Page 197 of Heir

That confirmed what I already suspected when Kai had told me I didn’t have to worry about Mom and Kenton again.

If I was my dad’s affair baby, that explained why she couldn’t love me. But hell, did she have to treat me so horribly just because her husband cheated on her?

Sorrow hit me. All the years of abuse and neglect, simply because I was unfortunate enough to have been born from an affair.

I shook my head, and Jude laughed at me. “Ah, don’t be like that. That bitch is dead. You should thank your boyfriend for that.”

I didn’t answer.

I couldn’t even bring myself to care. Not in the situation I was in.

“If—” I took a deep breath, unable to really wrap my head around this. He wasn’t serious, was he? That meant my dad and Uncle William had an affair with the same woman. Jude and I were only four years apart. It wasn’t a big age-gap, which meant there was a possibility that the affair had overlapped.

My face twisted in disgust.

“If what you’re saying is true—”

He slammed his fists on the cage again, rattling it and scaring the shit out of me.

“It is true. I’m not a fucking liar. My fucking sperm donor kept track of me. The fucker kept track of me over the years, knowing full well the shit I went through in foster care. He only cared when he thought I could do something for him.”

I shook my head. “Uncle William made his career by sending the member of the Savkin Bratva to prison.”

Everyone knew that. It was his running campaign line when he ran for Mayor.

Jude sneered at me. “He was trying to save himself by sending members of the Savkin Bratva to prison because of his affair with the Bratva’s Princess. Unlucky for him, he ended up being sent to the same prison years later. I wished I could have been there when they tore into him.”

The girl on my right whimpered.

Fuck, Jude was insane.

I licked my lips, wishing I had some water. “Then why are you doing this if I’m y-your sister?”

He stood back and casually ran his fingers through his hair, as if he hadn’t just lost it moments before. “To get rid of the competition. You and I are the only two heirs left to the Savkin Bratva when dear old Granddad kicks the bucket—and let me tell you, that can be any day now. I deserve the throne. I’m the one who can build us up. And it’s gonna be with this.”

He moved his hand around the room, indicating to the women.

“Do you fucking know how lucky Kai had it? He doesn’t have to fight for his spot. Power is just given to him,” he spat out, bitterness in his voice. Was that why he was doing all of this? Betraying a man who had grieved for his death for ten years. The man who had thought of him as a brother?

Power?

His eyes glazed over as he continued. “We’ll be bigger than the King’s Men MC. And I’m not going to let you take it from me.”

I shook my head. “I don’t want it.”

He laughed. “You won’t have the chance to want it. It’s too bad, really. I would have left you alone, but then you got involved with Kai. And with him backing you up, you can take it all from me. I won’t let that happen. Selling the woman he loves is really just a bonus.”

Fuck, he was delusional.

He pointed to the dress. “Put that on, Gemma. Don’t test me. If we board the South of Mexico and you’re still not dressed appropriately, I’ll drag you out by your hair and dress you myself in front of my men.”

He walked away, slamming the door behind him.

None of the women was looking at me, all lost in their own miserable world.

There was no room for empathy when you were in the same sad, inescapable situation.

I touched the necklace Kai had put on me earlier. The heart-shaped pendant was warm from my skin, but never had I felt so—bone-chillingly cold.

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