Page 165 of Lock Up the Darkness

“Why would I have come here tonight if I did?”

“To throw us off.”

“What?”

“You don’t look as shocked as expected. Nowhere near. Did you discover an inconsistency in the way I communicated as him, and used it to alert him? Or were you perhaps already with him when your received said message and knew it to be somebody posing as him before you even showed up here?”

The corner of her mouth turned up. “You’re very astute. Especially for one so young. Extremely paranoid, though.”

“I highly doubt it.”

“If I give you this intel, it will paint a target on your back. Carson won’t stop coming for you, for any of you.”

“Let us worry about that.”

She sighed. “You think you have a safety net because he won’t kill you as his son, but that won’t matter if you come at his empire. Nothing will be off the table. He’ll end you to protect his riches and power.”

“Who do you look like?”

Olivia jolted at his out-of-leftfield query.

“What?”

“You know what I mean. He said he kept you for so long because you reminded him of somebody. It made him reckless, sentimental, even.”

“And you believe knowing that could be a weakness you can exploit in him?”

“Perhaps. So, who?”

“Somebody he was obsessed with for a very long time. I don’t want to use the word love where he’s concerned, because I don’t think he’s capable.”

“He’s not,” Asher grunted. “So, who is it?”

Soft footsteps sounded, making us jolt and swing our heads to see Aurora rushing in. She’d clearly come to report something, but she pulled up short, her eyes shooting wide as she took in Olivia.

“I don’t… how is… Mom?”

Mom? What the hell?

Olivia stared at her like she’d seen a ghost, pretty much how Aurora was staring at her, and she rose to her feet slowly. “I’m sorry, I’m not her.”

“How… how do you look—”

“They made me into this.” She pointed to her eyes. “This purple was forced on me. Carson had me undergo surgery to create the exact very rare purple shade your mother had naturally.”

“And this story just gets more fucked up,” I muttered.

“It’s not just the eyes.”

“I know. It’s the build. Again, surgeries I was forced to undergo.” She told Asher, “The thing that reminded him of her at first was my spirit and my black hair. The rest he made me into.”

Asher looked at an utterly stunned Aurora, then back at Olivia, his eye twitching like crazy. “You’re telling us that my father and her mother—”

“Years after you were both born, which judging by what I’m picking up on here between you is a major relief, but, yes, he was enamored with her. Actually, obsessed in his twisted way.”

“That’s why he wanted eyes on me,” Aurora said. “It’s even more sick than we originally thought.”

“You think he wants you to replace her?” I asked, trying to keep the disgust out of my voice.

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