Page 144 of Santiago's Conquest (Four Dark Horsemen 1)

How Santiago said Howard wasn't my father.

How he wanted to catch a man who kidnapped him and take his revenge.

How he quickly married me and refused to tell me why he did it.

Even my mother’s diaries.

Did he intentionally hide them so I wouldn’t ever find out the truth about my father? Or their connection?

So all this time…

“Bait,” he says. “The word you’re looking for is bait. Mine and his.”

Bait.

Something two hunters use in order to catch prey, and I became collateral damage once again?

Schooling my features so he won’t see my internal struggle, I lift my chin high. “I don't believe you. You are a psychopath who should rot in hell for what you do!” I yell the last part and then groan when he kicks me in the shoulder, sending me flying across the floor.

“Watch your mouth, or your life with Howard will seem like a dream. I won’t even care about my grandson in your womb.”

What?

My trembling hand covers my stomach while I notice a small, light bruise around my vein as if someone took my blood recently. My head is reeling with this information, and shock travels through me.

I’m not pregnant. Neither of us wanted children now, and besides, how could I ever be this careless with a man who I might have to leave due to his sadistic ways?

Although looking at the man who claims to be my father, I start to think even monsters in this world have different breeds, and some of them indeed bring more goodness than harm.

“I won’t give you my baby,” I tell him, playing along while stalling for time, because madness resides in his gaze, and acting out might kill me.

I just have to wait for Santiago.

He will come and save me. No matter what, he will find me, because I might have been his bait, but he does feel something for me.

All his behavior toward me proves it.

And this knowledge allows me to calm down a little, thinking rationally and pushing all my emotions aside.

Weeping can wait.

Andreas sighs, picking up the bottle by his feet and pouring himself more whiskey. “I’ve heard that before. Your mother said the same thing when she gave birth to you. Andreas, she’s mine. You won’t get her!” He opens his arms wide. “Yet your life shows how that worked out for her.” He takes out something and throws it at me, the photo landing on my knees.

A young woman looking just like me stares at the camera, holding me in her arms, resting her back against the headboard.

Even through the picture, I can feel her pain, and my heart squeezes in my chest, seeing my mother for the first time, soothing some wounds inside me, because she wanted me.

After all, she wouldn’t try to keep me if she didn’t, right?

Running my finger over the picture, I whisper, “You killed my mom.” Deep grief hits me, sinking into my bones and crushing them anew. Before, my mom had been just a mythical creature, a person I knew nothing about.

Now, she has the face of this girl, and it’s not hard to imagine what Andreas did to her.

He clacks his tongue. “She was the only woman who managed to birth me a healthy daughter. I was ready to reward her and let her go back to Howard.” He lowers his voice as if he shares a secret with me. “She had an affair with a married man before I showed up.”

“She fell in love with you, and you destroyed her life.”

That’s why Howard hated me; my existence probably ended their affair.

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