Page 17 of Cruel Heir

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I didn’t know exactly how long I slept, but I was awakened by the loud banging on the door.

“Miss Castillo, your father needs to see you,” Miranda called. Her voice sounded terrified.

“Is it really that necessary? I’m exhausted—”

Apparently, I had no option as the door swung open, and Aiden stood there with a monotonous look on his face.

“Ever heard of something called privacy?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

“Get up.” Aiden moved towards me and grabbed my arm. I absolutely wanted to jump away and scream, but I sighed.

“You know that I’m perfectly capable of walking on my own, right?” I taunted my brother, but he did not say anything.

Aiden always had an opinion about everything, so his lack of response weirded me out. Worse, he wouldn’t even look at me and continued to drag me across the hall, as if trying to avoid my gaze. That’s when I noticed the unfamiliar men standing outside Father’s office.

We had company.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. Before I could try to run away, Aiden shoved me towards the door.

“What’s going on?” I blurted out, although I knew that there wasn’t any way out.

My father sat in his chair, his face as unreadable as Aiden’s. Then, the last person I expected to see sat opposite him.Nate Carson.

“You made a mistake, and I told you to fix it,” Father uttered as Aiden let go of my arm.

“I know that you and my son have been seeing each other,” Nate Carson said, turning his head to look at me.

I couldn’t help but frown at him. He looked nothing like Keith. There wasn’t even a shred of resemblance between the father and son except for the eyes.

“That’s not true,” I found myself saying. “Nothing—”

Before I could complete my sentence, I heard the door behind us creak open. “This is the one.”

The owner of that voice was awfully familiar.

“Our men identified him.”

I quickly turned around and came face to face with Keith. He wasn’t looking at me; his eyes were on the bloodied and bruised Sam beside him.

“No! He didn’t do anything. Please stay away from him. Sam’s innocent.” I tried to charge towards Keith, but he was quick to pull his gun out. There was absolutely no expression on his face.

It didn’t even seem like last night happened at all. With his gun pointed at my head, it felt like a contorted version of our first meeting.Always back to square one.

I ran towards my father. “Father, please, I’ll do anything. Sam is innocent,” I pleaded, though he didn’t meet my gaze.Why was no one looking at me?

“It’s not true, Don Castillo!” Sam yelled, and I wanted to tell him to shut up. “I was there. I helped Miss Castillo, and I will forever be loyal to h—”

A loud gunshot echoed in the room.

I felt my heart stop for a minute. Nobody said another word, and my knees gave up beneath me. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the lifeless body of the boy who had been nothing but loyal to me. I didn’t care who pulled the trigger – it was all my fault.I killed Sam.

My father stepped in front of me, forcing me to look at him. “You will do what is asked of you,” he said. “After all, what has your grandfather taught you?”

“Kings and queens don’t die so easily. It’s always the soldiers who do,” I mumbled.

It was only now that I understood what those words meant. At that moment, I realized that the man that I idolized my entire life – the man I loved more than anything in my life – was no different from the monsters I had been told to stay away from.So was I.

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