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“We don’t need any help from a fucking Windsor.” I heard her shift the phone slightly.
“Georgia, he took me to see Daddy. You—you don’t understand.” I felt tears filling the corner of my eyes. “I’ll do anything to get him out of the hell he’s in right now.”
“Then Violet…” She exhaled sharply for the third time. “You need to start by getting the fuck out of Devlin Windsor’s house—because he’s the one who had our father arrested.”
“What?” My hand trembled. “No, he wouldn’t do that!”
“Yes, he would. Violet, don’t you get it? Devlin has been after you for years. Do you think it was a fucking coincidence that Daddy was arrested at your birthday party? You couldn’t sign one of those damn contracts until you turned eighteen!” Georgia’s voice started to get enraged—so much so that it was almost terrifying.
“Oh my god…” The phone nearly fell out of my hand, but I caught it before it did. “No—Devlin—he…”
I thought Devlin was honorable when he refused to touch me because I was too young, even though it infuriated me at the time.
“Devlin is a fucking monster. He buys and sells people like fucking cattle. How do you think he has been able to come so far, so fast? How do you think he was able to strike out on his own and accumulate so much wealth? Do you even know what you’re worth on the open market right now—a Cabot, bound to be someone’s fucking slave.” My sister’s words kept coming—fueled by anger—guided like daggers into my heart.
He turned down an offer of twenty million… Oh god. Is Georgia telling the truth? Did Devlin set my father up—just so he could force me to sign my name on one of his contracts?
“Are you still there?” Georgia tapped the phone. “Violet?”
“Yeah, I’m still here.” I felt my voice getting lower—almost as if I could barely speak. “How do you know all of this?”
“Connor.” She sighed. “Look, Violet—I know you don’t like my husband. But just trust me, he knows the same people Devlin does. He does business with them. There are rumors—rumors that Devlin is already taking offers and a deal is close. It could happen today.”
The person he was talking to last night…
“You’re getting played, little sister. Whatever Devlin has told you is a lie. You’re not even the only girl he’s fucking right now.” Georgia paused and let her words sink in.
He never told me I was, but—I just assumed.
“I…” My words just trailed off, I didn’t even know how to respond.
“Connor said that there are rumors that he even knocked up his secretary. After he forced her to get an abortion, he fired her!” Georgia exhaled sharply into the phone. “That was a few days ago!”
Sally-Anne? Is that why she came to see me?
“Okay.” I swallowed hard. “I’m leaving.”
“I’m coming to get you. If you’re not outside when I get there, then I’m calling the police—plain and simple. I’ll assume you’re being held against your will and have them tear the fucking doors off that place—if I don’t do it myself.” Georgia slammed the phone down.
I couldn’t believe I had been blind to what was right in front of my face the whole time. Devlin lied to me. He reached out to me in my darkest hour, but he was the one who snuffed out the sun to begin with. It was all a game—and he just kept twisting me up in it with every passing day. I let him turn me into nothing more than a pawn.
I had tears in my eyes when I finally let the phone fall from my fingers. I didn’t even hang it up. I ran out of Devlin’s office and straight upstairs to my room. I slammed the door—locked it—and looked around. There was nothing in the room I wanted. I was willing to walk out of the Devil’s Manor with nothing more than the clothes on my back—except—my mother’s journals. I couldn’t leave those behind. They were the only connection I had to her.
I grabbed a bag and ran back downstairs. Belle was busy cleaning so I avoided her and darted into the room where the stuff from Cabot Estate had been dropped off. There were more boxes than the day before, but I didn’t care about the trinkets. Devlin could have those. They seemed important when I thought I would be staying with him, but that was when I thought he would help me get my father out of prison—before I knew he was the one who put him behind bars to begin with.
I put all of the journals into a bag and carried them close to the door of the room. I didn’t want to risk dragging them back through the house and have Belle ask why I had them. It would be easy to grab the bag on the way out.
