Page 35 of Sacrifice

That slimy bastard stole your mother from me! You think I ever want to speak about him?he’d shouted at me across the hospital room when I brought up Augustus.

At the time, I’d assumed he was referring to Augustus and the Covenant ‘stealing’ my mother’s life by murdering her. Now I knew it could’ve been about her affair with Augustus instead. He perceived Augustus as having stolen his wife by seducing her.

But if that was true, and my father knew all about the affair between the two of them… then that meant he had to know about all the rest too. About my mother’s journey into the cave and her discovery of the Thorne family’s connection to the Covenant operations, including all the drug dealing and embryo thievery.

It also meant he’d hidden it all from me, for all these years. The cops and FBI, too. That opened him wide up as a suspect.

“What happened after you took her?” I asked in a low voice.

“Well, you already know that Rosamund was with us that evening,” he said. “She was sick, so I brought her with mebecause I was worried. Also, to be honest, I thought her presence might aid in convincing Miranda to come with us. She loved Rosamund.”

Rose took a deep breath, upper body stiffening. “What then?” she asked.

“There was a struggle. We had to tie her up. You already know that part.” Augustus waved a hand and went on. “We took the car down the back road that leads off your property, Sebastian. We had absolutely no idea that your father was already so close. That he was already looking for her everywhere.”

I nodded slowly. “He arrived at the house a few minutes after you took off. I remember that. His first words before he realized I was hiding under the table were: ‘Miranda, where the hell are you? We need to—’. Then he cut himself off when he saw me.”

Augustus nodded. “He was probably going to tell her they needed to talk about her earlier revelations. But he never intended to talk to her. I can assure you of that.”

“What happened then?”

“She was very unhappy to be with us. She kept telling us she didn’t need our help or protection. That Adam would never, ever hurt her. We knew she was wrong, so we kept going, and we didn’t let her go.” Augustus hesitated and turned his sorrowful gaze to Rose. “That’s where you came in, darling.”

“I did something to her?” Rose asked, brows shooting up.

“In a manner of speaking, yes. Unbeknownst to us, Miranda had her cellular phone in one of her pockets. She couldn’t get it out herself because she was restrained, so she must’ve asked you to do it for her. Then she must’ve told you how to call someone.Adam. Jean-Pierre and I didn’t actually hear the conversation in the back seat, because you were presumably whispering, and it was also raining very heavily, so we can only assume that’s what happened.” Augustus paused, frowning. Then he slowly shookhis head. “All those decades ago, it wasn’t as easy as it is now to trace a person’s location via their cellular phone, if the phone in question wasn’t in use at the time. But if the phonewasin use, the call could be traced and narrowed down to an almost-exact location via signals bouncing from the closest phone towers, if I recall correctly.”

“So Rose helped my mother call my father, and my father was able to track her down from that call?” I asked, eyes narrowing.

“Yes. Because of that, he found us only twenty minutes after we left the property, and he caught up to us on the road very quickly,” Augustus replied. “Like I said, it was raining heavily, and I’m not an experienced driver, so I was driving very slowly. Your father was very experienced as a driver, even in stormy weather. He was able to navigate those slick roads much faster than us.”

“So what happened?” I demanded.

“When he caught up, he rammed into us and forced us off the road. I can only assume he intended to kill us all, but we survived. I was knocked unconscious by the impact, as were Rosamund and Jean-Pierre. When we finally came to… Miranda was gone. All that was left was her phone. The last outgoing call on the log was to her husband, and the timestamp showed us that it was made when she was in the car with us.”

Under the bright moonlight, Rose’s eyes were shimmering with tears. “Sothat’swhy you always blamed me? Because I made the call that enabled Adam to track her down?”

Augustus swallowed audibly. “I… I didn’t blame you, Rosamund. Not really. I admit, I held some resentment, but I knew it was completely illogical. You were just a child. You had no idea what you were doing. But at the same time, my love for Miranda clouded things so much. She was ripped away from me so cruelly, and I just… I blamed everyone I possibly could. Sometimes, I even cursed the Entity for allowing it to happen.”

“No, Papa! Tonight, you directly said that it was my fault she died!” Rose said, voice rising to a fever pitch. “Those were yourexactwords!”

“I know.” His lips tightened. “I will always regret saying that. I spoke in the heat of the moment and allowed my emotions to get the better of me. I shouldn’t have said it, let alonethoughtit for one second. The true blame for Miranda’s death lies squarely at Adam Thorne’s feet.”

I swallowed the hard lump that had suddenly appeared in my throat at the sight of Rose’s distress. “What exactly did my father do?” I asked in a low voice.

“We aren’t entirely sure of his exact movements, as we weren’t conscious when he took her from the car. What we do know is this: he killed her because he was furious about the affair, and he also didn’t want his family’s secrets exposed. After all, the whole lot of them would end up in prison for their culpability in the scheme they shared with us.”

“Is it possible she actually died in the crash?” Rose asked, voice hitching slightly. “That way she wouldn’t have suffered much. It would have been instant, wouldn’t it?”

“She didn’t die in the crash. She was alive when Adam took her, because the wounds he inflicted upon her occurred while her blood was still pumping. The coroner who performed the autopsy was able to determine this. So the real question is: was she conscious while he hurt her, or did the Entity grant her the small mercy of rendering her unconscious from the crash throughout the entire mutilation?”

My stomach lurched. I couldn’t believe it. Couldn’t believe my father would do such a thing.

“You’re lying,” I said through gritted teeth. “It was you.”

Augustus wearily shook his head. “No, Sebastian. It was Adam. He killed her, and when he realized what he’d done, he decided to try and pin it on the Covenant, because he knewwe were the easiest target. After all, people in these parts were already wary of us,” he said. “If you don’t believe me… ask your uncles.”

I jerked slightly backward with surprise. “Myuncles?”

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