Page 80 of Deadmen's Queen

She shrugged. “Friend of a friend of your father’s. I found out about the warehouse from the camera in Carver’s office, and then a well-placed anonymous phone call had Bates and his men racing up here from London. I simply sat in the car outside and waited for Blake and the others to leave.”

“But why?” I asked, completely confused. “Would burning a warehouse down do enough damage to them for you?”

“Of course not, Paige. Don’t be fucking stupid. I wanted them out of the way so I could plant the other camera in Bast’s office. The one you refused to bring with you.” She slipped off the stool. “Now, are you going to tell me which office is his?”

“No,” I said, setting the knife down and walking around the island to stand in front of her. “I am not going to let you hurt them. Not in any way. And if that’s the only real reason you’re here, then you need to leave.”

She sighed dramatically, rolling her eyes. “You always were a pathetic, weak little girl. Letting these men control you. Is that all you think you’re good for, Paige? Being attractive and obedient?”

“I’m not being controlled!” I snapped back. “I’m here because I want to be.”

“You want to be?” She choked back a laugh. “You enjoy being their pathetic little slut? Their plaything? You think they give a damn about you? They're using you, Paige.”

“I guess you would know,” I said, ice in my voice. “Using me is all you ever did. Just to get your own back for something that happened decades ago.”

Her eyes flashed with fury, a sneer transforming her perfect façade. “Don't get high and mighty with me, Paige,” she hissed. “You have no idea what they are capable of.”

“I know exactly who they are, mum,” I retorted. “And they have done more for me in a few short months than you have my entire life.”

“You think you’re so smart, don’t you?” she sneered. “You think you’ve got it all figured out? You’re nothing but a child, Paige. A naive, stupid little girl playing at being an adult. You have no idea what they're really like. They're just like their fathers... sick. Twisted.”

“No,” I said firmly. “They're not. What happened to you, Mum? What did their fathers do that was so bad it screwed you up like this?”

She laughed, a cold bitter sound that echoed around the room. “You want to know what happened? Fine,” she spat, her eyes ablaze with rage and hatred.

“I was meant to be with Edward Blake, destined to marry him by the end of the year. But he chose another, a woman who was beneath him, beneath us all! He kept her hidden from everyone, her and their bastard child, a dirty secret tucked away in a house across town. All the while refusing me, refusing my love. I had given myself to him, become Persephone for him,” she said with a venomous tone. “But he didn’t want me. Instead, I was given to Alastair Carver and your father. Alastair is a monster. Twisted and cruel...he enjoyed hurting me.”

My heart ached at her words. “Mum...”

“Tell me...” She paused and studied me closely. “Is Nate like his father? Is he just as twisted and fucked up?”

“No,” I said. She ignored me and continued.

“I tried to fight back, you know. I wasn’t going to give up. The night of the hunt I stole one of the Reaper masks and hid it outside the folly with my phone. When they released me into the woods, I took it with me. I called Sarah from the woods; told her I was afraid they were going to hurt me. We were friends, you see. Supposedly, anyway, though she never told me about the brat she left with a nanny during her classes, or her forbidden affair with Edward. MY Edward.” She laughed coldly. “She came straight away.”

She stretched out, toying with the knife on the counter, spinning it slowly, her eyes distant, in another time. I caught a soft sound from the hallway, and wondered if it was Tristan coming home, but I didn’t move. I wanted to know the rest of the story.

“She admitted everything,” my mother continued. “She admitted to the affair with Edward. Admitted to the child they had together. She begged me not to tell anyone, begged me to understand. Stupid bitch.”

“What did you do?” I whispered. She looked up, as though surprised I was there.

“I hit her,” she said simply. “With a rock, over and over till she was bloody and broken, and when she stopped whining, I dragged her to the edge and threw her over.” She sighed.

“I didn't think they would find her,” she said with a shrug, picking up the knife and inspecting it casually. “She was supposed to disappear, just another missing person lost in the woods. But Carver and Neil… they saw what I did to Sarah. They confronted me. Accused me.”

“And then?” I prompted, my heart pounding in my chest.

“Then they...they...” She stumbled over the words, her perfect composure cracking. “They raped me, violated me, hurt me. Over and over again, laughing like it was just another one of their twisted games. Then they threw me down into that ravine just like I had with Sarah.”

I felt sick, and leaned against the island, unable to comprehend what she’d gone through.

“Mum…”

“But I didn't die,” she said with a terrible smile on her face. “I was strong, not like that stupid bitch. I crawled out of there and went home and cleaned myself up. The next day, I went to Edward, but he refused to see me. He didn't care. His precious lover was dead, and he was mourning over her. Even though she was fucking dead, he still couldn’t see that I was the one for him.”

“Did you tell anyone what happened to you?” I asked, still trying to process everything.

She gave a short laugh. “No one would have believed me, not back then. Not with who they were. When I found out I was pregnant, my parents forced me to get a paternity test. They went to Neil's father and threatened that if he didn’t marry me, they’d go to the press. We were married a month later, and then you were born. Neil spent the time raping and beating me, and pissing away our money on drink, drugs and gambling, and the rest of them, they just carried on with their perfect lives as if nothing had happened.”

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