Page 78 of Feed Your Fiends

I lick my dry lips. He knows that he hit me. We both know, so why lie?

He can’t kill me here, despite the murderous look in his eyes. Not when everyone thinks I’m in the bathroom. Or would he make it look like an accident? Like the scaffolding, just a metre away, fell on my neck? His eyes are already lingering on the contraption, having followed mine.

Fuck.

He doesn’t know that I’m Jarett’s daughter, right? He just knows about the accident. Or so I think. Mum had cried Jarett’s name, but I look nothing like my father. So maybe Silas simply thought some random lady mistook him for his near-twin? I doubt he knows that Jarett’s married with a kid. Jarett never posted about me or Jaime on social media because he wanted to appear single so he could cheat in peace. He’d blocked Mum’s profiles so she couldn’t tag him, although she’d post photos of our family when she caught him off guard. She and I would be grinning in the camera, and he’d be halfway out of the frame.

So, does my uncle know who I am? I stare into the reflection of his crystal eyes. I don’t see any recognition of a family tie, just that night of the accident.

So I go for a half-truth.

“I saw you at the play and recognised you from that night when you hit me in front of the dance studio. That’s when I realised you were Sylo’s father, and I wanted to see if your car was here. I wanted to see if I was right and if I’d finally found the person who nearly killed me.”

His fingers loosen a fraction. “We’re getting somewhere, finally.”

Diffuse. Diffuse.Then get away.

“I wasn’t sure. When I saw you at the play,” I hedge. “When I found out that you were Gant’s uncle, I didn’t want to say anything to upset the happy reunion in case I was wrong.”

“It’s obvious you haven’t told Gant, or he wouldn’t have shown up. My wife’s been prompting him for years.”

“He’s so happy in there,” I nod toward the shut door. “Seeing Delphine is like seeing Marisol again. I can’t take that away from him.”

Is he buying this?

“Yet,” He says coolly. “How much do you want?”

“S-sorry?” I sputter.

“Let’s not play cute. You’re a girl from bumfuck nowhere, latching onto a little rich boy going through his bad boy phase. You don’t care about Gant, you care about what Gant can do for you and when you found out I was his uncle, I bet you’re the one that pushed for this little reunion.”

I swallow, and his fingers tighten at the movement.

“Everyone knows that you’re temporary. Me, Delphine, Gant and deep down, you know it too. It’s just a polite biding of the time until you’re gone for someone more suitable for a billionaire’s son. But I don’t want to ruin things for my wife, and if Gant finds out about our little accident, he’ll pull away from her. She hasn’t been this happy for a long time, so maybe I can give you what you want sooner and make you disappear faster. There are a few ways I can make you disappear.” He eyes the scaffolding again. “But transfers are less bloody. Your price, name it.”

“My price?” I sputter. He thought I was here to blackmail him for money? Sure, I was here to get enough proof to cash in with the Auclairs before making my clean break, but it hadn’t even occurred to me to blackmail Silas.

But it would’ve run across Rin’s mind instantly.

Rin…maybe I did need her.

“For fuck’s sake, don’t do that poor person righteous bullshit. Why else did you want to prove it was me if not for money? I don’t have time for a fucking court case, and you can’t prove shit. So take the money, and let’s keep both Gant and Delphine happy.”

“I’m not righteous,” I whisper into the void. “And I’m not someone willing to play coy either, so you’re right. Let’s not play around.” I press the nozzle of the air freshener I’d taken from the glove box and blast it behind me blindly into his eyes.

His loosening fingers, which were ironclad before, falter enough for me to get away and slip from the car as he hisses in pain.

I don’t make it halfway around the hood before I hear the car door opening, but it’s too late. My index is poised over the button that lifts the garage doors, and it’s bound to make a fuck ton of noise as it exposes us to the gardens. To the two people whose happiness Silas seems to care so much about.

He pauses halfway to me, his red, irritated eyes darting to the small windows at the top of the doors. So he knew they were in the garden too. He must’ve seen them when he pulled in.

“You don’t need to come within a metre of me to send the transfer.”

How much would Rin ask for?

“I want one hundred thousand,” I blurt.

He shakes his head, a knowing smirk tugging his lips as he pulls out his phone as if my request were for mere candy and not four figures. So I hadn’t asked for enough.

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