Page 225 of The Invite
Wanting to get over with the confrontation, I quickly stride to the office situated on the ground floor. Without knocking, I shove open the door and enter the lifeless room, just like the woman inside. Cream-colored walls try to suffocate me with its nauseating presence.
My mother has removed any signs that this room once belonged to my dad.
I wonder what he thinks about her from the grave?
“Is it true?” My mother’s voice cracks through the air like a whip.
I let her seethe as I take my time reaching the chair and settling down. Meeting her irate gaze, I answer, “Yes.”
“You will end it,” she hurls, slapping her palms on the desk. “Or so help me God, I will destroy her until there’s nothing left of her.”
“No.”
Her eyes turn into slits and her lips curl in an ugly snarl. I sense the shift in her tactic before she opens her mouth. “She’s a distraction from your goals, Augustus. Don’t destroy your dream because of a silly infatuation.”
“You meanyourdream, Mother.”
Her jaw tightens, close to snapping, as she roughly inhales. I hear the cogs turning in her brain as she threatens, “I can send her to rot away in jail for lying in the contract she signed.”
“You can.” I smile, but there’s nothing friendly about it. “But it won’t separate us because I’ll be right beside her.”
“Exactly how will you do that,son?” she mocks.
“The desk you’re sitting on,Mom.”I lean forward, knocking my knuckle on the surface. “Uncle Matthew is buried under it.”
Deafening silence follows as her pupils blow wide and she sags against the seat.
For the first time, her composure shatters.
“Yo-you killed him?” she gasps.
“He was a scum and a pedophile,” I growl, the unfortunate night replaying in my head. “He’s exactly where he belongs.”
Flinging herself off the chair, she scrubs her hands down her face and paces back and forth. Watching her break down is priceless. After all, she was the one who let him into our lives. My father’s body wasn’t even cold in the ground, and she was plotting her future. Money and power are what she breathes.
Whipping toward me, she glares. “You fucking bastard. Do you realize what you’ve done?”
“It’s too late for a lecture.”
“Who else knows?”
“The better question is, who may find out? Send Nessa to prison, and I will end up in one myself, obliterating your precious empire,” I threaten, making her swallow. “Or you can back off and watch me fulfill your dream as I rule this town. Your choice, Mother.”
I’m not shocked when a beat passes, and she utters, “You win, son.”
As I’m walking out, her ominously proud words float toward me. “Perhaps you do have a bit of me in you, after all.”
I’ma lotlike her.
And I loathe it.
CHAPTER – 57
Nessa
Maverick has made himself at home.
With his feet kicked up on the coffee table, he munches on the turkey sandwich he made for the two of us in my kitchen. Unlike Augustus, he’s untidy as hell and left a big mess for me to clean afterward. He’s also loud, funny, and very nosy.
