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“Many years ago, when Thane was young and stupid, he met up with a beautiful blonde who was a dancer for the New York Ballet Company. She came all the way to the States from Amsterdam.”
“That makes no sense, how can that be?”
He shakes his head, but the satisfied smile on his face makes my own fingers tingle to slap him, to grip his throat and squeeze until there’s no life left in him.
“Your mother was sixteen when Thane knocked her up,” Fergus admits. He doesn’t look away. He stares right into my eyes, and I know for a fact that he’s not lying in that moment.
“But—”
“Are you fucking with her?” Etienne steps forward, his voice livid, dripping rage and venom, but Fergus merely shakes his head.
“No, I’m serious. Look, I fucked up, I should never have taken the money to play daddy for her, but Thane didn’t want his name tarnished, so he wanted me to take the dancer and kill her. I couldn’t.”
“What happened when he found out you didn’t?” I ask, folding my arms across my chest, a cold shiver snaking up and down my spine. My father knows I’m alive, he clearly knows that Fergus didn’t do what he was paid to do.
“He told me if I wanted to keep the baby, he wouldn’t have me thrown out of the Sovereign. I was born to be a Crown, he wasn’t. My father was one of the Elders of the Scottish society.” His confidence shines through his words. I’ve never heard about Fergus’s life before me. He never opened up to me ever. The people I grew up with are nothing more than strangers playing their parts on the stage that is my life.
“But that makes no sense. Who was the woman who raised me? Why would she even agree to this?”
“She was the love of my life, and the maid who worked for Thane. He paid her a lump sum to shut the hell up, and on your sixth birthday, she went to him, begged him to contact your mother and let her meet you. I guess the guilt of the lies got to her.”
“And he had her killed…” my voice is barely a whisper, but he nods. “What about my real mother?”
“She’s alive, she saw you the moment we walked into the church before your pretty little dance.”
“You took me there to show her who I was?” My knees feel weak, and I want to slump to the floor, I want to cry, to scream, to plead with this man to take me back, to show me who she is, but he can’t.
“She saw you. But she can never come to you or your father will kill her.”
Something isn’t adding up. I don’t understand why Thane would allow us both to live if he was so adamant that he wanted her dead when he learned of the pregnancy. “Why would she want to see me and then let me go again?”
“Because Thane knows if he kills you, he’ll lose Tarian, he’ll lose Yasmine.”
“Why?”
“You’re blood. You have Calvert blood running through your veins. Even though Thane was never an Elder, you’re still part of the Sovereign, and too many people know about you. Tarian and Yasmine are your family, and I know she would never allow him to harm you. And of course, your boyfriend’s little friend will avenge you if anything were to happen.”
“So, my mother is in Europe, my father is Thane Calvert, and you’re nothing to me?” I bite out, frustration evident in my tone, but it doesn’t make Fergus stop smiling. He’s enjoying the pain he’s clearly caused in my life.
“Your mother spread her legs for the first man to offer her some form of affection,” Fergus spits, “Just like her daughter.” My hand stings the moment it makes contact with his face. Even though I don’t know her personally, I hate that he can even say that about her.
“Fuck you.” My words are drenched in hatred so fierce that I am shocked by the violence in them. “You’re nothing but a fucking lackey, paid to make problems go away, and you couldn’t even do that properly.”
A small wince creases his face, and I realize I’m right. Fergus wanted more, he wanted recognition, and he didn’t get it.
“Is that why you were working for Abner? To get a seat at the table?” I watch him, his expression, his body language. The same things he taught me all those years ago, I use on him now. When I was younger, he would tell me how to watch out for myself, how to make sure I didn’t end up in a bad situation, and all those lessons paid off, because now I know I can take him down even if he wasn’t tied to a chair.
