Page 161 of Vicious Knight

“I’ll tell you on the way.”

We arrive at Ivanov Tech within the hour.

Aleksander is sitting in his office going through paperwork when we walk in.

The door was open but Caspian closes it behind us. His face is a stony mask.

Aleksander looks furious to see us. “What the hell are the two of you doing here? I did everything I was supposed to, to free Gustave Bershov.”

If I’d allowed this asshole to handle Gustave’s release he would still be at the Hallows. The new year would come and he’d still be there.

Aleksander wasn’t even impressed with my work to uncover the mystery of my family’s deaths.

The asshole is bitter because he didn’t do it. I got the justice we sought for so many years, and the glory will go to me for solving his brother’s murder. Not him.

Once I presented him with the paperwork and got his clearance, I went to one of the judges to do the rest. Aleksander was fucking around, taking his own sweet time and talking shit about running it through the council as a trial.

Nothing of the sort needed to be done. It’s times like this when I’m grateful for my defiance.

I walk up to him and rest the copy of his medical records before him.

He gazes down at the document and his eyes stay there, glued to what I unearthed.

If anyone were to search for this they’d find a dupe that shows a healthy man.

But I have the original. I have the truth.

“You’re dying,” I state, saying the words carefully. I can be a motherfucker, but I’m not about to taunt a dying man.

The records show that Aleksander has an inoperable brain tumor. He’s been receiving treatment for the last year and has been given a year to eighteen months to live.

Under the law of the Knights, he’s supposed to step down as leader because when you have such an illness it is believed that you won’t be able to fulfill your duties.

Under the law of succession that my father and him agreed to, Aleksander is supposed to hand over the company to Caspian and me for the same reasons. It was an agreement which they signed in blood.

This secret is what he didn’t want me to find out. Having me working at the company would have left him open for me to do so, because I’ve discovered many of his secrets before. And he doesn’t know how to hide from me.

This is a big one I shouldn’t have found out. It signifies the end of him.

The shipment he’s supposed to receive is part of some new age treatment he’s been trying, because his tumor is no longer responding to conventional treatment.

Finally, Aleksander lifts his head and looks at me, then he looks at Caspian.

Neither of us knows what to feel. Aleksander has been horrible to us our entire lives.

But Caspian will remember him as the man who moved heaven and earth to rescue him when he was taken.

I will remember him as the man who provided me with a home.

“Come to gloat?” He tries to keep his usual cynical expression but fails.

“That’s something you’d do,” Caspian replies.

“Yeah, you’re right, son. That is something I would do. What about you, Thorne? You have every reason to gloat. You said you couldn’t fucking wait to find out what I was hiding.”

“Yeah. I did say that and I still feel the same.”

“Why didn’t you just tell us?” Caspian asks.