Page 48 of Evil Villain (The Royal Court)

“He’s alive?” my mother asked. “Why would you lie about something like that?”

“It wasn’t a complete lie,” I replied. “Ididthink that Deon had died, that’s what Nathan told me, but I had a feeling he wasn’t, and then Nathan finally came clean about a month ago that he’s still alive and out there somewhere. I was so angry with him for lying to me, and for dragging me away from Deon in a situation when he almost died that I cut off the entire Royal Court and turned into a demon. I’m so sorry.”

My dad crossed his arms. “I don’t understand. What do Nathan and Deon have to do with one another.”

“Right, yeah. I’m sort of starting in the middle of the story and I probably should be starting at the beginning.” I reeled my brain backwards trying to find a good starting point, and landed on the most important fact. “Well, I suppose it needs to be said right away, my friend Deon from our old neighborhood is Connor’s son.”

Both my parents’ jaws dropped and eyes nearly came out of their heads. They seemed so much more shocked than Cherri expected them to be. “What do you mean?” my dad asked. “What about Nathan?”

“Nathan is his son as well. They’re half-brothers, sharing Connor as a father. Deon’s mom is Ciara, who he lived with back in our old neighborhood, and Nathan’s mom was Alicia,” I explained.

My mom took a nervous breath. “Was?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Alicia is dead. Connor killed her.”

I could see the gears of fear turning in my parents head as the words left my lips, but it was my father who managed to speak first. “Why would he kill his own wife?”

“The same reason he’d try to kill his own children, because they’re threatening his power and existence,” I said. “Also, and please don’t freak out, but… he’s trying to kill us too.”

My mom crossed her arms. “What?”

“Who’s ‘us?’” my dad asked.

“The entire Royal Court, but specifically Nikita and me, because we mean so much to Nathan and Deon.” I shook my head, annoyed. The words I was saying weren’t coming out in a way that made sense. “Let me back up.” I took a deep breath. “When we lived in the old neighborhood, I met Deon and… I fell in love with him. The day that we went for our first date, this body literally dropped from the floor in front of us. We just naturally assumed that it was a jumper, but the cop thought we’d killed him for some reason. Deon said we should run, so we did, and I didn’t find out until the beginning of senior year that Deon ended up confessing to it, but he didn’t do it, I swear. He confessed just to protect me.”Again, my parents side-glanced each other and my father in particular looked very nervous. “Okay. What is that?”

My dad looked back at me. “Well, you finish first, then I’ll tell you.”

That freaked me out, but I believed he would explain when the time came. “Well, not long after Deon went to prison, you got promoted and then I was introduced to The Royal Court. It sounds like Connor orchestrated my meeting Nathan. When Nathan and I started to drift apart last year, specifically because Deon came home, Connor started to melt down about it. He flipped out, killed Alicia, tried to kill Nathan, and framed Deon for that teacher that killed herself.”

My dad’s head dropped into his hands and my mom rubbed his back. “Chris. It’s not your fault.”

“Itismy fault. You told me not to accept that promotion and I did anyway,” my dad replied.

“Daddy, moving us to South Postings had nothing to do with this. Connor was going to do what he wanted regardless, that was just the avenue he chose,” I said.

“No,” my dad shook his head. “Not that promotion. The one that brought us to Maine to begin with.”

“W-what?” I said. “What do you mean?”

“Connor promoted me rather suddenly, saying that the transfer from our original office to the one in Postings was necessary. How ironic that you would end up near Deon,” my dad said.

“Cherri, you know that we think you are so much more than just how beautiful you are, but think of Alicia. You share similar qualities. You’re as pretty as a model and would look good on anyone’s arm. I’m beginning to think Connor handpicked you for his son,” my mom explained.

My dad looked up, weary-eyed. “And for some reason, when things didn’t work with you and Deon, he promoted me again, and suddenly you ended up with Nathan.”

“Deon told me that he went to live with Connor for a year, but he refused to stay and eventually came home. Ciara, Deon’s mom, had a bunch of information about all of the affairs that Connor had been having, and was able to use it to get him to back off of trying to take Deon from her. Shortly after that, we came here and I met Deon. Then this thing happened with this weird body and Deon getting framed for it, and then you got promoted and we moved,” I said. “That means…”

“Yeah,” my mom said. “Connor had to have had something to do with Deon getting framed.”

“He came to me,” my dad said, and then my mom looked at him confused. “He told me about Deon. He said he was a dangerous guy and that I needed to keep my daughter away from him. He told me that, eventually, we would see the kind of person he was, and then when Deon disappeared, he told me why and offered me a promotion and to move to keep you safe.”

My jaw fell slack. “What?!”

“Christian, how could you not tell me that?” my mom asked.

“I thought I was protecting my family.” My dad reached across the island and put a hand on mine. “Cherri, I’m so sorry.”

“Was it just because he felt scorned by Deon? That he’d be willing to do something so harmful to his own son?” I said. “He’s even more psychotic than I thought.”

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