“Are you sure that he’s dead?”
“Yes,” Grayson said as he turned away from the window. “Dead and buried along with the rest of the Hunters that were with him.”
Fucking finally! The problem had been taken care of. Well, one problem at least. With Oliver out of the way, I could focus all my attention on Silas.
“Conner disappeared.”
My eyes snapped to his.
“He took off when the other Hunters attacked. I have men looking for him but I doubt that we’ll find him.”
I ran a hand through my hair. “He’s not really a problem, never was.”
Grayson raised an eyebrow but a knock on the door prevented him from speaking. Sucking in a breath, he slowly blew it out as he pinched the bridge of his nose.
“Come in,” he muttered a moment later.
The door didn’t immediately open. A few more minutes passed before the doorknob turned and the door was pushed open.
I tensed when Silas entered the room. His eyes fell on Grayson and then darted over to me. Silas’s lips curled up into a sneer. “Get out.”
A glance at Grayson had me exiting the room as fast as I could. My lips twitched when the door was slammed shut behind me. For a second I considered sticking around to listen in on their conversation, but I changed my mind.
I ran into Devon on my way up the stairs. He paused as if he wanted to say something, but then he shook his head and walked away.
My mind trailed to Eva as I climbed the stairs.
She had made a fool out of herself. Eva should have chosen a better place to hide the pictures so technically it was her own fault.
All I had to do was to get rid of the photos and everything else I had that could be used against me. I knew for a fact that she wasn’t going to stop until she exposed me.
My steps faltered when I was hit with the questions I had forced from my mind earlier as I had watched Eva and Ethan.
*Is Ethan my father? Is he really Silas’s brother that supposedly died in the fire? Is Eva in fact his biological daughter?*
“There you are,” Emeric called, making my eyes snap up to him. “Grayson asked me to take a look at your back.”
“I’m fine,” I muttered.
“I’d still—”
“Tell Grayson that I’m fine,” I hissed through clenched teeth. “I can fucking take care of myself.”
He took a small step back. Fear flashed through his eyes before he masked it by lowering them to stare at the ground instead.
“There’s no need to be a dick, Lucas,” he said softly. “I’m just following orders. Grayson is worried about you and the least you can do is allow me to have a look at your wounds so I can reassure him that you’re healing as you should be.”
“I’m sorry,” I apologized after a moment. “I just want to check on Ariana first. I want to make sure that’s she’s okay and then you can check on my wounds.”
Emeric looked at me. “Fine. You have five minutes. I’ll let the clinic know that we’re on our way.”
I smirked at him. “How are you going to change a diaper if you can’t handle some vomit?”
Colour flooded his cheeks. “It’s different,” he growled. “Will you give this to Eva? I found it while we were cleaning up.”
He pulled something from his pocket and held it out to me.
I stared at the locket for a few seconds before I took it from him. Turning slightly, I watched him until he disappeared around the corner. My eyes dropped to the locket in my hand.
Fingering the chain, I frowned and then turned direction towards my bedroom instead. Entering, I kicked the door closed and carefully opened the locket. My eyes instantly locked on the family photo before darting over to the second photo.
My frown deepened.
The second photo was one of a baby. Maybe a friend’s baby? Mother had told me that the twins had no other siblings so I knew that the baby wasn’t related to them. It could be one of them but since the baby was dressed in blue and obviously a boy, I doubt it.
Shaking my head, I snapped the locket closed and gripping it tightly in my fist.
I took a step forward as I glanced up and froze.
Ariana stood next to the bed, staring down at photos that had been spread out on top of it. The bag that the photos had been in laid discarded at her feet.
“It’s true,” she whispered. “It’s all true.”
I licked my lips and hesitated a moment before I moved but she raised her head and looked at me, making me freeze once more. “Ari—”
“You’ve been following us for years,” she interrupted me.
“Please, let me explain, doll.”
“We. . .our. . .” Ariana sucked in a breath and looked back down at the photos. “W-we didn’t meet by accident, did we?”
I hesitated. “No.”
“Wrin isn’t going to find anything on you, is he?” she asked.
“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “Just let me explain.”
“What’s there to explain?” Leaning down, she picked up one of the pictures. “Did you have anything to do with Oliver kidnapping me?”
She dropped the picture again and took a few steps back.
My eyes narrowed on her hand clutching the hem of her shirt before they darted back up to her face. She couldn’t have a panic attack now. It would make them all rush in, leaving me little time to hide the photos before anybody sees them.
“Answer my question, Lucas.”
