Page 96 of Corrupt Educator (The Syndicate Academy)

I catch it and place it down on the side table next to me. “I guess you didn’t read from the beginning. The reason I’m doing this.”

“I don’t give a shit why you are doing it, Oak.” She clenches her fists by her side. “You used me. You…” She turns away from me, rushing out of the glasshouse into

I follow her, knowing that this is the last thing I want. My intention to explain everything to her and test the water has backfired.

Eva is in the bedroom, packing her bag.

I lean against the bedroom door. “What are you doing?”

“Getting as far away from you as possible.” The look in her eyes is one of hatred, fear, and utter anguish that cuts me to the core.

I move toward her and set my hands on her hips gently, forcing her to stop. “Please, Eva. Let me explain.”

“Don’t touch me,” she growls, trying to escape.

I can’t let her go, not this easily. She needs to calm down and listen. “You can leave as soon as you’ve let me explain.”

Her body turns rigid beneath my fingers. “You don’t deserve the chance to explain anything.”

I let go of her, shutting the door to the bedroom and locking it. “I’m not letting you go until you listen to me.”

Eva gawks at me, glancing between her half-packed bag and the locked door. “You’re holding me captive?”

“No, I’m forcing you to hear me out.” I take a step toward her, but she steps away.

“You don’t need to be anywhere near me for me to hear you out.” Eva crosses her arms over her chest and glares at me. “You sit over there.” She points at a chair in the corner. “I’ll sit right here.” She points to the edge of the bed.

I sigh and do as she says, moving to sit in the chair far from her. All I want to do is hold her, melt her resolve, and tell her I never wanted to hurt her, not since I got to know her.

“What part of my journal did you read?” I ask.

Eva’s jaw clenches. “The part about you getting me here under false pretenses.”

I run a hand through my hair. “I have a sordid history with your parents.”

Her fists clench at the mention of her parents. “What does that have to do with me?”

“Five years ago, your mother and father destroyed my multi-billion-dollar corporation all because I refused to pay them protection money and do work for their crooked enterprise in Atlanta.” I lean forward and rest my elbows on my legs, steepling my fingers together. “They left me an ominous message two nights after I’d refused them, and I got to my data corporation building to find the entire place on fire.” I clench my jaw, memories of that night flooding back. “They didn’t only destroy my company that night.” I meet Eva’s gaze, feeling a little weird telling her about Jane. “They killed my recruitment officer in the fire. A woman who loved me, and I’d loved her, even though we’d never acted on our feelings. After all, I was the CEO.” I swallow hard, trying to gauge Eva’s reaction to my story.

She is just sitting there, blankly taking in each detail.

“That night, I died right along with my corporation. I changed my name and fled Atlanta, knowing that staying would be foolish.” I give Eva a pointed glance. “You can’t recover from being on the wrong side of your parents.”

I swallow hard. “So, I got my insurance money from the company being destroyed and bought the Syndicate Academy, with the view of getting my revenge through one of the Carmichael children.” I clench my jaw, knowing she won’t like my initial target was her brother. “Initially, I targeted your brother, but your father wanted him involved in the family business from a young age rather than studying.”

“And what exactly did you intend to do with him?” She asks, her voice calm considering what I’m telling her.

“Embroil him in a scandal, force your parents to come rushing back to the Syndicate Academy and…” I rub my face, knowing that uttering the next two words might destroy everything with Eva. “Kill them.”

Eva gasps, eyes widening. “You want to murder my parents?”

I stand, feeling fresh panic coil through me. “Eva, you must understand that they crushed my dreams and killed the only woman I had ever loved, all because I didn’t want to work for them.” I pace the floor of the room. “It only felt right that I take everything from them.” I sigh heavily. “Until I met you.”

“And you would have been able to murder them?” Eva asks as if trying to work out whether I’m capable of such violence.

“Eva, we have more in common than you’d ever know.” I meet her gaze. “I told you of my Italian roots. My birth name was Luca Moretti, and I came from Naples.” My heart is pounding so hard and fast as I’ve told no one about my true origins, not even my two closest friends. After all, my family will never give up their search for me. “I was their first-born son, set to inherit and rule a criminal empire, but I never wanted that life.” I pace the floor, not looking at Eva as I tell her my deepest, darkest secrets. “So I ran away to America when I was eighteen and took on a new identity, building Archer Data Corp from scratch by the time I was twenty-eight years old.”

I look at Eva now and see the shock in her eyes as she listens. “They brought me up the same way your brother was, taught to be ruthless, but I was never cut out for a life of crime. My younger brother was far more suited to the job, and so I got out of the way, but when your parents killed Jane…” I shake my head. “It unearthed something dark inside of me. What you must understand is that I was raised to be a killer, Eva.”

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