Page 44 of Sweet Dominion

“I could have handled it.”

“You could kill your sister? No.”

“If it got to that point, I could have done it.”

“There was noifabout it. She was more than prepared and had three hundred men hidden in Paradise City.”

“She was your daughter.”

“Not anymore. She was a threat.” Although still sad, his voice went calmly. “A threat to everything I’ve built. Yan had to be removed. I knew this a year ago when I began planning out everything—”

“So, you knew you were going to kill her?”

“Yan’s crown was the first one I bought.”

My heart broke.

“She was a bigger threat than Chanel and Romeo. Originally, I’d planned to simply kill her this evening and hide the body. Make sure you would never know but then Monique told me about what Yan said on Mount Utopia. That was when I had to make a bold statement to Monique and let her truly know about her place in my heart.”

“I told you not to even say Monique’s name—”

“Use that anger in the battle tomorrow.”

“You shouldn’t have killed Yan.”

“As I already said, she was a threat—”

“A threat? She was your child! My sister!” My voice rose with each word. “Is that what you want me to do with your grandchildren?!”

Silence was his only response.

My hands shivered. “Answer me!”

“Monique and you are better than me. You don’t have my stuff so you would never harm my grandkids.”

“Your stuff?”

“The baggage. The. . .trauma. The things that turn kids into adult monsters.” He let out a long breath. “You two don’t have that and. . .it makes me happy.”

“I will never forgive you for all that you have done.”

“Yan was a liability in my bigger plan. She made her choice and she knew the consequences.”

“Mom is crying in heaven and it is all because of you.”

Just like that, his voice shifted to pure violence. “Do not ever say that to me—”

“You think that you will go to heaven? No. It will be to hell. And if you do get lucky enough to enter those heavenly gates, you think Mom will open her arms to you? No.” I sneered. “She saw what you did and she no longer loves you.”

Anger coated his next words. “Strong words, my son. We’ll see if you have that same strength tomorrow.”

“I will, because tomorrow I plan to send you straight to hell myself.” I hung up and gave the phone to Chen. “Get a new phone for Moni’s lady-in-waiting and then destroy this one.”

Chen took it. “Why are we destroying this one?”

“Because I don’t want it to exist.”

Chen blinked. “O-kay.”

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