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I took a moment, drawing in a centering breath.
So be it.
Let the chips fall where they may.
21
~Aurora~
The room had fallen into stunned silence.
Tension was mounting, especially from me, as I watched them all absorb my dad’s revelation.
That Isobel Carlyle was the mastermind behind the Heretics.
That she’d been in an underhanded war with the Infidels for years, that she intended to run right over them and destroy every last vestige of Carson in the process.
That it was personal because of his obsession with her and her rejection of that obsession for her own—power.
That she’d been the one who had given the kill order to take Asher out in the car explosion.
“So, me linking Isobel to Nyx… I was on the right track,” Asher mused aloud.
“Yes. If you’d known she was alive, you would’ve made the connection. As it was, I used that to throw you off track.”
“All these years,” Aaron groused. “Trying to determine who was spearheading those covert fuckers, and you knew?”
“Not all these years. Isobel’s subterfuge game was on point, it took me some time too.”
“That’s why you insisted on handling the Heretics yourself,” Aaron continued. “To protect your wife from Asher’s wrath and Carson’s by extension?”
“Ex-wife. And, no. Not to protect that megalomaniac. To protect Aurora. To preserve the memory of her mother, to avoid it coming to what it is now—me murdering my own daughter’s mother.”
“And what else?” Asher asked.
I frowned. What was he picking up on? Wasn’t it enough as it was?
Something flickered in my dad’s eyes.
“Lance,” Asher pressed. “We agreed. Full disclosure.”
My dad turned from where he was standing before us gathered around the seating area of the living room. He cursed under his breath, then walked to the patio doors and slapped his hand to it, hanging his head.
My chest squeezed. It was so rare to see him out of sorts and in any sort of emotional pain.
He sucked in a choppy breath, then turned around and told us, “Years ago, while I was back stateside and between deployments, I met Carson at a gathering of business moguls and up-and-coming entrepreneurs in the City of Torvin.”
“One hosted by my mom?”
“No. This was before she was with your father, before the Carmichael Foundation had grown into what it is today. Although, your mother was there that night.”
Killian frowned. “I can’t imagine a time when she wasn’t with him, not under his thumb.”
“Well, you’re about to have that depicted rather vividly.”
“Dad?” I asked, worriedly, not liking that one bit.
He sucked in a breath. “The gathering was intended to give the up-and-comers a chance to make connections with those already established. And Isobel did. With Carson. She was developing a chain of luxury lounges at the time. He liked the idea and wanted to work with her. He even invested.”
