Page 118 of Falcon's Prey

He spat the words out like they were nothing. The guards put my father next to me, and I had never felt so ashamed in my life.

“I was just a kid!”

Silas laughed, then took a step forward, but he didn’t come to me, but to my father. “She was the sweetest revenge I never knew I could have. Defiling your little girl,brother,was a delight.”

“Stop!” I choked out.

“I told you, Ember, it could have been the easy way, but you chose to be a whore. I would have given you mercy, and you didn’t want to take it.”

“For what?! What did we ever do to you?!” I cried.

“I’d start saying goodbye to your father. You’re never going to see him again.”

Moisture hit my eyes. I didn’t want to cry; I didn’t think I was still capable of feeling this way, yet here I was. I could remember all the times I’d spent with my father because they weren’t many, but they were precious but too painful to think about. Now knowing I might never see him again saddened me.

“Where are we going?”

“Back home.” He said it like it was the most obvious answer in the world.

“We are home.” I shook my head, trying to understand what he was talking about.

Silas was unhinged. He sounded maniacal.

“We’re going back to Africa. I’m finally going to take my birthright!”

“What birthright? You aren’t even a Remington. You get nothing of ours,” I spat at him.

“Yeah, and whose fault is that? Your family took everything frommine. They left us out cold. Cut us out and threw us in the streets.” He stopped and looked at me. “I see I’ve stunned you. Your grandfather fucked up. All these years, he felt guilty for what his father did. He knew the way he took the Ember was dirty. He didn’t want that sin on his. He took me in, a poor orphan boy, giving me a better life to pay for his father’s mistakes. Except I wasn’t an orphan. And my family, we have hated yours since. We’ve stayed in the shadows waiting for the perfect opportunity to bring you all down.”

I opened my mouth and closed it. Nothing made sense.

“Before my great-grandfather took his life, he gathered all the money our family still had, and he placed a hit on your great-grandfather and his son. He wanted your family gone. That money—ourmoney—was put into a bid to bring yours to their knees. Your father and mother lived over there, trying to escape your mother’s family. Did he tell you that? Did daddy tell you why he never speaks of your mother?”

My chest was rising and falling.

“She was a kingpin’s daughter. They ran to the other side of the world to leave her life behind. Then your great-grandfather died, and the hit was passed down to your dad. Your father loved you enough to come running back to America so he could be safe.”

Silas came to me, bending down, and I flinched.

“You poor little girl, thinking your father didn’t love you. He did everything for you. He begged your mother’s family to protect you. He tried to move heaven and earth to make sure that this curse never caught up to you, and what did you do? You fucked the person responsible for this curse…again…and…again…and again, getting off on it even when you hated it.”

I tried to hit him, but he was there, grabbing my arms, stopping me from doing so. I thought I hated before, but that was nothing compared to how I felt right now. My skin was lava, hot and molten, trying to incinerate everything in my path.

I spat in Silas’s face.

He threw me on the couch, my head slamming against the wood in the back.

“It was all me, Ember. When daddy had business meetings, it was me pulling strings, treating him, trying to isolate you. The car crash was meant to kill your worthless father, but it didn’t work out that way.” He turned to give my father a pitying look. “Look at him. He can’t talk or walk. I sure as fuck hope he can hear me.”

“Sammy…” I managed to get the words out.

“Ah, yes…Sammy. He got too suspicious. Looking in places he shouldn’t have. Hiring people who didn’t pass a basic check. Did you know he hired your little boyfriend knowing his résumé didn’t add up? On the day of the gala, he found out I had something to do with the accident. He was not going to stop me from having my revenge. I vowed I would see your family crumble, and I finally have. Everything else I do will just be a bonus.”

Hatred like his wasn’t born; it was created. Sooner or later, we all pay for our sins, but it’s fucked-up to pay for the sins of your father. I watched Silas leave, knowing what I would do. I didn’t have the strength to get up, so I slid down the couch, reaching into my back pocket as I did. Once on the floor, I crawled to my father.

I kneeled at my father’s feet, and after everything Silas said to me, I felt too ashamed to look him in the eyes. I put my head in his lap and cried. I cried for everything I’d missed out on with him, and the future we would never have.

“I love you, Daddy…I love you so much it hurts. I’m sorry for everything…”