Page 80 of Double Edged Hearts
He chuckles. “It doesn’t matter whether you choose to believe it or not, Cora. The truth will always be the truth. You can’t change that even if you tell yourself lies.”
Another tear runs down my cheek. I hate so badly that he’s right, but I will be stubborn and believe the lie. I don’t know what’s going to happen to me, but if I die, I won’t die thinking of him. I don’t want to remember anything about him. Good nor bad.
There is one thing I want to know though, one thing I’m eager to find out.
“How did you know about me… I was fourteen when they died. What happened before?” I ask.
“I was helping your mother pack away some stuff in the attic when I came across some old records from when you were born. It showed your blood type. That was when I got the first heads-up. It’s the same as mine. Type O. It made me suspicious, so I looked into it and knew straight away you had to be mine. Peter stole Lily away from me just after we were together. I always wondered about you, if you could be mine, especially when we shared so many similarities. Then I got the confirmation.”
My heart squeezes.
“They knew,” he adds. “The two of them knew. Peter and Lily kept it from me. They kept you from me. Of course, I was enraged, so first I called Lily and asked her about it. She wouldn’t talk to me, and he wouldn’t let her. I went to the house and we fought. I pulled the gun to shoot your father, and Lily tried to push him out of the way. When I saw I hit her and killed her, I killed him too.”
“How can you just sit there and talk about it like they were nothing?” He looks so calm, like he could be talking about the weather. It’s the same manipulative look that caught me in his trap.
“Your mother was everything to me. I only grieve for her. She was never supposed to get hurt. She was supposed to be mine. I begged her to leave that worthless piece of shit. You know how it felt for me to watch her move around because it wassafer. Move from one city to the next. Sometimes it was months before I heard anything. You must have changed school seven times before you were fourteen.” He blows out a ragged breath. “When I found out you were mine, I knew I could have given you a better life. Not like that scum who was trying to clean up. People like him can’t clean up. Danger always follows. It was so easy to pin their deaths on his unknown enemies. No one questioned it, and the investigation came to a halt when I gave the word.”
I bite down so hard on my lip, the harsh metallic taste of blood makes me flinch when it hits the back of my throat.
“It doesn’t make it right. He loved me. He showed he loved me every day, and you just killed him,” I snarl.
“Sometimes a man has to do what he has to do. That is the short and sweet answer. They shouldn’t have kept such a secret from me. It was wrong. I took you and gave you the life I wanted you to have.”
“Why did you tell me my father killed my mother? Why would you lie to me in such a way? Do you know what that did to me?” I shake my head at him. He should be ashamed of himself. People like him feel nothing like that though.
“I worked so hard for you to have a good life, then you got involved with mobster scum. Just like your mother. It was my worst nightmare come true all over again.”
“You didn’t want me to be with Alex, so you thought it was better for me to believe my father killed my mother, then killed himself after?” I don’t know how he thinks that’s okay or reasonable. It’s fucking crazy.
“It was the only thing I could tell you that I knew would make you question your relationship and turn your path around. And it worked. You did exactly what I wanted you to do.Everything, even joining the Bureau.”
“You are despicable. I hate you. I fucking hate you.”
He raises his hand and slaps me across my cheek so hard I fall to the ground. It happened so quickly, I didn’t have time to prepare or dodge.
Blood trickles from my nose, and my face feels like it’s going to fall off. My skin stings and burns, and my vision blurs as I look back at him in utter shock. Hatred in its purity works its way through my body. In all my years, no man has ever laid a hand on me.Never.
He’s completely revealing himself now.
He’s revealing the real him. What I knew him to be all these years was just a mask. It grieves me to think that I share his blood.
“Mind your tongue, Coraline. Do not speak to me like that. You may be my daughter, but you are not immune to my wrath,” he warns.
“I didn’t think so. My father would never treat me this way. You call him mobster scum and call my lover scum, but it’s you who is scum.Shit,you’re absolute shit, and if I get out of this, I will expose you. I will expose everything about you, and you will lose all that you worked so hard for.” The venomous words fall from my lips, and he can see I’m serious as fuck.
But, I don’t have the power here.
He does.
The smile that inches across his face shows me he’s in control and reminds me I’m not.
He crouches down and glares at me. “I’ll kill you. I will end you before you get the chance to do anything to me. The sacrifice would hurt me, because I do love you. But I won’t lose everything for you.”
The smile falls from his face, and his stare intensifies.
He grabs me as he stands, dragging me up with a snarl. He glances over his shoulder when Matvey approaches and turns to face him. Matvey laughs, amused at my ill treatment and helplessness.
“You can start boarding the plane now,” Matvey says. “The men are ready.”
