Page 34 of KAI Tortured

“Does she know?” Kai inspects her expression closely for any signs of recognition and seems to come to a conclusion. “Yeah, she must do.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Honestly.” Her sweet, innocent voice is like honey. Luring me in.

The three of us stare at her quietly for a tad too long.

“Maisy, did you know we’re half-brothers?” I finally ask.

I watch her carefully, because I want to detect every minute movement on her face. Deception requires significant skill, of which she has an abundance.

Her eyes go wide, and all she mutters is, “Oh. That.”

“That?!” After being totally sated by her sweet cunt only a half hour ago, right now I could strangle her for her nonchalant reaction. “THAT?!”

“Orion,” Logan warns.

I know I’m about to lose control. But really, “that”?

“Um, I…” She looks at us, one by one, before her eyes drop to look at her hands. “I-I met your mother. Briefly.” She’s fumbling with her fingers, and her voice is barely audible. “I wasn’t sure she was telling me the truth. At the time, all I knew about you was that you’d kill anyone who’d dare to mention you might belong to a different mafia family.”

She lifts her eyes and, seeing us so still, watching her so intently, she quickly lowers them again.

“We were together in that basement for a couple of hours. Me and your mother. I found out she was kept down there for years.”

Logan shifts in his chair, agitated. His left eye twitches. I’m disturbed, too. Maisy is finally coming clean and some of it, I know, will not be easy to hear. She was kept there for years?

“She made me promise.” She raises her gaze to the three of us again, looking at us one by one, and reiterates. “She made me promise to tell you that even though her life was all about vengeance, that she meant harm with every breath she took, after everything your families did to her family, she really, really loved you.”

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Kai asks her.

“If I had told you that the moment I met you, you’d have killed me on the spot for coming to you with such a crazy theory. And I wasn’t sure if she was telling the truth until recently, when I found out about being a Slav. I saw the newspaper article in Milan’s old office. Which I left for you on the bed, when Kai and I took off that night. You didn’t see it?”

“No. Please, continue,” I say, my chest tightening as I wait anxiously for what comes next.

“Four generations of bystanders killed in a shootout on Good Friday! Rebecca Trellis, 12, the only survivor of a family of over 40 members, is in a critical condition.”

“On Easter, thirty-three years ago, they all died except her. She was sent to a foster care, and from there, for a long time planned her vengeance. She was clever. She slept with your fathers, one by one, gave birth to you all, and offered them custody, under one condition: that she could give you your middle names. Her plan was to have a child with Milan too, and then stand aside and watch you all kill each other. But by the time she got pregnant by Milan, she found out that he wasn’t a Slavinovich. So she aborted it. That’s when her plan fell apart. Milan never got over losing his unborn baby, and he became obsessive and suspicious of her.”

“And then, she told me, depression got to her. She couldn’t get her babies out of her mind. All of you. Milan caught her exchanging emails and messages with Mickey Delgado. And that was it. He took her to the basement and after torturing her for weeks, she told him everything. Milan loved your mother’s plan, he thought it was genius. And he made sure none of you found out about it.”

Maisy pauses for a moment.

“Kai, she was one of your nannies.”

“I don’t remember her,” Kai interrupts, looking uncomfortable. As if he’s embarrassed about the times he spoke about his nannies like a spoiled brat.

She turns to him. “She told your father she wanted you back. That she’d take Logan and Orion too and leave New York with the three of you. Take you away from this life. That’s why Milan killed him. Your father knew this, Kai. When he was dying in the hospital, he wanted to tell someone about it. Marina’s husband happened to be the last person who talked to him. Mickey Delgado mentioned the date of the Good Friday shootout as he was dying, and that got Marina’s husband killed. Milan didn’t want anyone finding out about your mother’s genius plan.

“What happened to her?” I ask.

“She died in the basement. When I saw her, she was taking her last breaths. That’s when she told me everything, when she made me promise to unite you. I saw her the day she died.”

“So our mother died… when we met you?” Logan asks.

“Yes. That day, I was taken by Camila to the Slav HQ, Milan’s house. While she was looking for Zed, she left me on my own. And I wanted to run to a place where no one would find me. I heard Rebecca’s cries, so instead of jumping the wall, I went to the basement to see what was going on. Zed caught me talking to her, and as he dragged me away, he kicked her. That was the final straw for her. She died, and I was taken away to be prepped as one of his whores. That’s when I ran away and went to your house for help. Or to kill Camila. I dunno.”

“Why didn’t you come clean when you saw us?” Kai obviously wants to know why all the lies. I do too.

“I needed protection. I wanted to tell you, but you caught me lying so many times. And Rebecca made me promise that when you did find out, you wouldn’t kill each other. ‘Help them untangle from the pain and hatred I spun around them’ were her words.”

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