Page 68 of Betrayal (Corrupt Empire 1)

Could Aiden ever be mine?

I shook myself. Thinking about the future was futile. I didn’t know what future he had in store for me. What I could do is educate myself about my family.

What had he left for me?

I sat down on the sofa and picked up the laptop. Tucking my legs up, I settled down with it. The first thing on the screen was a spreadsheet of some kind. There were a lot of figures. I read the headings.

Name. Payments in. Projects. Girls.

I scanned down the list. I recognised some of the names of the businesses. Each line showed a payment they’d made to an offshore account. Some of them corresponded to building projects and developments, some of them had girls names against them and others, both.

It dawned on me. I knew some of those developments. They’d been handled by our company. I felt sick. So sick. How could this be true? Had they really been accepting bribes? And the girls names? That part made no sense to me.

I checked the other documents Aiden left for me to look at. It soon became clear what girls meant. Girls owned by my family. Loaned out to their clients. I put my hand to my mouth. It noted they were gifts. The length of time they spent with a client depended on the sum of money donated. Donated? It wasn’t a fucking donation. Payoffs. Bribes.

Oh fuck.

Was this how we’d got so rich? Dirty money?

It was too much. All too fucking much. Our fortune tainted. My inheritance. I didn’t want it. None of it. Not if it came from this. An empire built on lies, sex trafficking and bribery. Worst of all, Aiden told me my family bought and sold people for longer than Daniels Holdings had existed. It could only mean one thing.

Slavery.

My heart couldn’t take it. My fucking soul burnt.

Anger.

Betrayal.

Disgust.

Sorrow.

Pain.

Waves and waves crashed over me until I felt like my body hurt all over and my mind wanted to shut down. Tears dripped down my cheeks.

I placed the laptop back on the coffee table. Its screen sat unblinking at me. Taunting me with the reality that my family were scum.

Greedy fucking scum.

I stood on shaky legs and made my way into the bedroom. I picked up a pencil, paper and the book Aiden left me. I took it over to the rug on the floor, sat down and started to draw.

Images of brutalised girls. Of men sitting in their gilded offices, laughing at the misfortune of others. Of fallen angels. Of people in chains. Of violence and destruction poured out from my hand onto the pages. Pages and pages of drawings until they littered the floor and covered the bed. I drew until my fingers throbbed.

My soul shattered to a million fucking tiny pieces on the floor.

I crawled under the covers, not caring about the paper everywhere. Aiden’s scent surrounded me. Soothing my aching heart.

I cried until I could cry no more.

And I fell asleep when exhaustion finally settled over me.

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