Mason
My plan was in full swing.
Catching Lillian off guard was the only way to get her alone, and I needed her unarmed. If I was right on my theory, The Elite was bigger than just her. She may be the mastermind pulling my strings, but there’s a higher power out there pulling hers. Envy, no questions asked, hacked into Lillian’s phone sending a virus, creating an untraceable text. The message summoned her to the abandoned nunnery to discuss Invidia. The Latin name for envy. If she was a member, I was banking on everything, that was her sin. If I bet wrong, this will all blow up in my face and more lives will be ruined.
I pull up to the nunnery and my heart quickens when I see her car parked on the side of the abandoned structure. I jump out of Micah’s car and fight through the whistling wind to the front entrance. My hand dips to the back of my jeans, grazing over the outline of the gun shoved in my waistline. There’s no guarantee how tonight will go, but I’m prepared for anything. If Lillian knows this is a setup, she won’t be alone. And this may be the end of the road for me.
Before I headed out, I left clear instructions for Micah. If anything happens to me, I’m asking him to step in and watch out for my sister. If anyone will, it’ll be him.
As always, the nunnery is dark, except for the sparing illumination of candles Lillian must have lit. When I step through the threshold, I see her standing at the fireplace, her back to me. When she turns, her smug expression vanishes. “What are you doing here?” she snaps, searching over my shoulder for the real person to show up.
“Don’t bother. No one else is coming.”
There’s no hiding the sudden nervousness in her eyes. “What? What did you do?” She grabs for her cloak and tries to step passed me. My arm shoots out, and I grab her bicep and push her back. Her heel catches on a loose board, and she stumbles into the mantel. “How dare you,” she hisses.
“No bitch, how dare you.” I step forward and watch the authority drain from her face. “You know, it’s funny. Fucked up people like you who abuse their power. Feed off the innocence of helpless kids.”
She snarls at my words, trying again to get passed me. “This is absurd. I’m not gonna stand here listening—”
I shove her again, and this time, she does lose her footing, falling backwards right onto her ass. “You clearly didn’t need the money, so why’d you do it? Why take us in? Was it to get off on your own pleasure of torturing—”
“Please. It was him. He wanted you bratty kids.” She straightens her posture from the ground, nurturing her scraped up hands. “You think I wanted you hoodlum children in my home? Your filth? It was him. Always him. And his sick obsession with them,” she hisses, hatred radiating from her eyes.
“Is that why you hated my sister so bad? Why you’d cut her hair while she slept? Sent her to school with spoiled food? Fucking made her wear dirty clothes when you refused to allow her to wash hers!” The stories Evelyn confessed. The way she was treated, and I never knew. I thought I was protecting her, but I was too wrapped up in my own life, I’d missed all the signs of abuse.
“She was a little snob who needed to be taught a lesson. You think she was any different than the rest? Flaunting herself at my husband?”
“Your husband’s a sick fuck who sexually abuses girls. And you let it happen.”
She blanches at my accusation. “I did not. Those were his choices.”
“And you never stopped him!” I yell, leaning over her. “You let a monster into the beds of these helpless girls. Girls who trusted you as their guardian to keep them safe!” Spit flies from my lips, the vein in my forehead popped. “I should fuckin’ end your life right now. Make all your victims feel safer at night. Then put a bullet through your fucking husband’s head next.”
The color washes clear from her cheeks. “Mas—Mason, this is just a misunderstanding. Listen, I didn’t know what he was doing.”
“Liar! You fucking knew! And you let it happen. Why? Was it your way of getting back at someone?”
“What? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Making others feel the same horrible fate you endured?” I stand straight, and watch the confusion set in her face. “Maybe it was you trying to deface all little girls the way you were.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” That’s when I rip out the documents stashed inside my jacket. She flinches and covers her face as I toss them at her.
“Oh, don’t worry. I’m not going to kill you yet. I’m not done having fun. Look,” I demand. With a scowl on her face, she picks up the pieces of paper and starts glancing them over. Seconds tick by until the acknowledgement of what she’s reading settles in.
