Page 67 of Destiny

“How can the two of you just sit here and talk about this?” I nearly scream. “Shooting people like it’s some freaking normal thing. Tell me why you shot Uncle Talon. Tell me that, Grandmother.”

She says nothing.

Which says a lot to me.

She doesn’t deny it.

“I didn’t actually pull that trigger,” she finally says.

“I know that, but does that matter?” I say. “You certainly aren’t denying having anything to do with it.”

“The Steels need to go down,” she says. “All the Steels, except for you, Ryan.”

“That’s still what this is about, isn’t it?” Dad says. “You’re still so obsessed with Bradford Steel that you want to take out all his children with Daphne. And of course you had to start with Talon. Talon is the one you truly hate more than any of us.”

I have to force myself to stay seated, not to rise and shake this old woman. “Why would you hate Uncle Talon?”

“Because Talon cemented everything,” Dad says. “It was easy to think Joe was just an accident, and that’s why my father married Daphne. But once Talon came along…” He shakes his head. “You are made of ice, Wendy. Pure ice.”

Wendy’s eyes flutter closed, and she wrinkles her nose before reopening them. “How can you say that? I love you, Ryan. I would do anything for you.”

“Right. Anything, including allowing my brother to be taken as a child, tortured, abused, violated in the worst way. And then, after he’s happy, after he finds the love of his life, starts a wonderful life with a family of four children, two of whom he saved from the same horrible fate, then you try to take it away from him again.”

“He’s a military hero,” I say. “He’s been through so much, Grandmother. Why? Why would you do that?”

She reaches toward me with her wrinkled hand. “For you, my beautiful granddaughter. I do it all for you. Your grandfather was the love of my life. And I was the love of his.”

Dad groans. “That’s not true, Wendy. We all know it.”

“So you, my sweet granddaughter, are the first granddaughter from our love.”

“That can’t be the only reason you reached out to me,” I say.

“Because you’re a woman, like I am.”

“What about Lauren?” Dad asks.

“Unfortunately, Lauren feels the same way about me as you do, Ryan. Neither of my children seems to understand my love for them. What I’ve done for them.”

“This is such garbage,” Dad says.

I bite my lip, twist my lip ring. “There’s something about what you said, Grandmother.”

“And what’s that?”

“You specified granddaughterwhen you spoke of me.”

“Youaremy granddaughter.”

“Yes, but you saidfirstgranddaughter.”

“And again…youaremy first granddaughter.”

I lock gazes with Wendy’s blue eyes, so like my own it’s almost creepy. “Why would you say granddaughter? Why not say grandchild? I could’ve just as easily been a boy.”

“But you aren’t.” She flutters her eyes closed.

I look at Dad, gesture for him to leave the room with me.

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