Page 118 of Trial of Deceit

As his heart continued beating at an erratic pace, Jediah’s eyes darted to the side.Dimitri stared straight ahead.No falter in his posture.No desire to exit the room.No craving for pills.

But his eyes.

Those eyes shone with the radiance of a permanent guilt that weighed heavily on the conscience of an otherwise strong man.

Jediah looked back at Malia.“You a lie to mi, Malia?Every record show seh Jordyn a Marquis pickney.”

“I’m living proof that every record can be forged.”

Despite knowing that was true, Jediah wasn’t quick to believe her.“Yu don’ sound like a mother weh genuinely hurt seh her daughter dead.”

“Jediah, did you mishear me?I said Jordyn was a child I did not want,” Malia stated firmly.Before he could get a word in, she continued, “Cedella found out I was pregnant.Instead of telling Kayon, she delivered a message to my brother.Marquis had one chance to break me out of the hospital, and he did.I was indebted to him.Despite Cedella’s warning that leaving the hospital before completing physical therapy would be even worse for him, Kayon left the hospital to search for me.It was already bad enough that his own people would think he was weak, but to lose the wife he rarely made leave his side?It was better to spread lies that I died than to admit his own defeat.He never thought I would be with Marquis because my brother and I have never been close, and weren’t exactly on the best terms for years.Long before you were born.”

Jediah stopped rolling his ring.He slid it back onto his finger, noting how Malia’s gaze lingered on it.Leaning back into the chair, Jediah mulled over her words.“Was…” he said finally.“Yu keep on a talk ’bout Marquis in a past tense.”

“He’s dead,” she replied flatly.

“Let me guess.You killed him?”

“Yes.”

“And yu expect mi fi trust seh yu won’ kill me when you a kill off everybody ’round yu one by one?”Jediah asked, raising a brow.“None a this don’ mek sense, Malia.I need it to make sense.Fast.”

Malia pinched her lips together, narrowing her eyes on him slightly.She reached for the wine glass, taking another delicate sip, before she returned the glass to the table and relaxed her eyes.“As you know, years ago, the Valcourts were the most powerful family in Jamaica.As the first born, I should’ve been the one to take over when my father died, but Marquis stole that from me.My own people turned against me because the family had been led by men for years, and they thought I wouldn’t be fit.

“I was hurt, and watching Marquis rule over what should’ve been mine made me angry and vengeful.Naturally, when Kayon, my bodyguard at the time, proposed we run away, elope after he finalized his messy divorce, and start our own family despite how hard it would be, I agreed.I built the Richardson mafia through blood, sweat, and tears.I took everything my brother never wanted to give to me, and left him with the Eastside out of respect for my father.I couldn’t destroy what was built long before me, and I kept waiting for my brother to be intimidated and hand it over to me, but that never happened.When I heard that Kayon died, my anger got the best of me.I should’ve been the one to kill him.Marquis couldn’t understand my anger, and that made me angrier.I didn’t mean to kill him so soon, if at all, but I don’t regret it because he should’ve died a long time ago.”

Jediah exhaled a long breath.“Everything ’bout this situation sheg up, Malia…”

“I know.”

“All those years…”

Her hand slowly stretched across the table.She laid her warm hand atop his, a quick smile coming and vanishing from her face when he didn’t pull away.“I couldn’t come back for you and Reine.Not before ensuring I could have everything that belonged to me.Quadre and I—”

Sneering, Jediah yanked his hand away.“Yu have mi a talk to a grave all these years!Have me a lie to mi sister every time she ask ’bout yu!All while yu did a tek care of another pickney?All now yu don’ even ask ’bout Reine!”

Malia scowled, causing wrinkles to appear on her forehead.“’Cause mi know Bryony mek sure unu good!”she hissed.Patois sounded foreign coming from her mouth.

“That don’ matter!A you a wi mother!”

Malia released a sharp sigh.“I know that, and I’m sorry,” she said calmly.“But I can’t go back to the past.And if I could, I wouldn’t.The future is something better to look forward to.”

“Ah sah,” Jediah chuckled, looking away to the chandelier in the ceiling, which became a blurry mess as the seconds passed.He hoped the tears that rushed to his eyes weren’t glistening off them.He blinked rapidly until his vision cleared.

Looking back at his mother, he did his best to not let his emotion seep into his face.How could she have said those words to him?Seventeen years of longing for a ghost, who slapped him in the face with the cold truth that she had not longed for anything except a soul-sucking job as the head of family.

“Please understand where I’m coming from, Jediah,” Malia urged, a desperation in her voice that hadn’t been there before.“Treasure was an absent mother to Quadre.He sought comfort in me like his mother did, and I helped to raise him how I imagined I would have raised you… They helped me to get rid of every Valcourt who refused to fall in line after I killed Marquis.I’m at a place now where I can join the families and stop all this fighting.We should be building an empire, not tearing it down.Just like it should’ve been in the beginning.You know what I’m asking of you.Don’t let me beg you like I had to beg every other man in my life.”

Jediah mulled over her words.Then, his jaw clenched, his expression hardening.“Dimitri,” Jediah said, his cold tone causing Malia to raise her chin in defiance while Dimitri stepped closer.The corner of Jediah’s mouth tugged upward into a vicious sneer, curious how far Malia would go to ensure she controlled Jamaica.“Restrain this woman,” he said, watching as Malia’s eyes widened.Jediah smiled.“Bring her to the dungeon, then go tell my wife I’ll be home soon.”

Chapter thirty-four

“Ishouldn’tbedoingthis,”Ashari grumbled while wiping at the wound on his eyebrow.

Jediah hissed as Ashari pressed the alcoholic wipe harder against his skin.He wanted to demand that she be gentle, but he refrained because he knew this was his fault.How’d he manage to drink himself into such a stupor that he fell face-first into Kayon’s grave?

Jediah clutched the cigar between his fingers more tightly.Things were already not going as smoothly as he’d liked.