Page 86 of Unleash Hades
I took a deep breath, and whispered, “I love you, boys.”
Richard sniffed, probably disliking anything that showed affection. Or maybe he had a heart that still beat. It would and should beat for his children, no?
“Pathetic,” he finally said. It answered my question.
His own sons - his own flesh and blood! He was a calloused fucker.
I shut my mouth. Everything was unimportant except for that. I loved my boys.
“I’m sorry Mummy,” Romulus said, and I could tell he was crying. “I went with him willingly because… because…”
“Because he’s your father,” I finished for him.
“Rem told me not to. But I did. I’m so, so, so sorry!”
“It’s not your fault,” I tried to say in an even voice, but it was a losing battle. “You did nothing wrong.”
“Pathetic!” Richard said, stronger this time, as if his disgust for his own sons was what caused this mayhem. But I knew better.
I stopped speaking, and so did the boys. I knew they would, because I knewthem. He didn’t. Maybe all those years of connecting to the boys would pay off. Maybe my connection toAdelia, and to her children, would somehow help us through this. Maybe… maybe their mother was looking down on us now, and I hoped that she understood me. That she knew I had done my best. Because I had.
For all my faults, and all my weaknesses, I knew that loving those boys was not one of them.
The car stopped. He cut the engine, and I stayed silent.
He got out of the driver’s seat, and came around, opening my door, then dragged me out by the arm. I blindly tried to stay upright, as I stumbled on unsure footing.
My feet were on pebbles, then stairs that I almost tripped over. Then I was in a building.
The hood came off. I was in a darkened hall, somewhere. Maybe it was some kind of barn, I wasn’t quite sure, as I blinked, my eyes adjusted to the low lighting.
Romulus was fighting tears, as a stony faced Remus looked at his father. They were on their knees, their hands bound in front of them.
A door closed in the distance. Footsteps retreated.
“Alone, at last,” Richard said. “One big happy family.”
I looked, and he had a gun in his hand. I was surprised. Not that he would be willing to kill, but that he would do it himself. In my mind, he was the man behind the killer. The dollars, not the trigger.
Remus set his jaw, his eyes darting back and forth as if he was still looking for a way to escape. He still thought there was hope.
Pandora’s most damning gift.
“Let me stand,” Remus finally said.
Richard tilted his head, looking at his stoic son. The one that resembled him in almost every way.
“If you’re going to kill me, father,” he said, planting one foot up, then rising from his bended knee until he was eye to eye with the man who made him. “I’d rather stand.”
Richard smirked, pointing the gun at him. I screamed, “Richard! No! Kill me, but leave the boys! Leave them alone!”
“You fool.” Richard’s smile confused me, but I didn’t have time to think. “What does it matter how a man falls down?”
“When the fall is all there is,” Remus said, his eyes narrowing. “Then it matters a great deal.”
Then it hit me. That was his move. He was paraphrasing a Lion in Winter. Paraphrasing the character named Richard… Richard the Lionheart. In a way, he was quoting his own father.
Richard lifted the pistol, and pointed it at the ceiling, laying his finger out, and resting it outside of the trigger well. I whimpered, feeling the blubber coming from my chest.
