Page 39 of Midnight Revelations

Terrorising his family and beating the crap out of his sons in a boxing ring was a disgusting lowlife crime, but this transcended all Dad’s previous actions and showed him for the true demon he was. No one could step into this room and believe that what they were doing was right.

I moved into the back part of the basement and my stomach lurched. Dad had created his own personal fun room. A massive bed dominated the centre of the room. Different implements adorned the walls, and there were chains hanging down with clips on the end that would attach to the collars on the women in the next room.

Evil had a new face and it belonged to Matteus Blackwood.

Xavier’s hand gripped my shoulder. “This isn’t your fault,” he said in a low voice. “You cannot keep trying to atone for the sins of your father.”

My company supported numerous charities for neglected children and abused wives. Just because you were a billionaire did not mean that your children were happy or loved. Sometimes, they were merely another commodity for you to exploit.

“I know, but fucking hell. What was he thinking?” I replied.

“This is the curse of excess,” Xavier muttered. “What does the man who has everything he wants need? They step over a line and this is the result.”

“Wherever that line was located, someone should fucking put an electric barricade up,” I replied, hatred bubbling in my soul.

“Yeah, I know.”

Dad belonged to the elite group who had people dance to his every whim, including us. Our saving grace had been the influence of Lucas Black because he hated everything that the Council stood for.

“Could I become like this?” I asked, nausea creeping up over me. We’d lived a life of excess sexually, creating an elaborate game for us to enjoy. Did that make me like Dad?

“Never,” Xavier replied instantly. “There is too much of your mother in you, just the same as me. Their goodness redeemed us from the darkness of our fathers.”

Mum had always been the one to step between me and Dad, more often to her detriment. It was only as an adult that I saw the effect it had had on her. He had chipped away at her soul until he drained her goodness and left a husk behind. Only once had she ever mentioned that he’d stolen something priceless from her that she would never forgive him for. She refused to tell me what, but I would never forget the look in her eyes.

It was the Blackwood Curse. Our family had an evil in it that feasted on goodness until it consumed innocent souls. Yet, the purity in Lucrezia tamed the beast that paced inside me. When I was with her, I didn’t want to drink and fuck myself into oblivion. Some of my happiest memories were sitting on the grass watching cartoon characters fly across the front of a castle in a theme park.

She was my redemption, but the darkness that surrounded me could be her damnation, and I could never allow that to happen.

“In the end, Dad managed to destroy Mum, leaving a shadow of her.”

Xavier nodded slowly. “I often wondered what would have happened if Mum had survived. She was enough at the beginning, but I see the man Dad has become and I don’t know if he was always like that, or if it was because he lost her.”

“Look at this fucking place,” I said. “This isn’t the type of room used for the pleasure of everyone involved. It is a room for training people to become mindless slaves.”

Xavier folded his arms across his chest and stared around the room, slowly walking when he had completed his visual exam. He moved around the full circumference of the room, finally coming to stand in front of the bed and turning to stare up.

“There,” Xavier said, nodding to a point to the right of the doorway I was standing in. “He’s been videoing all of this.”

Since we were running out of time, I swiftly followed his gaze and pulled the panelling away to reveal a camera in a hidden compartment. There was a stack of video tapes beside it. Even in this day and age of modern technology and cloud storage, sometimes the best way to keep secrets was through old fashioned technology.

The sick fucker probably sat and watched these, revelling in the vile acts he committed in this room. “We done here?” I asked.

Xavier nodded. “Yeah, I’ve seen enough.”

Jordan appeared at the doorway. “My men are taking them out one at a time. We’ve put eye coverings on them for their own safety.” His eyes were all I could see since he was wearing a balaclava. His gaze moved around the room for several seconds. “Start in the next room, and I’ll document this.”

I pushed all my emotions into that box inside my head and locked the door. If I thought about this too much, I would never complete the mission. I tried not to look as Jordan’s men coaxed the women out of the cages.

“It’s okay, we’re not going to hurt you,” one of the guys said in a low tone.

A whimper followed and the cage rattled as she cowered back. That noise made something inside me break, fracturing into a thousand pointed shards that dug into my soul. I strode across the room and crouched low so that she could see my eyes.

“These men are going to take you to somewhere far from this place. We’re running short of time and need your help. Please, we want to help and we can only do that if you get out of that cage and stand tall and reclaim your power.”

She stared at me and blinked.

“The men who did this to you are cowards hiding behind their chains and cages. This is your chance for freedom.”

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