He deceived me with his actions, and like a fool, I even wanted to give him a chance.
What kind of monster do you have to be to play with a human’s life like that and not think about the repercussions of his actions?
Zachary smiles, his eyes warm, as he greets me, “Darling.” And I hate the satisfaction coming from him, thinking that everything is all right with us.
But then I’ve allowed him to believe that with the crook of his finger, I’ll do whatever he says, right?
Instead of answering him, I slap his cheek so hard my palm bounces off it, the sting burning my skin and the sound rocking off the walls, but I pay no attention to that.
Anthony blinks in shock while Zachary stares at me, and I hope he sees all the fury and disgust I feel for him right now when I order, “Take me to my daughter.” And the minute guilt along with surprise reflects in his eyes, he breaks the last shred of hope I still harbored in my heart like the stupid idiot I am that maybe the note lied.
Maybe Zachary is not the monster who made a mother believe her child was dead only to hurt me beyond measure.
However, there is no running away from the truth now, right?
For how could anything be possible between us ever again with this truth?
Zachary King might always get what he wants, but not this time around.
My daughter and I don’t belong to him and never will. He’s a thief who stole our hearts with his deceit.
And like all thieves should… he will pay dearly for it.
Chapter Twenty-One
“Is it possible to love someone… but still not be able to forgive them?
I can never forget what he did.
But I also don’t know how to handle this betraying heart of mine anymore.
I’m at a crossroad, standing in front of two long paths.
Neither of them is easy nor pretty.
One of them has unknown written all over it, while the other…
Has a man standing at the end of it waiting for me to cross the line to him, his hand extended to me.
What do I do?
In this battle between my pain and heart, who wins?”
Phoenix
Phoenix
The minute we enter the house, I spin around to face Zachary, who points at the office with a stone-cold expression on his face while tension fills the air between us that I can almost touch.
Only because my child is sleeping upstairs, my sweet baby girl who was stolen from me before I could even see her or claim her as mine, I do as he says, following him with our shoes thumping loudly in the house and, with each step, announcing the upcoming doom.
I stayed silent all the way to the house. James must have felt the mood, as he didn’t say anything, instead drove rapidly toward the mansion with light music playing on the radio. The sound grated on my nerves so much I wanted to smash the damned thing, but I reined in my urges, because this fury belonged to no one but Zachary.
Once he closes the door to the office, I say quietly, with each word scratching against my throat, “How could you have done this?” All the way in the car, I thought I’d scream at him or try to destroy his house from this raging inferno inside me, but instead, I’m so calm it almost scares me.
Scares me, because I don’t know when the outburst will come as it always does in such situations; there is always a limit to one’s cup. And when said cup cracks… it won’t be pretty.
It will burn everything in its wake.
I have no strength left in me to pull the pieces of my soul together in order to survive. Zachary delivered the last shot that irrevocably destroyed me.
“You took away my baby. Named her just like I wanted. Made me believe she died. I begged for them to show me her body, and they refused. Can you imagine what kind of pain I was in? Lying on that bed and wishing to die with her.”
“Phoenix—” he starts, but I shake my head.
“Shut up. Just shut up and fucking listen to me now, Zach.” My voice is cold as steel, ready to cut off whatever he says to justify his actions.
No explanation will be good enough for me anyway, so he might as well not waste his breath on it!
Hollow laughter ricochets between us as I place my hand on my chest. “And then when I got out, you made me your mistress. I have to live with the fact that I let you touch me! What kind of a monster are you, Zach?” His jaw clenches while his eyes get this unreadable expression that I’ve always wanted to understand, but I no longer care. “My baby! She is my baby! You had no right to take her away!” Sliding my hands into my hair, I pull it harshly and step back when he makes a move in my direction, too afraid I’m going to kill him with the first sharp object I come in contact with. “They hit me, kicked me, slashed my skin with knives, but all that paled in comparison to when the doctor told me my baby died.” A sob escapes me, and I cover my mouth with a palm. “How could you have done that? How could you have claimed my daughter as yours?”
“When I ordered that, I didn’t know you were pregnant,” he shouts, removing his jacket and throwing it on the table where several pens scatter all over it, sliding down onto the floor. “I got a call that she was born premature. The doctor from the prison didn’t give her any chance to survive.”
“So you thought you could take her?”
“I wanted to save her. Okay? I wanted to atone for what I had done to an innocent life.”
I chuckle, although it lacks any humor, my hands fisting. “Of course, not for destroying mine. At least you had enough conscience left to take pity on my child.”
“I had no choice! She would have died without my help. And then I saw her, and I just….”
“You just what, huh?” I ask, picking up a book from the desk and throwing it at him without thinking, and it hits his chest, hopefully bringing him as much pain as possible. “Fell in love with a child who’s not yours? The King gets what he wants, right?”
Anger crosses his face. “She is mine, Phoenix. You can say whatever you want, but you can’t—”
Is he serious right now?
Scooping up various desk pens, I continue to throw them at him all while shouting, “She is not your daughter, Zach! She is my and Sebastian’s daughter!”
He comes toward me without caring about the stuff hitting his face and neck, grabs my arms forcefully, and presses me harshly against the bookshelf. “She is not his!”
He can repeat that until he turns blue, but it won’t change the facts. “He is her father, and you are a man who stole her from us!”
“I stole her from you!” he growls into my face. “Sure as fuck not from him. Did he listen to you when you wanted to tell him? Read any of those letters or did he throw them away? Was he the one taking care of Emmaline for the last three and a half years? Sebastian might have been the sperm donor, but he sure as fuck is not her father.”
Oh my God.
The audacity of this vicious person is beyond my comprehension.
The monsters indeed hide their rotten nature well with the various masks of good or semi good people and strike you with their evilness when you least expect it.
And no matter how much you want to wash it away from your skin, you can’t.
“If it weren’t for you, he would’ve been the one taking care of her. Once I safely delivered the baby….”