Page 97 of Liar
“You thought you destroyed her, didn’t you?” Sav says to him. “I may have stupidly fallen in love with you and believed your promises to take care of me, but I loved her, too. My baby. I intercepted the midwife before she took my baby away. Do you know you used the same lady who helped you with Ember? You didn’t, did you?” Sav releases a guttural laugh. “You’re so cocksure you didn’t consider she’d feel immense guilt over what she did to that baby since you never told her that Ember was actually better off where she was sold. Cara and I talked—that’s the midwife’s name, if you didn’t know—and developed a friendship. I was so lonely. And she did me the favor of delivering Aria’s ashes to me instead of disposing of her like you asked.”
Sav sinks in my arms. I keep her upright, giving her strength where hers is fast seeping away.
Father’s eye twitches. “You have no idea what you’ve done, you stupid, useless cunt. You will have your day of reckoning the same as my son. You’ll—”
I smile. “Better hurry up with those threats, Dad, because Malcolm and Ember are well on their way to sending forensics to Aria’s location.”
I have the pleasure of witnessing Father’s eyes widen with shock. “You goddamned worthless son. I’ll have my moment with you. I know dangerous people, ones who would love to have Ember sold to them as the delicious girl she is now.”
Father whirls, his cloak billowing as he sprints to his quarters and likely fumbles with a plan to get the fuck out of Dodge before the feds find him.
I can’t say his threat didn’t make my knees weaken for a brief second. In that same breath, I have the irresistible urge to find Ember and keep her beside me until the world is damned well ready to promise her safety.
“You said her name.” Sav raises her face to mine, her cheeks shining with tears and Father’s blood. “Thank you for saying Aria’s name to him.” Her hands tangle against my cloak as her knees give out, and she sobs. “It means she was real. My baby was real.”
* * *
I wake up drunk. Or high. Or both.
Sunday morning was a bitch of a time, what with Josh seizing me by the shoulders and yelling that the feds were here.
“I’ve destroyed all documents pertaining to Master Briar’s side businesses,” he rushes to say as I try to land bleary eyes on him. “But I can’t be sure I put all the fail safes in place. His computers, his off-site accounts … you must ensure—”
Josh doesn’t finish. My bedroom door blasts open with a fucking SWAT team.
I’m fairly certain I’m butt-crack naked under my sheets. I lift my hand in a wave. “Hello.”
I had enough clarity to understand that Ember succeeded in informing the proper authorities of my father’s fetish for younger girls. As two goons carted me away and Josh pulled out his phone and lawyered me up, I asked if she was safe. No one answered until I started roaring it while they hooked me under the arms and dragged me down the stairs and some agent at the bottom, craggy-faced with the strangest, kind eyes, responded with a curt, “Yes.”
That’s all I needed to endure my ass-fuck of a day.
I was angry. I’m still angry. At my father, the circumstances, and the look of sheer surprise and hurt on Ember’s face when she found out I kept the most important secret from her.
Why does she continue to think I’m a good man? Haven’t I given her enough to hate me for?
Yet as soon as I’m released under the strict instructions not to leave the country and my lawyer works out the kinks in my involvement, the first phone call I make is to Jaxon. He assures me Ember’s spending most of her weekend at the police station, not under arrest but under secure watch. I should end the call there.
I ask, “Do you think she’ll forgive me?”
Jaxon hesitates. I don’t have to see him to understand he’s choosing the best way to avoid enraging me. “Do you really care if she does or not?”
“I did it to protect her. How could I tell her something like that without ruining her life? It’s better she didn’t know. If I had it my way…”
“Ember had every right to know.”
I frown. Change tactics. “She stabbed my father in the face with a hot poker when he told her.”
Jaxon chuckles. “I can’t argue that the same might’ve happened to you. But seriously, dude, she’s been through hell. Either apologize for being a complete fuck, or let her move on.”
“Apologize?” I almost stutter on the word. “My life’s fucked, too. Father’s gone, the feds can’t find him, and chances are she has no interest in helping me track down his hidden stash of money. The cops are going to take the house.”
“The very act of forgiveness is realizing you must put your own selfish needs aside and make the other person more important than you.”
“Thanks, Ghandi,” I sneer, ready to hang up on him. I’m not enjoying how his logic invades my gut, making it lurch with contrition.
“I mean it. I’m trying it on my dad after he gave me and Ember time to escape.”
“Wait, what? I’m the one who held those fuckers off—”