Page 85 of Dangerous Deception

“Where?” I ask, my voice tight and wispy through the strain of keeping myself under control. “Where do you dump the waste?”

Pascal sighs and leans back against the table. “In the reservoir.”

“The one in the hills?”

“Yes.”

“The—the one that feeds into the entire west side of this city?”

“There’s only one reservoir, Adelina.”

“But that’smadness. Why would you do something like that? Surely, you’d have to know it would poison people?”

Pascal doesn’t reply.

“Answer me!” I raise my voice, rocking forward in my chair. “Tell me the goddamn truth for once!”

“Fine!” Something in Pascal finally snaps and he rounds on me with fire blazing in his eyes. “I’ve been dumping their toxic waste for years. Technically, we’ve been burying it, but it seeped up through the soil and got into the water. Small amounts, so it hardly mattered, but over the years, it got worse. And your fucking fiancé worked it out because he wouldn’t move on from his sister’s death.”

“Carlos?”

“Exactly. That shit stain got cocky. I think because he was marrying into our family, he thought he had enough weight behind him to back up his investigation, but then he connected the dots to me and he was furious. Threatened to tell you, to tell the world. We couldn’t let that happen.”

“No…” Carlos was a good man. As decent as one could be in this line of work, if a little boring. “You killed him?”

“I did,” Pascal admits with glee. “I killed that little rat. With the Irish’s help, it was easy to steal some of Raffaele’s drug shipments and direct his killing spree toward a family who had betrayed him.”

Fat tears well in my eyes, falling silently down my cheeks. Raffaele wouldn’t have known better. All he would have seen was a family threatening his livelihood and the livelihoods of everyone he tried to protect. He would have killed them without mercy, and I don’t blame him. Not anymore.

“We dumped Carlos’ body there after the carnage, and that was all taken care of.”

“You held my hand,” I whisper hoarsely. “At his funeral. You held my hand and comforted me. You were as sad as I was.”

“I was relieved,” Pascal corrects. “He’d been digging too deep and had to be dealt with. Plus, his moral take on everything was suffocating. Sure, a few people were getting sick and dying, but it’s minuscule compared to the homes and businesses that rely on the energy the Irish pump out of their plants. And they keep the cost of gas down.”

“And…” I’m almost too sick to ask. “Mom? Did she find out the truth too?”

“Your mother?” He scoffs as if he never shared a single affectionate moment with her. “She was collateral. But Adelina, you have to understand that she already had cancer when she got sick. She probably would have died regardless.”

“You bastard! You twisted, twisted bastard! You don’t know that!” I surge up in my seat, dragging the chair with me as I lunge at my father with hatred twisting in my veins. “We could have saved her, we could have gotten her help. You even could have taken her somewhere else, away from the fucking water. Why did you let her die? Why? Why did you kill her?”

Several guards rush forward and drag me back when I’m an inch away from my treacherous leech of a father. Despite my struggles, I’m unable to free myself.

My heart pounds so hard that my teeth throb. My skin is hot, and my clothes suddenly feel like they’re made of coarse straw with how they scrape against my body.

“She was an unfortunate death,” Pascal replies, adjusting his clothes as he steps back. “But as I said, these are necessary deaths in order to keep cheap energy flowing for thousands.”

“Is that why you don’t want me working at that hospital? Were you worried I was going to find out?”

“Something like that.”

“I was wrong,” I sob as I fall back into my seat, my wrists inflamed from my struggles against the cuffs.

“Once I take care of Raffaele, I will show you what I mean. Can you really stake a handful of deaths against the livelihoods of thousands?”

“I was so wrong about you.” I weep brokenly. “I was wrong about Raffaele, about you, about everything. I hope Raffaele kills you. I hope he kills you slowly.”

“Come on, Adelina.” Pascal approaches, and for a moment, he looks as if he truly expects to see a daughter’s understanding in my eyes. “There’s no way you actually have real feelings for that man? You can’t possibly love a monster like that.”

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