Page 51 of Temptation
“Everything about what?” She laughed.
I was going to strangle her. “Who attacked her? That night, here in the house, who carved the symbol of the Order on her arm? Who fucking stole my mask?”
“You don’t know?”
“I wouldn’t be asking you if I already knew.”
“Oh, baby. Are you sure you want to know?”
I closed my eyes and dragged my hand over my face. I was wasting time with her.
“You know what?” I looked at her. “If you’re not going to tell me anything, that’s fine. But don’t forget that I know secrets you were trying to hide from everybody else, including my father. Secrets that could hurt you a lot more than they could hurt me.”
Her face suddenly turned pale, and that wicked smile she wore disappeared faster than it appeared. “You wouldn’t dare.”
“Try me. I’m sure the society would still love you once they find out you abused your own son. I’m sure they would look at you and admire you for killing your own daughter before she was even born.”
“No!” She jumped up from the chair and came toward me. “She would’ve taken you away from me!” she shrieked. “I couldn’t let that happen. I couldn’t.”
“Then tell me the fucking truth and no one will ever know.”
“You wanna know the truth?”
“Yes, I do.”
The water dripping from the faucet was the only sound in the room while she stared at me.
“I’m not the only one who loved my child in a different way.”
My knees almost gave out beneath me. “What are you talking about?”
“Your father likes them young.” She snickered. “He always did. Him and his pal Nikolai. They loved breaking them. They loved taking them however they wanted. I bet you didn’t know that. I bet you thought he was a saint unlike me. I bet you thought he couldn’t do something like this. You think I’m the vicious one, you think I’m the monster. You have no idea what he’s capable of.”
“Joanna—”
“Ask him about Danny, darling. Ask him what he did to him. Ask him how he brainwashed that kid into loving him, into needing him.”
“Danny?”
“Yeah.” She nodded. “Skylar’s friend Danny. Or better yet…” she started laughing again. “Ask Danny how he stole your mask and your robe, only to show up here to kill Skylar.”
“No, he wouldn’t do that.”
“Oh, you poor soul. You know better than anyone else that when you love somebody, when you need that person more than you need air, when you feel like you’re not a complete person without them, you would do anything to please them. You would do anything to make them happy. You would kill, hurt, lie, cheat, and steal just to appease them. You know better than anybody else, Dylan.”
“That’s not love, that’s—”
“Obsession.” She grinned. “Exactly. Ask Danny how he was supposed to kill Skylar, because your father couldn’t bear to see one of his toys with somebody else, even if it was his own son. Ask Danny how he almost killed his own sister because he wanted to make him happy.”
“H-His…” I stumbled backward. “His sister?”
“Oh, you didn’t know? Skylar is Danny’s half-sister, baby. Daniel’s father is Skylar’s father.”
“It can’t be.”
“Where do you think your father got her from, huh? What did you think the Red Maidens are doing in our Order?”
“They’re servants. They devoted their life to the Order.”
