Page 115 of Revenge (Corrupt Empire 3)

“I was there the day you were born. Lizzie didn’t really want me there, but she couldn’t stop me. The midwife placed you in my arms and I was lost. Even now when I look at you, I still remember that day as clearly as if it was yesterday. I regret much in my life but having you is not one of those things even if I never got to raise you as my son.”

I didn’t want to hear this shit from him. I didn’t care about his feelings. Fuck. I wanted him to hurry up and tell me who the fuck killed my mother. Why she even had to die.

I reached up with my free hand and stroked Avery’s hair. She was still crying silently on me and I couldn’t fucking do a thing to stop it. Fuck. This was bringing up too many painful emotions for both of us. My heart burnt. My chest felt tight. My head started to pound, but I couldn’t walk out of here.

“As you started to grow, I tried to see you and Lizzie as much as I could, but work kept me away from the UK. When I learnt that Mitchell had taken an interest in her, I wasn’t happy. I knew what he liked to do to women. There was nothing I could do because Nick didn’t know, at least not at first. Mitchell kept his tracks well covered. He had taken over running the girls so there was no reason for Nick to know.”

Avery trembled next to me. I was sure she didn’t want to hear that shit about her father.

“It was only when Nick found out, that everything was ruined. I was at home, so I only heard about it afterwards. It was too late for me to save her even though I knew she was in danger. I knew Mitchell could only keep it a secret for so long.”

I clutched Avery tighter, pushing her face into my chest as she could no longer hold back her sobs.

“Shh, shh, princess,” I murmured.

I knew what was coming. I fucking knew it and it killed me all the same. Broke something so fucking deep inside me.

“The man you saw slit her throat… that wasn’t Mitchell. It was Nick. He murdered her.”

I swallowed back bile rising in my throat. Avery let out an agonising gasp of abject horror. That was why I recognised his voice. Nick sounded very much like Mitchell. Hell, they’d even looked like carbon fucking copies of each other except Nick was obviously older.

“Why?” I choked out.

“He saw her as the reason Mitchell wasn’t focused on anything. That she was tearing apart his family and he hated my interference in his business because of you. So when Tina called me and told me what happened and that she’d taken you, I told her to keep you safe so Nick wouldn’t come after you too.”

“Then what happened?” I forced myself to ask.

“He covered it up. He wouldn’t tell me how they got rid of her body or what they did with her, but no one would care if a girl who’d run away from her foster home died. Not really.”

The memory of that day slammed into me, reminding me of how I’d watched him slit her throat. How I’d cried out her name when he left and watched her bleed to death. It tore me to shreds. I couldn’t breathe properly.

Avery’s tears had left a damp patch on my jumper which had seeped into my t-shirt, but I hardly noticed. I held her, trying to fight against the waves of emotions crashing over me. Absolute despair wracked through my body, like shards of glass digging into my skin.

“Do I need to give you two a moment?” Rick asked.

“Is there more?”

“Yes.”

“Then tell me the rest.”

I needed this to be over. I couldn’t stand having to wait to hear what else he had to say, but what the fuck could it possibly be?

“I wanted to destroy him for what he’d done. Killing the mother of my son wasn’t acceptable. We’d been friends for so long, but that day was the beginning of the end. He knew how I felt about Lizzie. I loved her in my own way.”

He paused, taking another sip of whisky before continuing.

“It was only when Tina told me about the trouble she was having with you. The violent outbursts and your refusal to get help that I knew if you found out what happened to Lizzie, you’d want to avenge her. It took me years to exact my own revenge on Nick. I still am even though he’s dead. You see, this is the final nail in the coffin, but we’ll get to that later.”

I didn’t know what the fuck he meant by that but I wished he would fucking well hurry up. Avery was sobbing in earnest on my chest and I didn’t know how much more she could take. Hell, I didn’t know how much more I could at this rate.

“Everyone thinks Nick died of natural causes. It’s true he had lung cancer, but I wasn’t satisfied with him dying that way. I was there the night he passed away. I told him exactly what was going to happen. He was so weak by that stage; he couldn’t do anything to stop me. I told him what I thought you would do when you learnt about Mitchell, that you would stop at nothing to destroy his entire family. And that I would ultimately help you do so. I’d make sure you had the final pieces of evidence which would see everyone involved in his operation burn. He tried to reason with me, but I told him he betrayed me when he killed Lizzie. I couldn’t forgive him for it.

“And then I placed a pillow over his face and suffocated him. I paid the coroner to say he died of natural causes. It was simple really. Some people will do anything for money. There was no need for a post mortem because of his cancer. No one suspected anything. It was terminal, they all knew he would die.”

Avery pulled away from me abruptly. Her makeup was streaked across her face and had probably got all over my jumper. Her eyes were bloodshot and she looked completely shell-shocked. She turned to Rick; doe eyes wide with sadness.

“If it’s any consolation, I’m sorry your granddaddy did what he did, Avery, but I’m not sorry he died that way. He deserved worse, but I couldn’t allow it to look like he’d been murdered.”

---