“How did you get these?” she whispers, whipping through each document, any color left quickly fading from her face as if she was just confronted by a ghost of her past.
“It all makes sense now. The hate you have for your brother’s daughter. Is it revenge for what he did to you? How long was he abusing you before Mommy and Daddy caught wind? How long did it take for them to cover it up?”
“Shut up,” she hisses.
“Pretty fucked up for your own brother to molest his little sister.”
“Stop.”
“Medical records show some pretty damaging stuff. Makes sense why Mommy and Daddy didn’t want that shit to get out—”
“SHUT UP! Just shut up!” she screams and tries to scramble to her feet, but I kick her, pushing her back down. “I ain’t fuckin’ done. Pregnant. Your own brother got you pregnant. That’s how it came out, huh? Simple doctor’s appointment for their little princess only to find out their son was a sick fuck. And you just let it all disappear.”
“That’s not true! I tried to tell them. Come forward with what he’d been doing. I told my mother. But you know what she did? She accused me of playing the slut. An eleven-year-old slut who was in love with her seventeen-year-old brother. She told my father, and you know what he did? He didn’t hold me and tell me everything was going to be okay. Nooo,” she hisses, tossing hair away from her face. “He made it all go away. Him and his secret society of brothers. The medical documents, the police report I tried to file. Even me. He made it all go away.”
“Ahhh, explains the fancy boarding school. Man, what’d your poor brother do while you were away. Probably pretty upset lusting over his absent sister—”
“Fuck you!” She jumps and attacks me, her long nails slicing down my face. I allow her the one outburst, then raise my hand and wrap it around her throat. I press hard against her wind pipe, knowing I have the strength and anger flowing inside me to pop her neck.
“No, bitch, fuck you. Fuck you for the years I spent locked up and beaten to within an inch of my life. Nights where I starved. My skin scaled because I was so fucking dehydrated. You did that to me. Two years gone, because you wanted to play with my life. With my sister’s life. And for what? So, I can be your little toy in your game of revenge?”
“And look how that turned out. A disgrace. A weak boy who—”
I press harder, causing her to struggle. Her wide eyes protrude as her skin transforms in a dark shade of purple. I have less than a minute until she dies under my hold. With the strength of a thousand men, I toss her across the room, her body smacking against the mantel and dropping to the ground. Her whimpered groans echo against the hollow walls as she scurries upright, backing herself into the corner.
“You’re a fucking monster. Willing to ruin your own step-daughter, and for what? Vengeance? And why Megan?” I need to know.
“Why Megan, what?” She holds her limp wrist.
“Why her? What did someone as perfect and selfless as your own niece ever do to you that made you hate her so much? To ruin everything she’s ever worked so hard for? Why do you hate her so—”
“Because she’s his. He had a child. He took that away from me. You know what happens to a body when it’s abused and impregnated at such a young age? Do you! I almost bled out when they scraped that growing monster out of me. The one he put there. When I woke up, I was told I would never bare anymore children. That’s how my parents dealt with the situation. Not with their son or his disgusting sickness! They made sure he wouldn’t get me pregnant again! He ruined my life, my future of having children. So, I decided to ruin his.”
“Because of him, not—”
“Because he thinks he has everything! Perfect life. Perfect family. He needed to know how it felt to watch someone he loves suffer, just like I have.”
“She didn’t hurt you, Lillian. All she ever did was love you.”
“She’s a spoiled brat who, just like her father, deserves what’s coming to her.”
I take the minimal steps separating us, the sound of my booted shoes pounding with a ferocity on the old wooden floor as I make my way into her space. My hand reaches in the back of my jeans. My fingers squeeze around the cool titanium as I pull it forward and point it to the center of her forehead. “I will splatter your brains all over this place if you speak one more thing about her, you fucking hear me? You just signed your death warrant.” My finger starts squeezing down on the trigger—