Chapter 86 Chapter Eighty-five
ARA
“You sold him out,” I whispered, unable to get the words out of my throat without wincing.
“You got him to trust you with the most important things in his life and this is how you pay him back?” I asked Munroe.
Munroe’s gaze flicked to Thayne, something like guilt flashing briefly. “I followed orders.”
My father moved closer, his presence crawling down my spine.
“She’s perceptive,” he said to Munroe. “Just like her mother.”
“Don’t say her name,” I snapped, shaking violently. “You don’t get to speak about her like you own the memory.”
He smiled indulgently. “I own far more than memories.”
Then he looked at Thayne. “And now,” he said softly, “I collect what belongs to me.”
Chains rattled as Thayne strained against them, fury rolling off him in waves.
“You touch her,” Thayne growled, voice low and feral, “and I will burn your entire empire to the ground. Slowly.”
My father laughed. “Oh, I’m counting on it.”
And that was when I realized. This wasn’t a kidnapping. This was a declaration of war. But that didn't even make sense, because who was he waging war against?
“What do you want?” I cried, my voice cracking from hoarseness. “Why are you doing all of this? You don’t need to hurt Thayne. Just take me. Please.”
The word ‘please’ tasted like blood. I hated that I was begging the man who had destroyed my mother’s life, but fear had no pride.
Not when Thayne was hanging there, bruised and bleeding because of me.
My father sighed, almost bored. “Oh, nonsense,” he said lightly. “Of course I need to hurt him.”
His gaze slid to Thayne, sharp and calculating. “For payback.”
Thayne went rigid. “My father?” he rasped.
A slow smile curved my father’s lips. “Yes. That man. The great Slade Senior.”
My heart thudded painfully.
“He destroyed everything I built,” my father continued calmly. “Stripped me of my name, my assets, my standing. Left me crawling in the dirt while he rose higher and higher.” His voice hardened. “I had to start from nothing. From scratch.”
Thayne let out a humorless laugh. “You ruined yourself.”
“Oh no,” my father corrected smoothly. “He finished the job.”
He turned back to me. “So I returned the favor. I sent Nadia. Soft. Beautiful. Convincing.”
My stomach twisted.
“She was supposed to burrow into his heart,” he said. “Become indispensable. She was supposed to turn into his weakness.”
Thayne’s eyes burned with fury.
“But she ruined it,” my father sneered. “She went and got pregnant for one of her lousy boyfriends. Made things messy.”
Nadia had been a tool. A pawn. No wonder she'd tried to pin the pregnancy on Thayne.
“And now,” my father said, spreading his hands, “I have you.”
My breath hitched.
“You,” he repeated softly, his eyes dropping to my stomach with chilling intent, “are worth far more.”
Thayne exploded against the chains. “Don’t look at her like that.”
My father ignored him.
“You’re my bargaining ticket,” he said to me. “My leverage. My proof. Slade Senior will crawl when I present him with what he tried to erase.”
“You think he cares about me?” I whispered. “He doesn't even care about my existence. He tried to kill me more than twice.”
“Oh, he will care about you,” my father replied. “Once he knows you're carrying twin heirs.”
The words didn’t register at first. Twin heirs.
They echoed in my head, hollow and wrong, like something spoken in another language.
Silence swallowed the room. Thayne’s breathing turned uneven, rough, like he was forcing air into lungs that refused to cooperate. His chains rattled softly as his body went rigid.
“What did you say?” he demanded, his voice hoarse.
Before anyone could move, pain sliced through my lower abdomen. Sharp and sudden, stealing my breath.
I gasped, instinctively folding forward as my hands flew to my stomach. The chains bit into my wrists as I cried out.
No. No, no, no…..
My heart slammed violently against my ribs. Twins?
That wasn’t possible. No doctor had said anything. There had been no scan, there'd been nothing at all. So how could he possibly know?
“How would you even know?” I whispered, panic bleeding into my voice. “That’s impossible.”
My father smiled. A Slow, knowing, cruel smile.
“You really think I’ve come this far blind?” he said. “You think I’ve been pulling strings without eyes everywhere?”
Thayne strained violently against his restraints. “If you touched her—”
“I didn’t,” my father cut in smoothly. “At least not yet.”
My stomach twisted painfully again, the cramp deeper this time, more insistent. Fear crawled up my spine, cold and paralyzing.
“Stress does fascinating things to the body,” my father continued. “Especially to women carrying more than one life.
I shook my head, tears blurring my vision. “You’re lying.”
“I’m not,” he said calmly. “Two heartbeats are in there now. Two futures. Two reasons your value just doubled.”
Thayne went completely still. “No,” he breathed.
I looked at him, my chest tight, terror clawing at my throat.
“Thayne,” I whispered, my voice breaking. “I didn’t know. I swear I didn’t know.”
His eyes locked onto mine. Green, wild and burning with fear I had never seen there before.
He believed me. That somehow made it worse.
My father clapped his hands once, satisfied.
“Congratulations,” he said lightly. “You’ve made history.”
Rage surged through me, drowning out the pain. I summoned the courage to lift my chin and face him.
“They’re not yours,” I spat. “You don’t get to use them.”
His smile didn’t falter. “Oh, daughter,” he said softly. “I already am.”
“The moment Doctor Annalise confirmed you were carrying twins,” he said smoothly, almost proudly, “I set everything in motion. Years of planning, triggered in a single heartbeat.”
He'd been working together with the doctor?
“I knew what it would do to you,” he continued, his eyes finding Thayne. “I knew the second you found out, you’d rush the wedding. Lock her down. Protect what you think is yours.”
A thin smile curved his lips. “Predictable men are so easy to manipulate.”
“Let him go!” I screamed, my voice tearing apart as it left my throat. “If you have a problem with his father, then go after his father! Thayne has nothing to do with your twisted vendetta!”
My words echoed uselessly off the concrete walls. My father didn’t even look at me.
“Munroe,” he said calmly, like he was ordering coffee. “Call them in.”
Munroe lifted two fingers to his mouth and whistled twice.
The sound cut through me like a blade. The doors burst open, and men in black overalls flooded the room, six of them, maybe eight.
They were big and buit, and in their hands were thick wooden logs of different lengths and weights, rough and splintered at the edges.
My stomach dropped. Then I heard it. The soft whimpers and broken sniffles.
My head snapped toward the sound just as two of the men dragged someone forward.
“No—” My breath left me in a sob.
Sasha.
They shoved her into the room like she was nothing more than excess baggage. She hit the floor hard, the sound sickening, her body folding awkwardly as a groan tore out of her.
Her face was bruised. Her lip split worse than before. One eye was swollen nearly shut.
She lifted her head slowly, dazed, and when her eyes found Thayne, she cried.
My father stepped closer to Thayne, his shoes echoing softly. “Your choice is simple, boy.”
He gestured lazily between us.
“Ara,” he said, nodding in my direction. Then he pointed at Sasha.
“Or her.” My heart stopped.
“You get to take one home,” he continued conversationally. “The other stays.”
I shook my head violently. “No. No, you don’t get to do this. You don’t get to make him choose—”
“And if you refuse?” my father went on, ignoring me. “They break your kneecaps.”
The men lifted the logs slightly. Just enough. Cold terror flooded me.
“You can only walk out with one,” my father finished. “Choose.”