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A bit of the tension in my chest eases.
“Yes,” I say. “He claims it was part of his plan all along, but it seems very contrived to me. He probably just doesn’t want me to marry Alize.” Then I realise I left out a part of the story. “I asked her to marry me.”
“Congratulations, man,” Graham says, and itactuallysounds genuine. Did he not hear what I just said about her? “Knowing the old coot, he probably just wants you to marry someone he chooses.”
I nod. “He’s holding my inheritance from mum hostage, too. Apparently, he tricked me into making him the irrevocable trustee when I was eighteen.” I’m still livid about that, but compared to the latest revelation, it’s miniscule.
There’s a chuckle on his end. “He did the same to me, Alex. Did I ever tell you he had a wife picked for me, too?”
“No, you didn’t,” I say. Not that it’s surprising. Graham was father’s heir. I’m sure he had many plans for him. “Who was it?”
“Adele Beneventi.”
I sit up straight in the seat. “Beneventi?”
Graham chuckles on the other end, and there’s a certain sadness to the tone of his voice. “That’s one of the reasons why I left. I wanted to crush the Beneventis, he wanted to make them our allies at first. We had backed them into a corner, and father wanted to marry me off to one of their daughters as part of some fucked up peace treaty.”
“That makes no sense,” I say, still stunned at the revelation. I was so far removed from all the shit happening within the Empire while I was at Saint Frederic University that I hadn’t even the slightest clue. “Why would he offer up a peace treaty if we weren’t the ones who needed peace?”
“Those were my thoughts as well,” Graham says. “He would have none of it, though. At the time, I had only known Ivy for a few days, but I knew she would be my wife. Adele is an ice queen, there was no way I would subject myself to the likes of her, even for the family.”
That’s one thing I can agree on. “It’s pretty fucked up that he thinks he can do this to us when he’s marrying some bitch he just met.”
“Yes,” Graham says, with a lilt of humour in his voice. “Tell me about that.”
“They met a month ago. She applied for a job at one of the casinos. I think he’s trying to have another kid.” I grit my teeth at the thought of my father leaving everything to some rosy-cheeked baby he’s had with this random woman. Our mum’s money built the Empire as much as his did. “He said as much when I refused to marry Ottilie.”
“I’m not surprised,” Graham said. “But he’s desperate.”
There’s a bit of awkward silence after his words, but I can almost tell what he’s thinking. Because I’m thinking it, too. There’s only one way to stop my father from carrying on with this fucked-up plan, and I don’t think either of us want to say it out loud, much less over the phone like this.
So naturally, Graham moves onto the next topic of discussion. And I’m dreading it, because in hindsight, I don’t think I really want to talk about it.
“How did you find out that Alize’s father is the man who killed Mum?”
Graham is calm, still.
Is he faking being calm to extract as much information from me as possible? He has a bone to pick with Michel Moreau, just like I do. My skin starts to itch—he doesn’t know Alize, only that she’s the daughter of our mum’s killer.
I’m upset at her, but I also don’t want her to die. I can’t be sure what Graham will do.
Fuck.
“I’m not going to hurt her, man,” Graham says. “I’m talking to you as your older, more experienced brother right now. Finding out that shit is supposed to be fucking you up. I know it would if it were me.”
I’m reluctant to trust him, but just hearing those words from him puts me at ease. He knows the pain I went through–that Istillgo through–because of Mum’s murder.
“He’s wanted by the Kingmaker Society,” I say, thinking of what I’m allowed to share with him. “When I saw the picture you sent me, I recognized him. I had my suspicions for a few weeks now, but I just got actual confirmation.”
“How come?” Graham is sceptical.
As he should be. This whole thing sounds ridiculous to me, too.
“Alize ended up at Saint Frederic University almost…mysteriously. She didn’t know what her father did. It was her first time even being away from her family’s estate. She never told me his name, only that he was controlling and abusive.” Graham grunts, but I’m not finished. “At least, that’s what it was at first. Somewhere between then and now, she’s been talking to him. We had a rough patch a few weeks ago and she was planning to run away with him.” My anger kindles again, as all the memories begin to reappear. “And when I asked her his name to confirm my suspicions, because like I said, I found out that he had killed Mum before I found out he was her father, she lied about his name.”
That’s an admission of guilt as far as I’m concerned.
“Did she know?”
