks nervously between his father and me.
“Why?” My head tilts in a move akin to a predator assessing its prey.
“Family emergency,” her father says.
My eyes narrow on him. As my mom predicted, I am the wolf stalking its prey. “Got another con job for her to run for you?”
The shock on his face almost makes me laugh. Almost.
“What are… that’s ridiculous,” he says, attempting to look as if I’ve offended him.
“I know all about how you raised your daughter and son.” I flick my hand in Bastion’s direction. “What kind of father does that? Makes her think her worth is in how well she can screw people over. Sells her off to the highest bidder when she gets older. You’re a disgusting piece of shit, and if it weren’t for you, maybe she wouldn’t be the liar and con that she is.”
Kol must be done filling Asher in because the two of them join us, standing by my side.
Bastion stands from the couch, hands raised in the universal sign for surrender. “She’s obviously told you everything. But you should know, she wanted nothing to do with our way of life anymore. Was working two jobs to try to make a living because she wanted so badly to be done with it all. It wasn’t until he got mixed up with Uma that she was forced to participate again because Uma threatened all of our lives.”
At least her father has the decency to look somewhat ashamed.
“I don’t give a shit. None of that matters. Explain what you’re doing here.” I set my hands on my hips.
Her father stands. “We’re afraid that Uma—the woman I owe money to—might try to hurt her. She’s become more unhinged.”
The hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. “What do you mean?”
“This is courtesy of her and her goons.” Bastion points at his face. “Most people would be happy we were coming up with the money to pay her off, but every time I showed up with a chunk of change to put toward the debt, she seemed more and more agitated. Wanted to know how we were coming up with the money, but I never told her.”
That makes no sense.
“A few days ago her goons picked us up and beat the shit out of us until we told them,” her dad says.
“I tried contacting her to give her a heads-up as soon as they let us go, but she hasn’t answered my calls or texts,” Bastion says.
I think back. Ariana has had her phone on her at all times. I’ve seen her using it, and she hasn’t been sending any calls to voicemail.
Bastion must see my thoughts on my face. “She had another phone she was using to contact me.” He cringes.
My hands drop from my hips and fist at my sides. “Why do you think she’d want to hurt Ariana?”
“One of her guys was talking about how Uma was pissed we were probably going to be able to pay off the loan. She’d wanted to use it as leverage to force Ariana to work for her.”
“Ari’s got the gift. Uma could see it, too,” her dad says like a proud father.
I scowl. “Uma’s here.”
Their expressions drop, eyes wide, panic slowly masking their faces.
Bastion steps forward. “What do you mean she’s here?”
The panic in his voice causes my pulse to spike. “She showed up a few days ago. Said her name was Leah and claimed to be the one who saved me from drowning a few months back.”
“Ari’s the one who saved you,” Bastion sneers.
I step toward him until we’re almost nose to nose, and it’s all I can do not to pummel them both into the ground. “I didn’t know any of this until a short time ago. Only you two and Ariana knew about the deception you were running.”
“If Uma’s here, then Ari’s in danger. Where is she?” her dad snaps.
The words “Ari’s in danger” snap me out of my rage and thirst for retaliation. I blink several times.
A feeling worse than when I found out she betrayed me moves through my veins like sludge. I cannot let anything happen to her, no matter how complicated my feelings are for her.
“She’s in the east wing.” I run from the room and hear footsteps behind me, but I don’t bother to stop and see who might be following.
I have to get to Ariana and make sure she’s okay.