Page 64 of Feed Your Fiends

“I tell myself I do,” she repeats. “But it’s a lie. No matter how much I want to hate you, I can’t. You play on my greatest weakness.”

“Being seen?”

She nods, a tear rolling down her nose onto mine before it falls onto my lips, and I lick the salty taste away.

I told her I’d drink them all.

Gant

“Being seen and filled,” she says moments later, cutting through the heavy quiet. “You pour into me when I’m so empty that I can’t do it myself, no matter how badly I want to. Good or horrible, you're there for me.”

“Look into my eyes.” She does after a beat, her eyes red and swollen. “I will never leave you.”Not for long. Not forever.“I promise.”

“Do you promise to share everything with me?” She holds up the torn letter.

“What do you want to know?”

“Why did you destroy it? Shouldn’t you cherish her memories?”

I gaze at the death portrait. “They aren’t my memories.”

“Your brother may cherish them.”

“I don’t know who the bastard is. If I did, he’d already be buried.”

She gasps, her grip on my shoulder tightening.

“My father will kill him the second he’s found.”

“What? W-why?”

“He gifted my mother crucial parts of his company. Parts her firstborn would inherit.”

“His own child,” she whispers. “But why would he do that? He could just give it to you himself.”

“So you didn’t find the marriage contract?” I ask, skimming the destroyed letters strewn across the floor.

“Marriage contract?”

“My parents were never in love. My father was looking for a socially acceptable wife, and my mother wanted to please her family and elevate her status, especially that of her future children. My father saw it as a throwaway, a compromise to make her feel secure while, as you pointed out, it didn’t matter since it would be his child anyway. Essentially, he wasn’t giving her anything he wouldn’t have given me himself.”

“Firstborn…She willed everything to her firstborn. So it’s safe to say Bart didn’t know about this other son?”

“Safe to say.”

“Would he have married her if he’d known? Or would he have found another target?”

I don’t believe Bart’s earlier words that he wouldn’t have.

“My father’s laser-focused, as spoiled as I am. If he wanted her, he’d have her. Any problems, he’d simply solve. If he’d known about the kid before the marriage, he would’ve tracked and killed him first. The same thing he’s trying to do right now.”

“Trying?”

“The bastard is another mystery. Just like the driver.”

Elle’s eyes grow wide. “You…you don’t think this is all connected, do you?”

“You know I do. I told you my mother always had a reason. Jarett isn’t a coincidence, and neither is that driver.”

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