“I had nothing to do with Oliver kidnapping you,” I told her. “I—”
“But you know him?” she interrupted again.
Her eyes darted up to mine when I didn’t answer her.
My mouth opened and closed as I tried to come up with a believable lie. I felt sick to my stomach.
This was not how I imagined the night was going to end. We were supposed to be celebrating the fact that Oliver was dead!
“No more lies,” Ariana begged. “Answer the question.”
“I told him to leave you alone.”
A whimper fell from her lips. “Everything. . .Everything we shared. . .the things you said. . .” she sucked in a breath and reached up to press a hand to her forehead. “It’s all lies.”
“No,” I yelled, stumbling forward with a hand outstretched. “It wasn’t. I never lied to you. I—”
“Never lied to me?” Tear filled eyes locked with mine. “That”—she pointed to the bed—“proves that all you’ve been doing is lying!” Ariana pursed her lips and angrily wiped away a tear. “Why?”
I swallowed. “M-my mother hired Oliver and his brother to help me,” I told her. “I swear I didn’t know that he knew you. When he told me that he met you, I made it clear to him that he needed to leave you alone.”
“Why did she hire him?”
I turned away from her. Usually I was good at coming up with lies when placed on the spot but for some fucking reason I couldn’t think of anything.
More lies weren’t going to fix things. I had fucked up and there was no way to fix it. The moment I found the photos in Eva’s room I should have gotten rid of it.
What was the use of lying anyway? It was going to come out sooner or later, it only happened sooner than I was prepared for.
“She hired them to help me get rid of you.” I walked over to the bed and frowned down at the pictured. “Not you exactly. . .you or your sister, but anybody close to Silas.”
“Dad?”
“My mother killed herself before she could go through with her plans to destroy your father.” My lips curled into a sneer. “She thought that it was time for me to do what I had been trained,” I muttered as I thought back to the note she had left for me after she committed suicide.
A shudder raced down my spine as images of the gruesome scene I had stumbled upon flashed through my mind. I wished to god that I had stayed late at the library instead of going home early.
“Your parents ruined her life. . .my life,” I said as I forced the images from my mind. “Lara’s was already dead so it leaves only your father.”
“Y-you killed M-mom?”
My eyes shot up to hers. “No!”
“So y-your mother was—”
“I don’t know,” I interrupted her. “She would have told me about it.”
I studied her as silence settled between us. She wasn’t crying but her eyes were red-rimmed like she was holding her tears back. Ariana stared at the wall, arms wrapped around her waist and slim body trembling.
“He’s responsible for everything,” I told her, making her eyes snap up to mind. “Your father ruined our lives. We suffered for years while he lived happily with the bitch who was the cause for everything.”
Her quivering lips parted but no sound escaped.
Turning, I took a step towards her and gave her a cruel smile. “While you were living with your happy little family, I was being trained to use weapons I never fucking knew existed. While you sat down to eat, I was being starved because I couldn’t fucking kill an innocent animal.”
Ariana whimpered when her back hit the wall. Her eyes darted around, searching for an easy escape.
“While you and your sister were being tugged into bed at night, I was being pushed around by the drunkard my mother was forced to marry because your fucking father banished her from her own pack.”
I placed my hands on the wall on either side of her head before she could move away and leaned closer. Ariana turned her head away and pushed herself harder against the wall.
“Revenge,” I hissed. “Revenge is all I know. It’s the only key to my freedom,” I whispered. “Promising to ruin Silas’s life was the one thing that made my mother look at me with pride.”
She squeezed her eyes closed when I reached down to stroke her cheek with my knuckles.
“The only way to destroy a man like your father is to take something away from him that he loves the most.” I swallowed, and hesitated but decided to continue since I had already said too much. “Eva was my target because she would have fitted in perfectly with the things that had been planned.”
Her eyes snapped open at the mention of her sister. Licking her lips, Ariana slowly turned her head to glare up at me.
“And me?” she questioned.
I cupped her cheek and traced her bottom lip with my thumb as my eyes darted between hers.
“You. . .” I hesitated. “You became the target instead because we had the same classes. I thought that it would be easier.”
“It was, wasn’t it?” Her eyes dropped to my chest for a second before they darted back up to mine. “It took you no time at all to make me trust you.”
“I never expected thing to take such an unexpected turn, Ariana,” I told her. “When you looked at me that day. . .I felt. . .I felt the. . .” I trailed off, unable to find the right words to explain how I felt.
“And now?” she asked. “How do you feel now that the truth’s out? Are you still planning on ruining our lives?”