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“You used me,” I stated.
At least Aro didn’t have the audacity to look sheepish about it. “Yes.”
“You knew I was taken from another family, and you did nothing,” I repeated. “In fact, you actively supported it because… what? No one had the balls to stand up to Sinclair or Ossian?”
Aro’s jaw ticked and he focused his gaze on the arm of his chair. “Some people did try to stand up to them, but they were punished gravely. It’s hard to have any power over someone who has complete disregard for the value of human life. Both of them have always been willing to do whatever it takes to acquire and hold onto power, whatever that power might be – money, success, leadership.”
He sighed and glanced back at me. “I saw what they did to those who tried to threaten their position of power. I’m not made like them, Rupert. I care about my family. Isabel and Dax – and now Rose – are the most important people in the world to me. I could never hurt them. Once upon a time, my actions to defy Sinclair and his questionable ethics were punished in the gravest way. I will never forgive myself for putting the most important people in my life in the path of destruction.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked softly.
Aro closed his eyes and slowly shook his head. “I know you know, Rupert. About what happened to Dax. He won’t speak a word about it to me, but I’m not stupid. Sinclair hated that I was always Pops’ favourite – he had an axe to grind. Ossian was the axe.”
I watched Aro steadily. I cared deeply about my cousin, but right then, I needed answers. “Would you have ever told me? That I’m not a true part of this family?”
Aro blinked up at me. He and Sinclair shared very little in terms of appearance. I guessed Aro took after his mother, Dulcie Thorn, who died a few years before I came along.
“I honestly don’t know.”
His answer made my heart sink. He leaned forward willing me to look at him.
“But this… now this is the best possible outcome I could have hoped for. You’ve found out the truth about your heritage because others on the island want you to know it. I wanted to tell you, Rupert, believe me. But I simply couldn’t risk anything else happening to my family. It’s been such a tightly held secret that the punishment for me letting it out to you would have been, well, I can’t bear to imagine.”
“Was it all Sinclair, or was it Iris too?” For all Iris’s faults, it was hard to shake the fact she’d raised me. She was there, to varying extents, when a mother should have been. I’d developed feelings for her like any son would for a mother. It wasn’t easy to simply switch those off no matter how much I’d grown to dislike her.
Aro chewed his lip before answering. “It was Iris’s idea.” He chuckled bitterly. “You think Sinclair is bright enough to come up with something like that?”
I felt increasingly nauseous. My whole foundation, as much as I’d grown to despise it, was being shattered, piece by piece. I had no idea who I was or where I’d come from. And suddenly, I wanted Vivian so much my whole body hurt. I needed someone who loved me unconditionally and without barriers. I’d played along with this toxic charade all my life. The only thing that had sustained me over the years was the fragile possibility my family loved me. Now I knew they never loved me at all. They’d used me and destroyed any chance I had of a normal, loving family life. I had no words to explain the hatred and anger that flooded my chest.
“I have to end this,” I stated, bluntly. “I can’t allow this lie to go unpunished.”
“I understand,” Aro replied in a business-like tone.
I flicked my gaze back to his, feeling the blood hot under my skin. “I mean it, Aro. Ossian has to fucking die, and so does Sinclair.”
He nodded solemnly, then put a hand on my knee. “I have no loyalty to my brother, Rupert. I kept quiet out of fear; not to protect his dirty secret. I know you’ll do what you need to do to get your revenge, but remember this… If you want anyone to help drive in that final knife, I’m right here, and I won’t hesitate. In fact, I will relish every fucking minute.”
A dark fire burned behind his eyes, revealing years of unleashed hatred and bottled-up venom.
“I’ll be sure to let you know.”
He stood when I did and held out his hand. “I hope you’ll forgive me one day, for carrying this secret. I hope that when you have children, you’ll understand why I did this. I had to protect my family, Rupert, just as you will now protect yours. I’m by your side, if you need me.”
I extended my arm and gripped his hand, shaking it firmly. “I do forgive you Aro.”
The relief poured from his face and his shoulders relaxed. “You don’t know what that means to me, son.”
I smiled as I turned to leave. “I think I do.”
Then I walked out of his suite, leaving him standing by the fireplace, a lighter man than I’d ever known him to be.
Rupert
My meeting the following morning with Sinclair was as abrasive as usual. I lied through my teeth, smiled convincingly and left wanting to pierce his eyeballs with a blunt stick. As I weaved back through the rabbit warren of dimly lit corridors towards my office, my phone beeped with three messages.
I read the first and my heart sank. Ferry leaving in five hours. Spare shipping container. I as I’d come to expect from Jasper, the message was brief and to the point. No pleasantries; intentions clear. I had to get Vivian to the port in five hours so she could be smuggled off the island in the human trafficker’s vessel of choice.
My chest tightened at the thought I wasn’t going to see her again. Not until I ended all of this. And even then, I couldn’t guarantee she’d come back to me after everything she’d been through. Now that I knew the truth and I had greater reason than ever before to end my mockery of a relationship with Elspeth, I needed Vivian close. Even if she couldn’t face seeing me in person, I felt some comfort knowing she was nearby. Her flesh and blood were on the same soil as mine. In five hours and counting, that would no longer be the case.
