Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 99917 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99917 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
“Aries.” His voice is cool, measured. “This is unexpected.”
“We need to talk.” I close the door behind me, the soft click somehow more final than a slam.
He removes his glasses, setting them carefully on the polished mahogany desk. “I assumed you’d call when you were ready to discuss your future with the company. Since you decided against going out of the country to handle the business I assigned you, I assumed you were falling back into old habits of dodging your responsibilities after months of actually being a son I can be proud of. So what do you want now, son? Money? To dig you out of something.” He shakes his head in disgust. “I thought you were finally turning into the man I trained you to be.”
“This isn’t about the company.” I remain standing, hands clenched at my sides. Fists tight at the thought of Arson turning out to be the son he really wanted. Even if it was only the perfect act. “It’s about Arson.”
The name lands like a grenade in the pristine office. Father’s expression doesn’t change, but I see it in his eyes—a flicker of shock, quickly masked by practiced indifference.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“He’s alive.” The words tear from my throat. “Arson is alive, and he’s been living as me.”
Father’s gaze sharpens, assessing me with new wariness. “Sit down, Aries. You’re clearly unwell.”
“I’m not sitting down, and I’m not unwell.” My voice rises despite my efforts to control it. “Stop gaslighting me. I know everything. About the institution. About what you and Patricia did to him. About what really happened at the boathouse.”
For a long moment, silence stretches between us, taut as a wire about to snap. Then, with deliberate slowness, Father rises from his chair.
“If you know all this, then you also know why it was necessary.” It’s insane how steady his voice remains, how emotionless he becomes. “Your brother was unstable. Dangerous. We did what was best for this family.”
Rage flares hot and bright behind my eyes. “Best for the family? You locked him away for eight years. Tortured him. You tried to erase him. All because he was inconvenient to your precious image.”
“He took the blame for your mistake.” Father’s eyes narrow, calculating. “Isn’t that what truly bothers you, Aries? Not what happened to him, but your own guilt?”
There’s a deadly accuracy to his statement, and I flinch, unable to hide the truth of it.
“Yes.” The admission costs me, each word torn from somewhere vital. “It was my fault. I was showing off. I froze when it went wrong. Arson stepped in to protect me, like he always did, and I let him. I let you take him away. I let you hurt him.”
“Okay, and what do you want to do about it now?” Father’s voice is dangerously soft. “Surely, you didn’t come here to confess your sins?”
“I’ve come to end it.” I meet his gaze unflinchingly. “All of it. The lies. The cover-up. The—”
The study door opens, and Patricia glides in, elegant as always in a cream silk blouse and tailored pants. Her gaze widens fractionally at the sight of me, then narrows with suspicion.
“Richard? What’s going on?” Her gaze slides to me. “Aries. What an unexpected surprise.” I can feel her eyes scanning me, her face filling with confusion at what I can only assume is my altered appearance.
“Perfect timing,” I say, bitterness coating each syllable. “We were just discussing family secrets. Specifically, how you helped orchestrate my brother’s disappearance.”
Patricia doesn’t flinch. She doesn’t even blink. Instead, she closes the door with a soft click and moves to stand beside my father in a unified front.
“I see.” Her voice is cool, controlled. “This is nothing more than an accusation.”
“It’s not an accusation if it’s true.” I feel strangely calm now, detached from the hurricane of emotions raging inside me. “Arson is alive. He escaped the institution you sent him to. He’s been impersonating me, planning his revenge.”
“If this is true,” Father says carefully, “then he’s a threat that needs to be contained. Again.”
The clinical way he says it—like Arson is a problem to be solved rather than a son who was wronged—makes my skin crawl. Yet it’s exactly what I expected. He’s so caught up in his need to ensure the secrets he buried stay there. Whatever is the quickest and most efficient way to keep it all under wraps.
“Yes,” I agree, the word tasting like ash. “He’s dangerous. More than you know.”
Patricia studies me, head tilted slightly. “Why are you telling us this now, Aries? After all this time?”
Fuck me. Here it is.
The moment of betrayal. I force myself to meet her gaze, to speak the words that will damn us all. I can’t take this back, but it means the game is over, and if all goes well, the three of us—Arson, Lilian, and I—will be the ones left standing.