Page 55 of Reign of the Queen
He nods and lets out a long sigh. “He wasn’t always so open with it. He didn’t start to bring them into the house until I was twelve. I’m not sure where he had them before that, and I don’t know if he had them before my mom died. My guess is he did, and she probably knew about it.”
“Holy hell, twelve? You were just a kid. Why did he do that to you?” My anger surges through my veins.
“I didn’t see it at twelve, but I knew there were women in the house, and I could hear what he did to them. They weren’t exactly quiet. He would throw parties all the time and ship me off to Finn’s or Mateo’s house.”
“And Carter’s dad?” I question but fear I already know the answer.
“Enjoys the parties my sick fuck of a father throws.” He takes his eyes once again from the road and glances at me.
“Your mom?” I question, my stomach tightening.
“Died when I was ten from uterus cancer they didn’t catch in time.” He tightens his grip on the steering wheel.
“The scars on your back?” I ask with trepidation.
He shakes his head, his jaw clenching and unclenching.
“He did that to you?” I reach my hand toward his face, but he moves away.
“Consequences for when he doesn’t get his way, or I fight back,” he spits out with vitriol.
In the back of my mind a niggling thought is trying to make its way to the forefront of my thoughts. Why is he being honest right now? Is it because there is no other way to do damage control? There’s no way he can explain what I just saw with anything other than the truth, yet a part of me wants to deny that he’s being honest.
“Why isn’t he in jail, Theo?” Anger vibrates through my voice, and I have to clench my hands to avoid punching the glass car window.
“Who’s going to put him in jail, Mia? He’s the wealthiest person in the state, probably in the whole southern United States. He has connections to everything and everyone, including the damn president. He does what he wants and gets whatever he pleases.”
“Someone would believe you. I believe you.” I force my hands together in my lap to keep from reaching for him.
“Even if they did, it wouldn’t help. They can’t do anything against my dad; he’s too powerful and well connected.” A deep, frustrated sigh escapes him.
“Why don’t you just leave? You’re nineteen now. You don’t have to put up with that shit.”
He lets out another deep sigh and pulls over to the side of the road. Turning in his seat to face me, he says, “He controls my trust fund Mia; I can’t access the fund or my mother’s family’s money that was left to me until I’m twenty. I want to get the fuck out of Casbury and never look back, but I need the cash to do it.”
I consider what he just told me and everything I already know. When I looked into Theo’s family, there were whispers of parties his father threw that powerful men attended. No mention that they were sex parties though, or that he’s abusive to his son. I knew that Theo would be the hardest of the kings to break with his family’s overwhelming wealth and connections. I could use this to devastate him, looking at him now; I can see that he realizes what a powerful tool he just handed me too.
“What are you going to do?”
“Survive until I can get out of here. I plan to leave for college and get as far from my dad’s reach as possible.” He runs his hands through his hair.
“Theo…,” I turn from him, my voice trailing off as I face the windshield.
“Do what you must with what you found out, Mia. But I’m not letting you go…, and I am definitely not letting you take my fucking crown... it’s all I have.” He turns back to the steering wheel and eases us onto the road.
At the mention of his crown, I’m reminded harshly of what I’m doing here in Casbury. My mission is to destroy him and the other three. I’m losing grasp of that with all these emotions running through me.
“Take me back to school, Theo,” I demand, my mind a mess of information, doubts, and screaming thoughts.
He doesn’t respond but turns the car around toward the school, his hands tightening on the steering wheel so much that his knuckles are white and bloodless. I turn around in my seat and grab my bag from his back passenger seat, wrapping the strap around my body and holding it in a death grip.
As we pull into the school parking lot, he pulls into the spot next to my Range. Before he can even move out of his seat or put the car entirely in park, I’m out of his vehicle and rushing toward mine. It automatically unlocks, sensing the fob in my bag and letting me inside. The minute I’m inside, I lock the doors and press the push start to start the engine. I have the car in motion and I’m out of the parking spot before Theo can reach my driver’s side.
The look on his face through the window is a mixture of anger and fear. He tries to open my door only to realize I’ve locked him out. My heart is telling me to stop, to hear him out, my resolve threatening to weaken as I stare at him through the car window. The hurt and fear that is evident on his face has me pausing in my motions, but my brain is blaring a deafening alarm bell to run as far and fast away from him as I can.
My brain wins out, and I speed out of the parking lot, heading back to my house, where I can lock my doors, hide behind my thick gates, and think about what I should do now. The thought that the monsters that haunt my nightmares might not actually be so monstrous running through my mind.
The afternoon is wasting away in economics. Theo's supposed to be in this class, but he decided to skip with Mia today,the dick.More like he demanded that they were cutting class. I can't see her readily agreeing to go anywhere alone with him, and now I'm stuck in this boring ass fucking class alone.
