AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“And that’s when I met you.”
“Lucky you did.”
I let out a cold laugh. “You call this lucky?”
“You are under my protection. You are safe. No one can hurt you anymore.”
“Apart from you.”
“Finish your coffee.”
I take a sip. “Enough about me. You’re supposed to be explaining why you’re keeping me here.”
He pushes his plate away, leaning back in his chair. “It is quite simple. You are the bastard love child of your father and a common prostitute. Your father found you embarrassing because you reminded him of his indiscretion. He forced your mother to marry him to end the rumors about her. They persisted. That embarrassed him. He took out his anger on her until she could take no more and ended her own life.”
I say nothing. The words wash over me like an acid bath, making my insides wince with agony. “Is that true?” I whisper at last. “Was my mom a hooker?”
“She was a woman in pain, and your father took advantage of her. The reason he threw you out was because you were an embarrassment, a risk to his future political career. Given free choice, he would have had nothing to do with you ever again, but fate has played a fresh hand recently. Your half brother, George, was meant to provide your father with an heir. He is infertile, so the chance of the family name continuing now rests with you.”
It’s starting to make sense. “So you get married to me and get me pregnant and he doesn’t get his heir.”
“Precisely. He planned, before I took you in, to bring you back into the fold, get you married against your will to the leader of a Mexican cartel. That way, he cements his business links across the border.”
“Wow.” I take a breath. “Sorry, this is a lot to take in.”
“When I refused to let him use my trucks to transport his victims down to the factories near Tijuana, he took it poorly. Burned down my family home, killed my parents and my sister. That’s when fate played a second hand, this time in my favor. It gave me you. I have a chance to right the wrong done to me. I marry you. He cannot force you to marry into the cartel. I get you pregnant, I have an heir. He does not.”
“That’s it? That’s why you want to do this? Revenge?”
“Should there be another reason?”
“I guess not.” I think about the warmth I saw in his eyes a few moments ago. It’s gone again. Is there a real person in there? Or was that just an act to try and butter me up?
“So I’m a prisoner,” I add. “I have no choice in this.”
“You always have choices in life,” he says, reminding me of what the woman in the diner said to me when I got to Gibson’s Mill. “See things how you like but it must be this way. If I let you go, your father will find you. He will force you to marry into the cartel and they will treat far worse than you will ever be treated in my company.”
I think for a moment, trying to process everything he’s just told me. “If I’m staying here, you have to let me outside sometimes. I need fresh air.”
“Fine, but you will be supervised in the garden. If you try to climb the walls, I will know. There are cameras everywhere. Anything else?”
“Why aren’t I allowed in the attic?”
“Because it was where my sister played with her toys.” I see a flicker of something in his eyes. It looks like pain. It’s gone an instant later.
“Oh,” I say, getting to my feet. “Wait there. I need to go fetch something.”
Seventeen
Marco
* * *
Alessandro calls me while she’s gone. I put the phone to my ear. He doesn’t bother with any pleasantries. “Piper’s been busy,” he says. “Trying to strong arm a few of the associates into giving away your location.”
“Any damage?”
“A couple of broken arms, but no one’s talking.”
