Page 99 of Soulless Saint

“It was hidden in the lining. We thought at first that it might’ve been planted there by—”

“You idiots,” Damien said, pinching the bridge of his nose, drawing attention back to him. “I thought she found it herself and destroyed it. Jesus.”

“Wait…” Kaleb said, and I was beyond all ability to comprehend what exactly was happening here anymore. Kaleb glared at his old man. “It was yours? You planted a tracker on her? Why?”

I’m sorry, what?

Damien’s cheekbones flared. His slate eyes flitted to mine before they landed with an apology on his wife. “Because she’s my daughter.”

I snorted, doubling over in with a cruel laugh on my lips. Tears burned in my eyes and my sides squeezed as I downright fucking cackled. “Oh fuck,” I said through the laughter and the tears. “Wow. You all look so serious.”

And they did. Every face around the table watched me in muted horror as the laughter started to die on my lips. My gaze connected with Sloane’s, and I watched her scan my face, fixing on every curve and dimple, before she got up from the table, her chair scraping loudly against the floor, and left.

“It’s true,” Damien said. “I’ve had my suspicions your whole life, ever since the moment your Mom asked me to watch out for you should anything ever happen to her.

“But when the hospital notified me of your injuries and I came to see you in the hospital in Thorn Valley, those suspicions were confirmed. You have a very rare blood type, Rebecca. You needed a blood transfusion and the hospital was having a hard time getting the amount you needed from the blood bank. Gregory Hart came to me, begging me to save your life. He wasn’t a match, Rebecca, but I was.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“He would’ve told me.”

“Would he?”

The question echoed in a loop through my mind. Would he?

If my Dad knew I was fathered by someone else, would he want me to know that? Or would he keep it to himself? Do everything in his power to steer me away from the Saints and anything even remotely connected to them. Denying my biological connection, trying to erase it with his own morals. His own expectations.

“I had absolutely no intention of barging into your life, Rebecca. None. I’d planned to continue to do what I’ve always done, keep an eye on you from a distance, to keep my promise to your mother.”

But then his sons fucked that right up for him, didn’t they? If they’d just stayed away then I never would’ve had to know this. I didn’t want to know this.

Wouldn’t accept it, not without cold hard proof that I could see with my own fucking eyes.

Was this why my father was so against me going to school here? Because he knew it would put me closer to Damien?

My lungs couldn’t seem to get enough air and when I looked up they stopped working completely, because when I looked at Damien St. Vincent, I saw what his wife must’ve seen before she left.

The bow shape to his lips, mostly hidden beneath his short beard. The wicked curve of his jaw. His wide cheekbones. His inky black hair. The shape of his eyes.

All things that reminded me of my own reflection.

My stomach twisted.

Wait a second.

His sons.

His sons who I…

Bile rose in my throat. I couldn’t even bring myself to look at them. I pressed a hand to my mouth, feeling my stomach heave as I almost tripped over my own chair rushing to find a toilet. “Fuck,” I choked. “I’m going to be sick.”

My hands shook as I locked myself into the bathroom and the dining room exploded with sound. Kaleb and his father were shouting at each other and after a minute I heard Sloane join in, too. But I was beyond hearing them as I clutched my stomach, spots crowding my vision as I fought to remain conscious.

You didn’t know, Becks, I told myself. You didn’t know.

It’s not fucking incest if you didn’t know.

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