“I’ll find her boss,” The man with my father said, his voice gruff and laced with anger. “I’ll bring the princess home to you.”
Tears threatened to flow like a river unchecked as my eyes locked on the man I had stupidly given my heart to. A man that I had trusted with all that I was, just as I had trusted my father… before everything changed.
I wasn’t just foolish. I was ignorant, and completely unaware of who I was; of whom my father was. The fact that my father would so easily give me, his daughter, his own flesh and blood, to a cold-blooded killer was unthinkable, but not more unthinkable – more shocking – than what this man had done. He had murdered Malcolm, my brother, changing my whole world in the blink of an eye. We had been engaged for months, but I was only now seeing the man he really was.
My heart still ached.
The loss was… is palpable.
Everything had become so clear since that fateful moment. A shudder worked over my body, the fine hairs on the nape of my neck standing at attention as the lump in my throat strangled me, making it almost impossible to swallow, as the memory of what they had done assaulted me once again.
Poor Malcolm. It seems like forever ago now, even though it’s only been a few months since I watched in horror as my beloved brother’s life slipped away. No! That’s wrong. It didn’t slip away. It was stolen.
The way his shoulders had shook so violently, how his beautiful face was coated in crimson as he begged for his life. Then there was the strangled cry that escaped my lips as I watched Malcolm’s body slump to the ground, fear encompassing me as two sets of eyes filled with pure evil locked on me. If looks could kill, I’d surely have died alongside my brother. Bastards.
A normal person would have run. I had wanted to run, truth be told, but my body had other ideas. Even now, I couldn’t tell you if it was fear or shock that froze me in place. Maybe it was both. It doesn’t matter which one it was. It happened and there’s no way to turn back time. No way to change a single damn thing. The only thing that came of that night was a lesson I hold close to me now and forever – Trust No One.
Instead of running, I had fainted, leaving myself helpless and in the hands of my brother’s killers. Malcolm hadn’t deserved to die like that. No one deserved to die like that. I couldn’t wrap my head around what had taken place that night, and I still can’t fathom why a father would kill his only son, his heir. Then the answers began to come. Not all at once. That would be too easy. No, they added up over time, and now I knew enough. I hoped I did anyway.
The look on Malcolm’s face as Dane raised the gun, pointed it at his head, and fired will haunt me for the rest of my life. I hadn’t done anything to stop it. After everything I’ve learned over the past few months, I know there was nothing I could have done. I still pray for my brother’s forgiveness, though. It all still seems so unreal.
How does one make sense of something so heinous? It’s been months and all I can think about is finding out why my brother had to die. But I also wanted revenge.
For the last few months, I attempted to hide the fact that I remembered the details of that night. The family doctor that made visits at my father’s requests had said it was possible the shock of Malcolm’s death had caused me to block out that memory. He had said the details of what I saw may never surface. My father was happy as a lark about that. So I let him believe what he wanted as I forged ahead with my plan to run away.
I was scared that if they knew I remembered everything that I would die, too. Even though I acted as I always had and grieved the loss of my brother, it wasn’t enough.
Until tonight, I was certain I had feigned stupidity and a lack of memory pretty darn well. I was wrong; so very wrong. They know I remember everything, or at least they suspect as much.
Now I’m a liability and I fear they’ll kill me, too. Even if they don’t, my life will never be my own, of that I am more than certain. I’ll forever be a pawn in their dirty game. Well, they may view me as a silly little pawn, with no skill or knowledge in comparison to them, but I’ll show them just how powerful I can be.
But that power comes later. Right now, I was cowering within the hedges, willing my body to remain still. Making a sound now wouldn’t be good.
I should have left that night, but I didn’t. Looking back, that was a really stupid mistake on my part. I’m rectifying that error in judgment now. I had needed time to prepare. I needed money – money to sustain me as I hid from the hellish reality that was my life. The plan came to me slowly, but it was as concrete as it could be at this point.