Elena’s lips pinched together. “I understand that, Madison, and I’m sorry.”
I offered her a small smile, appreciating how well she was taking my dad’s ex coming back from the dead. A lot better than I took it, that was for sure. I sat down on the sofa as Nate stretched out beside me, his arm coming to the back of my neck, cradling my body into his more. He was relaxed by the naked eye, but I could tell the stance he had smoothly shifted into he was ready to jump on my mom at any given moment, and I loved him for it even more.
“Can we hurry this along because I had a big night last night.”
Nate stiffened slightly, but I ignored it, hurrying my parents to get this bullshit over with.
“Madison, first of all, your father and I never wanted you to hate us. We—”
“—Wait!” I corrected her with a raise of my hand. “Correction, I hate you, I don’t hate Dad—never will. He did his best, still does his best, and even though he’s...” The words frizzled out in my throat, threatening to choke me. I hadn’t spoken them out loud since finding out. Before I could stop it, a single tear leaked out, slipping down my cheek. Nate caught it with his finger, and my gaze locked with his. Slowly, he brought his finger to his lips and sucked the tear off, while his arm tightened its grip around me.
I looked back to Dad and Elizabeth. “Not my biological father,” I cleared my throat. “He is more of a parent than you will ever be.”
She flinched, then sat back in her chair. Running the palms of her hands down her hair again, I noticed her eyes darting around the room faster as if she was trying to pull something from thin air. She let out a breath of air. “I get that you’re angry about Bishop.”
“Don’t say his fucking name,” I seethed, my eyes narrowing on her.
“What about Bishop?” my dad inquired, looking at her sideways.
I leaned into Nate, a grin on my face. I was smug as fuck—with good reason. She looked at my dad, and then back at me. “It’s not important. Listen, there’s something you don’t know about him—”
I snorted. “Oh, I’m sure there’s a lot that I don’t know about him. I gave up trying to work that shit out months ago.”
My dad interrupted again, just as Elena sat beside Nate. Her hands rested on her knees delicately.
Elizabeth looked between my dad and me again. “I was his initiation.”
Dad turned rigid.
Elena visibly paused. It never crossed my mind to wonder exactly how much she knew.
I leaned toward her and whispered, “Did you know about all this crazy shit?” I didn’t know why, but I just had never thought she did, but then again, her son was a King.
She gave me a somber smile. “Yes, sweetheart.” She didn’t elaborate, and I could understand why. Time and place and all that, but I did really want to know who Nate’s dad was. He never spoke about him, actually, no one spoke about him, and I think that made me more curious, but I respected his privacy, and hers. If they wanted me to know, I’d know.
“Get out.” My dad’s eyes were focused in the distance, then his head snapped back to her.
Elizabeth swallowed. “I need to talk to you about something.”
“Well, hurry up before I put a bullet between your eyes for real this time, woman.”
“Or me. My aim is a lot better now. Must be from all the anger I’ve caged in,” I deadpanned.
She winced again, before stumbling around with her words. “Listen, what Lucan was going to tell you right before your lot killed him, was that Bishop and Madison were destined to be together.”
“That’s a bit dramatic, even for you.” I rolled my eyes.
Nate growled, “Who told you.”
Her eyes went to Nate, and they softened, but I tilted my head to block her view. “Touch him, so much as flutter those fake eyelashes in his direction, and I’ll kill you myself.”
Nate’s thumb started doing circles on my bare arm, sending shivers over my flesh. She diverted her gaze. “I’ve known since she was born. It was part of the reason why we took her. Johan and Jimima couldn’t keep her, but before Hector allowed her to come to us, he made us swear on a blood oath that she and Bishop would unite one day and continue the legacy.”
My eyebrows pinched together, then I slowly collected myself again. Well, appeared to collect myself. When she noticed no one was about to interrupt her outburst of honesty, she continued, “So we all took the blood oath. Your father who you trust so purely included.”
“And if she didn’t end up with Bishop? Hmm? What if she ended up with me? ‘Cause I’m telling you now, she was fair game for a bit there, and there have been a couple times—no offense, Pops.” He gave my dad an apologetic smile, and it was the first time I had noticed their easy banter. Had they become friends? My dad smiled weakly at him before cutting his glare back to Elizabeth.
She shook her head. “No, it wouldn’t have worked. He had to be with her in order for her to live a normal life.”
“What the hell do you mean a ‘normal’ life. This is the twenty-first century, not the fucking stone ages. These people have no power to do such things.” But even as the words left my mouth, I knew that that wasn’t entirely true. They had far more power than what was visible to the naked eye.
Elizabeth let out another breath, and I fought the urge to ask her if she needed a nebulizer. “Madison,” she said sadly, and I looked to my dad for reassurance. Nate’s grip tightened around my thigh. Reassuringly, or warningly, I wasn’t sure which.
My dad’s eyes dropped low, and that was when everything started shutting down. First, my eyes zoned to the glass tiled floor, and then my knees buckled. Had I not been sitting, I would have stumbled to the ground. “I’m sorry, Madison, but he was ordered to be with you. At first, he didn’t care. He swore that he’d kill you himself if you didn’t comply. Then something changed, he must have realized you were pretty, or interesting, and he tried to hide you from Hector—they all did. They were under the assumption that Hector only knew what you looked like by a photo of you at age ten, so they thought they could get away with it. Only, he...” She paused, and everything zoned out.
My memories started crashing into me like a bad movie on repeat. I heard Nate’s voice faintly in the background, attempting to bring me back to the now, but it was too late, everything she was saying was already making sense in my head.
“You goin’ explain or should I?” Nate murmured smugly from the backseat. Bishop gave Nate a death stare into the rearview mirror. “That night you were with me.”
“Which night?” I added.
“The race.”
“I’m following.”
“You remember how I said something vague like, ‘he won’t recognize you’?”
“Yes…”
“Well, he recognized you.” He dropped the gear into second and floored it onto the main highway, away from the city.
“And who is he?”
Bishop looked into the rearview mirror at Nate before bringing his eyes back to the main road. “My dad.”
I sucked in a breath and shot from the sofa. Nate’s arm snatched out to me, his fingers grabbing mine. “Madison, it’s not exactly as she—”
I shook my head, my eyes going to my mom. “I don’t even care anymore. Regardless of whatever this bullshit life is.” I swiped the tears away from my eyes, my heart aching in my chest. I was a fucking pity bitch. “It doesn’t matter because I’m used to it.” I glanced at my dad. “Why did you bring me back here? You knew the risk.”
“I love you Madison.” His hands dove into his pockets. “But I have an obligation to this life. I hated it, hated it so bad that I couldn’t be here to watch it unfold.” He sighed, massaging his head. “I quickly recognized the look in Bishop’s eyes. It was obvious his feelings were real, and then I witnessed the way you were with Nate and the rest of the Kings. I knew that something was about to change.”