Page 53 of Hers To Keep
“This is where you’d come, isn’t it?” I ask, looking up at her. “When you’d disappear for days at a time, you’d come to Hillcrest, to The Gallows?”
“I had a job to do,” she says, not adding any further explanation.
“You see, your mother actually found herself in a predicament quite like yours. She also fell in love with a boy who was no good for her. He didn’t feel the same way about her and that made her furious.”
“Enough, Wesley!” my mother shouts, standing up abruptly.
“Oh no, please don’t end story time now. I can only imagine we’re getting to the good part,” I mutter sarcastically.
“Yes, Lilith, don’t interrupt. You see this boy loved another. A sweet, angelic, and innocent soul. She was perfect in every sense ofthe word. Lilith hated her. She was everything she wasn’t, and Lilith wanted everything she had. She was willing to get it no matter the costs.” My mind is reeling at his words.
“How long have you known my mother?” I ask, afraid of the answer.
“Oh, we go way back, but don’t interrupt my story, I’m only getting to the good part. You see, Lilith wanted this man more than she’d ever wanted anything, and she knew there would be only one way she’d trap him for good,” he pauses, the anticipation and fear, making me tremble in my seat. “A child,” he says, and my heart nearly stops.
A child. As in a daughter. As in me.
“What do you mean?” My gaze quickly moves from Servite to my mother. “You told me you didn’t know my father. That he was just some addict you fucked in a college bar.”
“Lilith, I must say your imagination is ever so extreme.”
She rolls her eyes moving to stand between us. “Your father is alive and well, and according to Wesley, he’s been blackmailing him.”
My father is alive.
The news hits me like an ice-cold bucket of water, my body now fully shivering uncontrollably, but the fear of what I so deeply wished wasn’t true calms me slightly.
“For a moment there I was afraid you were going to tell me this monster was my father,” I say pointing at Wesley. They both start laughing hysterically, finding my assumption hilarious.
“Oh God, no! Can you imagine us having a daughter?” he asks, as my mother once again sits upon his lap.
“You could have fooled me, look at you two,” I say motioning between them, as he places a chaste kiss upon my mother’s bare shoulder.
“No, Lilith and I, we’re nothing but old friends. Please, my darling, I am a sick man, I am corrupt, and cruel. A devil, a monster, whatever it is you call me. I’ll admit I am a hot-bloodedman, I might have fantasized about you, once or twice. I’m not ashamed to say the least. I mean look at you—you, my dear, are a true vision. But if I were your father, if I even for a second suspected it could be true, I’d never lay a finger on you let alone a wanton glance.” I exhale the breath I was holding in, grateful this monster is nothing of mine, but sickened by their interaction and his admission.
“Wait, but what do you mean he’s blackmailing you?” I ask confused, referring to my mother’s earlier comment.
“You were right to assume that your being here was no coincidence. You, my darling Scarlett, were brought here for a reason. And no, not for whatever sick and twisted reason you’ve concocted in your mind. I brought you here because someone was, is, blackmailing me. It might come as a surprise that I’ve done some questionable things. I run some illicit businesses and am a part of some less than legal affairs, but this person knows of something only two others know.”
“Three.”
“Well, yes, but the third person is no longer with us,” he says, looking up and blessing himself with the sign of the cross. “Bless her soul,” he says, and I laugh at the irony of the devil blessing himself with the holy trinity. I guess it isn’t at all ironic. He scowls at my laugh, but continues speaking, ignoring me. “Because of this I believed it was your mother who was blackmailing me, given the fact she was on the run and probably in need of money—which is why I took you out of that peasant home and brought you here. Although, I believed you’d be more susceptible to orders, knowing you were Lilith’s daughter, I should have expected no less.”
“It clearly wasn’t, isn’t, her who’s blackmailing you or I doubt she’d be standing here beside you looking so put together.”
“I was using you to lure her out, but when I realized it wasn’t her, I knew it could only be one other person. That and Lilith confessed to me that Silas Smoak, who as you know your stepfather murdered in cold blood, was planning on ousting us as well. Iknew it had to be him though. How is your stepfather by the way?” he asks mockingly.
“Who is blackmailing you?”
“Your father.” I sit stunned by his response, having only now found out he’s still alive.
“Yes, I lied about how you were conceived,” my mother says. “I actually knew your father very well. I loved him. He was everything I wanted. He was gorgeous and smart, from one of the five prominent families of Hillcrest Hills. He was the perfect man.”
Wesley laughs. “Except he wanted nothing to do with you.”
“Semantics.”
“Who is he?” I ask now, furious at their avoidance. But they enjoy the game they’re playing.