Page 7 of Branches of Betrayal

“A few years ago, Zellie Adis came to see me. She wanted to work together, she said. But the thing about the Adis family is that they all think they’re so fucking smart. She clearly hadn’t done her research properly, otherwise she’d have known that I knew herPapiand that he’d never agree to work with me. Especially not considering the last time I’d seen him, he was giving me a duffle bag of money to make sure I never contacted you again.”

Peyton felt her jaw slacken as she gawped at Demi. “Youwere who Zellie wanted to work with?! Why?”

“Because she loves money and power almost as much as I do,” Demi laughed, rolling her eyes as though the answer was obvious. "But the thing is, I don’t want or need to workwithpeople. If Adis & Co. was so weak that they wanted to work with me, it meant they were weak enough for me to take over.”

“So what happened?” Peyton asked, hating how lost in the dark she felt.

“Zellie didn’t take my rejection well. Like I said, she thought she was so smart to come to me, but instead she’d just shown her weakness. When I told her I’d take their company for myself, she thought she’d threaten me.”

A dry laugh escaped Peyton’s lips. “You’re too selfish to have leverage for anyone to hold over you. What, did she tell you she was going to kill your puppy or something?”

Demi looked at her with disgust and disappointment, shaking her head. She ran one of her perfectly manicured fingers down the edge of the blade, almost like a loving caress.

“Silly girl.Everyonehas something that can be used as leverage… She had found out about you.”

“I-uh-what?”

She sighed and leveled her gaze at Peyton. “Little Adis thought she would use you to bargain with me. That she’d discovered some conspiracy and that I had given you away because of some foolish maternal instinct.” The revulsion in her voice was thick as she spoke. Demi Treyva was not born to be a mother. “Unluckily for her, I didn’t give a flying fuck what happened to you. But she made one mistake.”

Peyton felt trepidation walk down her spine. “And what mistake was that? This is an awfully long story time and I’m starting to get bored.”

“She told me where you were. When I made that agreement with Don, I really didn’t care if I was ever going to see you again. He wanted to protect Isaac’s legacy; I wanted to get rid of my mistake. Everything was fine if I never heard anything about you ever again. But then fucking Zellie thought she could use you as some sort of bargaining chip over me? I couldn’t let that happen again.”

Her stomach churned as Peyton listened, an unsettling feeling coursing through her blood. She watched Demi, unfeeling and crazy, and knew that whatever she told her next was going to be far worse than she could have imagined.

“What did you do?”

Demi sucked her teeth, tilting her head to look at Peyton. “You know, you really did look eerily alike. You and Melina—that was your sister’s name, right?”

"No! You don’t get to talk about her. Don’t you say her name!”

Demi’s answering cackle filled the air. “Melina, Melina, Melina.The stupid girl wasn’t supposed to be home. My men were on strict instructions on what to do, had even studied images of you so they knew who they were going after. But when they got to your house, it was your sister who was home. You were too busy yapping to one of your little friends and came home late…”

“No, no, no,” Peyton whispered to herself, shaking her head. Demi was making this up—she had to be.

“It’s your own fault really. You were late; how were my men to know? They saw dear little Melina who looked just like the girl they’d seen and they did what they were being paid to do.”

“NO!” Peyton screamed, thrashing against the ropes holding her down. “I found her. She’d done it herself. I waded through the bloody water myself!”

Demi stood, pushing her chair back as she towered over Peyton. Leaning down, she pressed her lips close to Peyton’s ear so that she could whisper. "My men covered her mouth with a chloroform rag, ignoring her screams until she passed out. And then they filled the bathtub with her in it, before they took razors to her wrists and made it look like a suicide. Your perfect little Melina didn’t kill herself, Peyton.Ikilled her…but it was supposed to be you.”

Bile rose up in chunks in the back of Peyton’s throat and she vomited down herself, watching as it splattered onto Demi’s perfect yellow blouse. She sobbed as she continued to puke, the nightmare images of her sister’s lifeless body morphing into scenes of murder.

Chapter 5

Hadina - one weeklater

Hadina grabbedthe bottle of tequila and poured herself another shot. Her head was pounding and the only thing helping to quiet her mind was the bitter burn of alcohol. She had never been one for drinking but if she would allow herself to be drunk over anything, it was the fuckshow of her life right now.

She looked around her for something to chase the tequila with but came up with nothing. There was probably soda in the kitchen, but she didn’t want to move from her stupor. She had been sitting on the floor behind her desk for a few hours, curled up in herself like a baby. Thinking hurt her head and her heart, so it was better to be drunk and have her thoughts inhibited.

Fury roared in her veins if she allowed herself even a second to think. Hadina was consumed with worry for Peyton, anger at her team for not having found her yet, and also rage at Demi. She wanted to find that woman and rip her apart limb by limb. But mostly, Hadina was furious at herself. She should have followed Peyton when she ran from the house, should have made sure that she was okay.

It was her job to protect Peyton, and she had failed.

She had let Peyton down.

Another shot.

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