Page 63 of Unleash Hades
The strong Calissandra Davenport was so ready to give it all up just for a single moment of intimacy - for the slightest bit of tenderness.
“What has Richard done?” He said the name with such contempt that it almost burned my skin.
I didn’t know where to start. There was so much to say…
“Adelia was his mistress,” I said, swallowing the lump in my throat, and trying to keep the tears from falling, but failed. “She’s… She’s the mother of my children, and… and…”
I brought a hand to my lips, trying to keep the words from spilling out.
“He killed her, I think.” Another hot tear went down my cheek. “She disappeared when they were in Marseille. We thought - Adelia and I - that we had convinced him to leave me and marry her. She wanted that. It was better than where she had come from, even if he was awful. And it would be good for the boys.”
I felt the tears of shame fall down my cheek.
“She said that a bad man with money was better than where she’d been because…” I took a deep breath. “She was on the Triangle Trade. She had no passport, no birth certificate. They’d taken her documents, and given her no chance of escape until Richard…” I closed my eyes. More shame. Though this time, it was shame by proxy. “He bought her.”
My husband was a slaver. It was a phrase I had yet to say out loud, afraid that putting it to words would be what made it true.That he was capable of so much worse than just what he had done to me.
“If he married her, she’d have a name. She’d have a life, and so could her boys. And I could be free.”
I dropped my hand, knowing that the dam was broken and all the secrets would pour out in an avalanche, giving voice to the horror.
“He came home and said that he and his mistress split up, and not to concern myself. Then there were two boys that he said we would adopt.” I felt a weeping bubble in my throat, and I tried to tamp it down. “But the boys had those startling blue eyes.”
I knew in my heart who they were and who they belonged to.
“I had them tested,” Hugo said when I faltered. “Her DNA was stored because they had to investigate the cause of her death before ruling it an accident. I took hair from the boys – don’t be angry.” He placed a thumb on my lips. “One of my men took hair from brushes while they were at school.” He kissed my forehead. “Of all the things you must forgive me for, this is the least of it. Adelia was their mother.”
“And he is the father.” I finished the thought. Then I added one last piece that no one knew. No one but me and Adelia. “And she was my friend.”
He let me have a moment, as more tears spilled, uncontrolled, down my face, dangling off the end of my chin until they plummeted to the floor below. He didn’t do anything but trace my arm with the barest touch. It was enough to keep me sane.
“The boys were eight when I met you,” I finally admitted. “You see, he always had more rights to the boys than I did. He could take them away if I left him. If I… threatened him somehow.”
“So you never called me,” he finally concluded. “But now the boys are eighteen.”
“Tomorrow,” I whispered. “They turn eighteen tomorrow. The day after that, I need to bring down Richard Davenport.”
Chapter 20
Hugo
Iknew a littleof her story. I observed it on these cameras, and put many of the pieces together.
To have her confirm it was something else. It stopped being a hypothesis, and became reality. It became true.
My insides roiled with a quiet fire, and every time a tear fell from her chin, darkening the floor beneath us, it stoked that flame a little more.
“How can I help,ma petite granate?” I used the name that had never escaped my head.
She blinked, a small smile tugging at one corner of her lip. “Your little pomegranate?”
“The fruit that brought Persephone down to the Underworld,” he smiled. “To her Hades.”
In all the time that I had watched her, I had rarely ever seen her smile if her boys were not in the area. Would I be one of the few who could bring that expressive glow from her sullen features?
“It sounds quite appropriate, actually.” She swiped her hand across her cheeks, spreading the warm, glistening tears over her skin. “The legend is quite tragic.”
“It’s only a tragedy if it ends badly.” I pushed her hands from her face, replacing them with my own, cupping her cheeks and running my calloused thumbs over her skin. “I think it’s quite happy. She stays with him through winter, and gets to have her summer in the sun. She can have it all.”
