Page 4 of Mine to Worship

“Walter had an affair, and I’m the result of it,” I tell him. “Everything shifted when he changed his will, giving me half of it.”

I stride to my office, typing in the code to the safe. I retrieve a folder full of evidence and throw it in his lap.

“Open it.”

His fingers tremble as he looks at the pictures.

“I didn’t want to forget that each of my bruises was because of Richard. But the older I got, the more I won, and the more I pissed him off. After so many years of being beaten down, I learned to be better. No one beats me now. I should thank him. Richard made me indestructible.”

He shakes his head while the innocence in his eyes vanishes with each picture. “What is this?” he asks, showing me a picture of a teenage girl in his father’s lap.

“Girls, young girls…”

The pictures scatter on the floor. His Adam’s apple bobs, his body rocking with shock.

“Why now?”

“I have protected you long enough. You should have all the information before you see your parents as the victims.”

“How many times…” He clenches his jaw and shuts his eyes. “I am sorry…”

I squeeze his shoulder. “You say you wanted my love, then why did you betray me?”

“They told me you wanted to leave them bankrupt.”

“I am not talking about your parents.”

Recognition dawns on his face, and he says, “I wanted to protect her from you, and Melanie told me all these stories, about you and her, and then Mom and Dad, they…”

“Where is Ellia?” I ask, breathing through the new wave of pain.

“I don’t know.”

I stagger back. If she’s not with him, where is she? My mind goes into overdrive. What if some of my old enemies took her? That’s impossible, I took care of them, but what if something happened to her? Rationality pushes through the haze of dark thoughts. I pick up my phone, sending Kendrick a text to find me the address of Ellia’s aunt. She has to be there, she told me it’s the place she goes to find herself again

“Kian, what have you done?” Brandon stands up and approaches me.

I yank at my shirt, trying to fucking breathe. “Why did you sleep with her, huh? You fucking ruined me.” I slam a fist on my chest.

His brows draw together. “What are you talking about? Ellia loves you. I was already on thin ice after pretending to want her to get between the two of you. If I screwed up one more time, she would never forgive me. And I wouldn’t have done that to you.”

“You didn’t...?” I gulp, not even able to say it out loud a second time.

“No.”

“Don’t lie.”

Ellia wouldn’t have said that unless she was playing on my worst fear. I drop my head back and roar a string of fucks.

My knees give under me, and I hit the floor.

What have I done?

I put my head between my hands. I saw them in his bed, and she confirmed it. I seek his eyes for the deceit and he raises his hands in the air.

“We were both drunk that night. She just crashed at my place. We’re friends, that’s all.” He sits in front of me on the floor, hands stretched over his knees. “In the beginning, I wanted to know the woman that had your attention, but she turned out to be the only friend I have.”

I rock on my ass and tear the words from my throat. “She’s gone. I thought she slept with you, that you were together behind my back, and I played into her insecurities…”

---