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His sin? “What did I do to you? What sin did I commit? You were only a boy when I left.”
His dark eyes grew black as night as he stepped closer, the gun trained on Ty’s face. “You were going to take away the one thing I loved most in the world.”
“Mom left a year before, Lysander. I didn’t take our mom.”
“No, you took Ahnah.”
Ahnah.
This was revenge over Ahnah? How? “Lysander, I didn’t take Ahnah. I was booted out with guards and gates. You were there. You saw it with your own eyes.”
Lysander bared his teeth. “I overheard you and Bexley plotting to leave the Family with Ahnah. You were going to condemn her for eternity and leave me without her. I couldn’t let that happen.”
Jagged pieces of the past began to fit, but only the edges. “What did you do?” Had he been scheming even then?
“What needed to be done. I saw you bedding Bexley on more than one occasion, and I was going to be loyal to you because after you married her, I could ask for Ahnah and be betrothed until she turned sixteen and could marry me. I’d already been working on a plan for Garrick to marry so we could be free to marry as well, but you ruined it. I had to readjust. And I did. Garrick was easy to manipulate. All I had to do was feed him breadcrumbs and make him believe it was his idea to go to Father with what you’d done—and what you were planning to do.”
Rand had known he was leaving the Family all along. That’s why he disfellowshipped him. It would be easier to save face than have his congregation know his favorite son had left of his own free will. Otherwise, he would have forgiven him the indiscretion.
“Things didn’t go according to plan, though, did they? Bexley ran anyway with Ahnah,” Ty said.
“And all these years I thought she was dead.”
“So did I, Lysander. I had nothing to do with that.” Why was it still his fault?
“No, but you planted the idea in her to leave and to take Ahnah.”
“Do you know the things Garrick did to Ahnah? She wasn’t safe. If you loved her, wouldn’t you want to protect her?”
“I was handling things!” Lysander bellowed. “Delicately,” he added with more control. “He was the Lord’s anointed, but he was still flesh and blood, and men have accidents.”
He’d been planning to murder Garrick and make it look like an accident. Then Ty could ask for Bexley’s hand, Ahnah would be free from Garrick’s wickedness, and Lysander could be with Ahnah. Except Ahnah and Lysander had only been kids.
“Well, slitting him from ear to ear doesn’t exactly look like an accident. But it does put you in position to take office after Rand dies. You going to kill him too?”
His eyes widened as if he didn’t expect Ty to know Garrick was dead. “Why would I want someone else’s kingdom when I can build my own? I simply need Father’s company to fund it.”
He wanted his own place where he could do whatever he wanted with whomever he wanted. The dots connected. Lysander had seen Skipper dump the body of Jenny Davis and used the ammunition to force Skipper into confessing in order to implicate businessman and rival land developer Patrick Swain. His own property was a short distance away. That was the ulterior motive, the puppet strings. Ty had done exactly what Lysander had wanted him to do. “You want Patrick Swain’s land for this new kingdom.” Lysander would rule here, and his followers would have property not far away, set up exactly like Rand arranged his own empire in the mountains.
Roaring sounded overhead. The glass ceiling was underneath solar panels—blocking out the view of the women from airplanes and drones. He could roll the panels away or keep them in place; either way, sunlight entered, growing his flowers and plants. Standing here, they could be impaled by shards at any second if the winds tore away the panels.
“Of course I want it. And guess who’s selling it to me now that I’ve shown him what I can do if he doesn’t cooperate?” He bowed as if he’d been applauded for a perfect performance.
“In scouting prime property, you stumbled upon Ahnah. You said it was Garrick’s job—that he often traveled—but you lied. Like you lied about being married and having a son. I wouldn’t suspect you.”
It had worked.
“But Ahnah wasn’t into you. Bexley had made it clear what the Family was—a cult that specialized in degrading women—and that made you angry. It was my fault, Bexley’s, and even Garrick’s that she didn’t believe anymore. This is how you exact your revenge, even on Ahnah for rejecting you. No one rejects you. These women, like Cami, came here with you willingly.”
Lysander still believed the doctrine of the Family, but he would add his own teachings and rules, which justified his sick need for collecting women. That sickness had nothing to do with his revenge plot, but he’d used it to his advantage to bring Tiberius to the island.
“Where are Ahnah, Bexley and Josiah? Where have you locked them away? Other hidden rooms?”
Lysander’s nostrils flared, and a vein pulsed at his temple. “I gave these deflowered sluts a chance at rebirth. To give them back their purity that they willingly gave me and men before me. I offered them an open door to say no, but they said yes.”
That’s why they were in cages and Ahnah wasn’t. She hadn’t said yes. Hadn’t come willingly. She could have been dead for the past week, her body buried in the marsh.
“They belong to me now. Purified and one flesh.”
