AllFreeNovel
Share Us
If I hadn’t been so on guard, I would’ve choked on the baby tomato I’d just bitten into. I chewed as I normally would and then wiped my mouth. “No. Haven’t his parents been married forever? Did someone cheat?”
Pandora began tapping away at the screen of her cellphone, sliding it across the table towards me. “Watch this.”
“What is it?”
“Watch,” she urged with an airy laugh. “I want to know your thoughts.”
Unsure what I was about to see, I took a mental breath and hit play on the video. The speaker immediately erupted with intelligible shouting. It wasn’t a perfectly clear video. Certain aspects were blurred but it looked to have been done purposely, not a quality issue. I could make out at least three people in masks. There must have been a fourth because as they chased a group of people through the woods the camera bounced.
One person specifically drew my attention. My mouth went dry, a heaviness spreading through my chest as her features became more evident. The video momentarily cleared as someone off-camera fired an arrow. A guy with a striking resemblance to Ciaran grabbed my sister and pulled her out of its path.
The arrow found a mark in one of the girls that had been running with them, slamming into her temple with such impact it came out on the other side. Whoever was recording had gotten close enough by this point that I saw the blood and something resembling a sponge be expelled from the hole the tip of the arrow had formed.
The tomato I’d just eaten was suddenly much too acidic. I blindly reached for my water, watching as the girl staggered. When the camera panned to a side profile view, I recognized her too.
I swallowed a gasp as Lamia’s best friend disappeared into a patch of thick overgrowth. The video cut off abruptly, silencing my sister’s hysterical screaming.
I went through no less than four emotions in the span of a few seconds, ending with rage. I swallowed repeatedly and took another pull from my glass.
“Did you know Ciaran had a brother?” she repeated her prior question with no vocal inflection to hint at her mood as she reached across the table and took back her phone.
That’s what she wanted to lead with? Not an explanation why her pregnant daughter was being hunted down by masked psychopaths?
My pulse was racing so face I felt it throbbing in my neck. I couldn’t articulate words. When I could finally speak, I was unable to keep the fury from my voice. “Where is she?”
“She was on an island. It’s been shut down for the time being. There are talks to bring it back in a few years. It depends on how well this next project does.”
I sat back in my chair and stared at the woman across from me. She was speaking of her in the past tense, and as casually as us discussing her day at the office. If I had any doubts about my family knowing why Lamia went off the grid, Pandora just cleared them all up.
“How could you do this to her?”
“She did this to herself, my love. Haven’t I always told you every choice you make big or small will matter at some point or another? We gave her a choice and she chose the island. Between you and I, be glad she isn’t of the time our next venture will be. She’d never have made it.”
“She’s your daughter.”
Her brown eyes lost a bit of their light at the reminder. “You’re my daughter too.”
Clearing her throat, she sprinkled parmesan cheese on her plate of food and picked up a fork. “I’m surprised Ciaran didn’t tell you all of this. That video isn’t recent.”
I wasn’t going to engage in her wordplay about him. She could be lying or twisting the truth to pit me against him. I tried to think of what I should do, and how to handle this. Dealing with Pandora, I knew she’d be steps ahead of me and already implementing a countermeasure.
My parents didn’t get where they were by sitting on their hands or going on the defense. I couldn’t text or call anyone for help. I was on my own right now.
“Why did you show me that video?”
“In light of recent events we’ve decided it was time for you to know the fate of the girl so we can move on.”
The we’ve was a unified front with the rest of my family. She would never act without first conferring with them.
My fingers wanted to curl into the arm of my chair. I kept them relaxed and held my composure. Pandora tilted her head to the side and offered a slight smile. “You’ve gotten better.”
“What the fuck is wrong with you?”
Her brows lifted in response to my language. She didn’t care if I swore like a sailor, but it was never allowed to be directed at her. That would be too disrespectful.
