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I have no idea where Henry found a body that, though mangled, could so closely resemble Snow’s, and I don’t care. This world can burn, and so long as she’s safe and whole, I will dance before the flames.
“Mom? You’re specing out again. Everything alright?”
“Yes, baby. I just wanted to hear your voice and know that you’re doing well. That you’re having fun with Henry and being safe.” That’s all I ever want.
“Aww, not ready to be a nana yet?” Her laughter soothes the rough edge of envy that cuts at me. Snow’s barely younger than I was when my life was forfeit to Xavier. She has so much to look forward to. I don’t even mind the reminder that I’ll cradle grandbabies in arms that never got to nurse a babe of their own.
Although if there’s any blessing to be found in the horrors of my marriage, it’s the good fortune that my body never allowed Xavier to breed it. Whether through timing or subconscious preservation, no pregnancy ever rooted in my womb.
Four
Hunter
Glory disconnects the call, her laughter at Snow’s teasing as real as any sound I’ve heard her make. I silently turn off the recording, my smile catching me off guard in the mirror across the bedroom. When did I last feel true happiness? Just hearing Glory interact with her stepdaughter fills me with a sense of peace and pride.
The woman sacrificed everything she had for a child who isn’t even her own. She bathed in the blood of her enemy to keep Snow safe. A lioness willing to go to war to protect her cub. I allow my mind to play over the fantasy of Glory, ripe with my child bred into her belly, carrying a towheaded moppet I’ll give her on her hip. The mental picture takes my breath away.
I’m not sure when protecting her as best as I could morphed from being something I did to hold on to a scrap of humanity into working on a plan to get rid of Xavier so I could make her mine. Nights when I couldn’t keep him plied with faceless women and drugs, he’d pay visits to her bedroom while I retreated to the barracks on the property for his men. Making allegiances and negotiating for the day when I’d be in a position to kill him and claim Glory as well as the Kingston empire.
Ignoring the horrors I knew he was inflicting on Glory so I could maneuver the chessboard into position is the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I couldn’t risk Xavier realizing how I felt about her. He’d have killed me without blinking, and then where would she be? I thought Glory needed me to rescue her. Turns out, she saved herself and that makes her even more incredible to me.
Remorse bites at my conscience for the way I’m blackmailing her. She deserves better than to be manipulated back into marriage to protect the daughter she loves. I know it, and still I’m proceeding with the scrabbled together plan I came up with when Henry called me, desperate for help to find a body that could pass as Snow’s.
Yes, I’ve known since the moment she called Henry that she killed Xavier and intended to hide Snow. Who else has the connections to source an unrecognizable body that no one will miss if not me? To be honest, I’m shocked Glory hasn’t put the pieces together yet. I’ve had her phone tapped for months while putting my plan into motion. I know every move she makes.
The planned ones at least. Killing Xavier wasn’t planned, I don’t think, though I’m proud as fuck that she’s the one who did it. Even if it makes my path to her side that much more difficult. I can’t regret anything it took to foster the burgeoning power she’s manifesting now.
The queen called. Just a little while ago. The miners are in position if you need them. Just let me know.
Henry’s text isn’t unexpected. The boy has been good about keeping me in the loop. Glory may be the head of the Kingston empire now, but the men had already been looking to me for leadership before Xavier died. The man had been slipping recently. Leaning more into indulging his perverse fetishes than leading the family.
Bring them in. If the queen is worried, she could slip and your position could be compromised. The minors will ensure none of the forest animals get too close.
Using fairy tale metaphors might be cliche, but with short notice, it’ll do. The minors are men from the family who can be trusted to circle around Snow and Henry to provide security while they’re hidden away in a beachy little town on the coast of Florida.
Yes sir. Do you know how much longer? The apple is unhappy having fallen so far from the tree.
Kid is clever, I’ll give him that.
Not much longer. The queen has received the present. She knows a decision must be made soon.
I toss the phone onto the bed behind me and face myself in the mirror. Perhaps the fairy tale references have gone to my head, because I find myself regarding my image more critically than I usually might. Glory’s twenty-nine to my forty-three. I don’t know if there was ever attraction or romance between her and Xavier. The years she spent quietly raising Snow in the nursery wing are mostly a mystery to me. I note the lines on my forehead and the dark stubble along my jaw. My hair’s as black as night, kept that way thanks to the attention of my barber who trims and tints it every two weeks.
Vain? Perhaps. It’s a cruel world out there, and men who are considered over the hill open doors for younger men to question their skills. Their grip on power. I keep my body in top shape so no one gets the notion to challenge me, and I do the same with my appearance. Still, there’s a needy part of me that hopes Glory will come to look at me with appreciation and attraction. After all, a wife should desire her husband, no?
The tall clock in the living area of my suite sounds out the hour. Six o’clock. It’s only been a few hours since I left Glory in the office, two floors up from my ground level apartment in the compound. I told her I’d return in two days to negotiate the terms of our agreement. She’s smart enough to know I intend to claim the throne beside her, but I wonder if she’s savvy enough to realize my truest intent is to actually become the throne she’s mounted atop.
Fuck the Kingston empire. I’ll take it on and usher it into prosperity Xavier’s psychotic self could never have dreamed of. But only as a means of securing the real treasure. Glory Kingston herself.
Five
Glory
Iknow the bastard is in the compound somewhere. For two entire days I’ve felt his presence like a looming specter. In a decade of living here under Xavier’s twisted thumb, I hardly ever saw Hunter. Now it feels like I can’t turn around without some reminder that he lives here too.
That doesn’t mean I’m in any hurry to see him. He said two days, and I’m holding him to every nanosecond of the time. Snow’s fine. She’s safe and happy as a lark with Henry. The two of them hiding away somewhere where there’s dolphins, obviously. I don’t know where, exactly. I don’t want to.
Snow said Henry helped her cut her hair when they snuck out of the house the night he helped me get rid of Xavier’s body, so I’m assuming that’s where Hunter found her hair. He’s trying to bluff me, the fucker. Henry swears they’re safe where they’re at, and he loves Snow too much to lie to me about that.
