Page 100 of Revenge

“She’s in an awful state and it’s all your fault,” I hissed.

Kai’s expression twisted, “Don’t try and change the subject. Your mother is fine, Cill is with her. So, what exactly are you looking for?”

“An address. Surely you know who’s?” I replied, dropping my hands, and fisting them by my sides.

Kai released an elongated sigh and dropped his arms pushing off the door and walking into the room. “Look, we can continue to go around in circles all fucking morning. Just cut to the chase, what the fuck are you doing in here?” he said, motioning towards the broken drawer with a wave of one hand.

“I’m in here because you’re a liar and a cheat and I hate you,” I snarled, slamming my hands on the desk in front of me and leaning forward.

His eyes scanned my face as if the answer would be written there, “So we’re back there, are we? You didn’t seem to hate me last night when you were coming on my cock and screaming myfuckingname. And what thehellhave I lied about?”

I flinched at his crass words as he jammed his hands into the pockets of his jeans and rocked back on his heels.

Kai watched me down his nose, his expression both curious and cross, “Well?”

“You lied about your father.”

Tugging his hands from his pockets, he raised one and dragged it through his hair. I could see the tension in his shoulders.

“What?” he said on an exhale.

“Gerard is still very much alive,” I snarled. My expression must have screamed that I wasn’t taking any more of his shit lying down.

There was a beat of silence as realisation slid across his features, “Ah,” he said with a tight smile. Kai’s eyes were nowlockedonto my face, and he watched me with a wary expression; almost like he wasn’t sure how things would go now I’d finally dropped the bombshell.

Yes, I know your beast of a father is still breathing.A man who was the lowest of the low after what my mother had told me. Her shattered face swam into my mind; the man had to pay!

When Kai didn’t speak, I scoffed, “Yes, ah. And after all that crap you gave me about no more lies. Howcouldyou?” I was so angry to be there again. To be let down by Kai, a man who didn’t deserve my love.

Kai then spoke to me softly, some of his anger had lifted, “I didn’t lie to you.” Moving forward, he too placed his palms on the desk. This brought us closer in that space, not nose to nose but almost touching.

“You said Gerard was dead,” I pointed out, my stomach started to churn again.

Kai shook his head, his expression becoming grave, “No,yousaid he was dead, I just didn’t correct you.” Did he think I would let it go on such a base technicality? Did this man know me at all?

I yelled, “You lied by omission!” My temper was getting the best of me, and I shoved off the desk and stormed around it.

Kai watched my movements and as I approached, he took a step back and raised his hands, “I didn’t tell you about Gerard, as what good would it have done? He’s dying anyway. So yes, I let you believe he was dead. It was for your own good, to allow you to move on.”

Coming to stand before him, I looked up, my neck aching from trying to retain eye contact, “For my own good? How could youlieabout something like that? You know I wanted to face him. I said that was the only way I could get closure.”

Kai’s demeanour softened, “How would seeing him give you closure, Ava? It would just dig it all up again. Leave the past in the past. Surely, after everything he did, you’d feel more comforted by the thought of him in the ground as worm food?”

From his tone of voice, he thought he’d done the right thing by not telling me and that did soften the blow slightly. But he was wrong. As the injured party, I had a right to know.

I felt another wave of sadness that the man who stood before me didn’t know me. Kai, out of everyone, should realise the need for revenge. Was that not why he brought me there in the first place? To force me to pay a debt to him?

“I’d feel a hell of a lot morecomfortedif I had put him there.”

Kai released a tormented sigh of frustration and it pissed me off. It felt like he wasn’t taking me seriously, “Whist your need for justice is understandable, Ava. I’m afraid it isn’t possible.”

“Why?”

“I don’t think you have quite grasped the reality of the situation, Ava.”

He even had the gall to raise a hand and place it on my shoulder. My pulse took off from his touch, but I batted any tenderness aside and drew back. This wasn’t about Kai and me, this was about me and Gerard and payback.

“Is that so?” I replied, moving back a step, my glare still in place. His fingers fell away. That contact and then nothing left a pang in my chest.

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