Page 109 of From Us, Forever

I gaped. “Your father?”

“I had it all—a home, a family, everything.” He waved his hands frantically. “That is until your mother came along and destroyed our lives.”

“But I didn’t even know her,” I whispered, still reeling from the shock.

“You look just like her,” he snarled. “I knew from the moment I saw you that you were hers. And all I wanted to do was ruin your life.”

“But it wasn’t my fault,” I shouted. “She abandoned me and my family. We spent years paying for her.”

“Yet you still turned out fine. Living in a tower with your rich boyfriend. My father used to be the most powerful man in the city until that bitch married him and made him the laughingstock of the fucking city. He just couldn’t take it anymore and killed himself.”

My heart hammered. “And my mother?” I whispered.

“Bottom of some ditch. Her little heist went wrong—the shipment, the warehouse, everything burnt to a crisp—including her.”

“So you did all this for some kind of twisted revenge?” The adrenaline in my blood was fading to exhaustion from all the revelations. My dress was sticky, my arms hurt, and my heart had enough for today.

“I never wanted revenge. I want what’s mine—what’s owed to me, and now I’ll have it.” His expression grew animalistic as he explained, “I thought I was done with you when I tricked your family into paying me for years, but when you showed up happy and giggly in love, I just couldn’t stand it. I couldn’t stand you. So I played a little game with Cece, and it worked. You were out—lost the one thing you loved the most, andnow you know what that feels like. Then God worked his magic and took the only other person you loved. But that brought you right back to LA, and we can’t have that, can we? I wouldn’t let you ruin my life for the second time. So I arranged a little something to scare you off, but you ended up in a hospital for months. Do you know how hard it was to cover all that up!?”

I had no words left in me. Everything he said felt so twisted and painful. All this because I was born to the wrong woman—a woman who didn’t even acknowledge my existence.

“Then everything was going perfectly until you two had to meet again and fuck everything up. If only that bitch Cece had locked in J.J., none of this would’ve happened. I would’ve had it all. I sent you threats and made the media hate you, but still, it wouldn’t get inside your head. All stupid, stupid, stupid people around me,” he hissed, pacing as he pulled his hair almost out of its roots.

And I whimpered, fear freezing my bones.

His eyes snapped to mine. “All because of YOU,” he yelled, edging toward me, and I cowered. The resistance of the wall hit my back, and he closed in, clamping his hand around my neck.

“Let me go.” I writhed, clawing at him, hating the feel of his slimy touch on me. I hauled my leg forward, but with the restriction of my dress, I couldn’t lift it much. But my heel caught onto the side of his thigh and I pushed hard.

“You bitch.” He squeezed his hands tighter before clocking me square in the face. I could feel my lips busting open from the pressure. My ears buzzed as I blinked back the white dots.The metallic taste of blood hit my tongue as the pain started to fire up my nerve endings.

“Let her go, man,” T’s voice reached us. “Looks like the transfer is done.”

His eyes glinted, and, in an instant, his grip loosened, and I folded forward, my chin hitting the cold, hard floor.

I coughed as the air started to flow back into my lungs, wailing. My ribs hurt as my breathing returned. Biting through the pain, I slowly heaved my body up.

“Get the car ready,” Dennis ordered T, who nodded, walking away. But just as he turned his back, Dennis pulled the gun out of his waistband and shot him point-blank in the back of his head.

I jolted at the sound of the gunfire echoing through the walls and watched wide-eyed as T fell with a loud thud, a crimson pool forming around his head.

“You killed him,” I gasped in disbelief as I stared at Dennis.

“He is of no use to me anymore.” He gave me a chilling smile, wiping the edge of his gun with his jeans. “Soon, you’ll be of no use to me either.”

Tears were flowing freely from my eyes—I just knew the next person was going to be me.

“Get up. We need to go,” he commanded, fiddling with his computer before he shut it down and pocketed a pen drive. Gripping a packed duffel from the corner, he brought his attention back to me. “I said, get up.”

I nodded, stumbling and falling as I willed my feet to stand. And when I finally did, he pushed me forward, keeping the pistol trained on my back. I tried hard not to look over at T’s lifeless body as I took my shaky feet up the stairs.

The helplessness and fear paralyzed me into a frozen, robotic state as I forced my legs to work.

The quiet was deafening when we reached the threshold. My quivering fingers opened the basement door. One step out in the hallway, and a flicker of movement caught my side-eye. Before I knew it, a heavy mass slammed into us, knocking me to the side.

I lost my footing, hitting the wall. It took me a moment to steady myself. I spun around, and through a blur of motions, I saw two figures fighting on the floor, grunts, and the sickening sound of bones cracking slithered through the air.

Jay.

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