Tiny Dark Deeds: A Dark High School Bully Romance (Court Legacy Book 3)

Sloane

“Agnes, if you could bring in some hot tea for Miss Sloane and myself.”

Callum’s maid acknowledged the request, her nod short before exiting the room. I had basically followed Callum and Lucas back to Callum’s house after waiting in the parking lot at the school while they wrapped up Callum’s meeting with the headmaster.

Agnes returned to Callum’s parlor, a large room with the dimly lit sconces and a fireplace already running. She had the packet of scholarship information along with the tea, and I thanked her for them both.

“Well, then. What questions do you have for me?” Callum asked, declining his tea for now with a raised hand. Currently, he stoked the fireplace, his cane in his other hand. “You mentioned wanting to talk at the school. I’m assuming about the program.”

I had mentioned that before we’d left, but no, the subject matter didn’t have anything to do with the scholarship. I tucked the scholarship packet into the side of my chair, then guided the tea to my lips. I swallowed. “I kind of just wanted to chat. Casually.”

“Oh.” He hung the poker by the fireplace but stayed by it when I stood. “What about exactly?”

This conversation was probably completely inappropriate, and I hated I was even here to have it. I chewed my lip. “It’s about Dorian.”

Callum’s head tilted back. “I see.”

Placing my tea down next to the china pot Agnes had left, I came over to him. “Everything with that summer is just so out of character for him, and I wanted to understand it.”

His hand lifted. “Before we get started, this is really a conversation you should be having with him. I’m already in hot water with him and my son. I don’t know if Dorian told you, but he came to see me. Blew up on me for telling you about that summer.”

He hadn’t told me that, but I wasn’t surprised. He was so quick to lose his temper.

“Things between us are already tense.” He placed both hands on his cane. “And if I want any hope at all in bringing him around, I have to respect his privacy.”

I got that and didn’t want to create any drama. Heading back to my chair, I picked up my bag, sliding the scholarship information inside. “I’m sorry for wasting your time.”

“You haven’t, and I’ll tell you anything you want but only with Dorian’s blessing.”

I nodded, starting to leave.

“I am curious, though,” he said, causing me to turn his way. His head tilted. “What exactly were you going to ask about that summer?”

It felt silly now. Odds were, Dorian had blown things completely out of proportion. I tugged my bag up my arm. “He said when you blackmailed him, you threatened his mom. He also said you got him arrested to teach him a lesson after, and that just…” I paused, my hand lifting. I didn’t continue, feeling too embarrassed. This was probably all just a miscommunication, and here I was in his house saying such things.

“Just what, Sloane?” Callum asked, surprising me, and I had to say, he didn’t look as insulted as he probably should. The things I’d said would insult me.

I eased back into the room. “I guess I was just going to say doesn’t sound like you.” I shrugged. “And I know Dorian. I know him a lot, and he tends to see things the way he wants to see them sometimes.”

“This is true about my grandson. He has quite a temper on him.” Shifting, Callum gazed out of the window. He had snowy views of an expansive property out there and seclusion like at the glass house he got for Bru and me. His place was in another section of the rolling hills surrounding Maywood Heights. “He’s a lot like his father in that regard. Always angry. Vengeful.”

That didn’t sound like Dorian’s dad. He was serious, but never mean, angry.

“My son Royal has always been angry. Angry at me for ruining his life and being so hard on him coming up.” His lips pinched together. “It seemed Dorian took away from some of that.”

I approached his side, staring out the window too. This family seemed to have so much pain, and I know Dorian did.

“It’s a shame Dorian feels the way he does about what happened last summer,” he continued. “And you’re right. He does tend to see things the way he wants to see them.”

It didn’t feel right talking about him like this, and I started to say that when Callum touched me, his hand on my arm. It took me off guard, and I jumped, easing my arm away. “What are you doing?”

It wasn’t the fact that he’d touched me. It was why. It’d come out of nowhere.

His hand returned to his cane. “I was just seeing something.”

“Seeing something?”

His nod was subtle yet firm, and he panned outside again. “I suppose how easy you’ll make this. Painless. I’ve been watching you for a while, Sloane, and though you don’t necessarily make things easy, you are quite logical.”

“I’m sorry. Watching me?” I shook my head. “What are you talking about?”

“Watching is a strong word. More like aware. I’m aware of you, Sloane.” He looked at me. “Are you aware of me?”

I didn’t know what he was asking me, but it felt weird. Wrong. I backed up. “I think I need to go.”

My stomach clenched tight, I headed toward the door but stopped when I noticed we weren’t alone. Lucas stood at the door, his hands together. He completely blocked the way out, and I screeched to a stop on the wood panel floor in front of him.

“Lucas is merely here for you to hear me out, Sloane.” Callum’s voice was closer, and instantly, my body locked up, my lungs tight. I wasn’t getting in much air, and I didn’t know why until a large shadow darkened the wall in front of me. It was bigger than mine, taller. “You hear me out, and you’re free to go. I’d never make you do anything you didn’t want to do.”

I really couldn’t breathe now, my swallow hard. Lucas, in front of me, gestured a hand right, but when I didn’t move, he crowded me until I did.

“Take a seat, Miss Sloane,” he said, making sure I did. Callum remained behind me, and I didn’t see him until I did take that seat. He still had his cane in his hand, and though he might need it that didn’t make him appear any less intimidating. He was a large man and built just as solidly as his grandson and son.

And I wasn’t in the room with just him.

Lucas was here too, and he was just as big. I sat in a chair. “What’s going on?”

I made that sentence sound confident as hell, steady but inside I was screaming and even more so when Callum chose not to sit but stand. He did so right in front of me, Lucas behind my chair. I didn’t know what the fuck was going on here, but I definitely didn’t want to hear whatever this was.

“First thing’s first. Hand your phone over to Lucas,” Callum stated and casual about it. He strode over to the fireplace, the flames casting shadows over his face. “Wouldn’t want any disturbances while you listen to my proposal. I assure you. It suits both of us, and by the end, I hope you’ll see that too.”

I took my phone out with a shaking hand, basically tossing it at Lucas. While I did, I scanned the room. There were several doors, but they might not lead to exits. There was a window, but we were several floors up. “What’s going on, Callum?”

A short smile tugged his lips. “I thought a lot about this day with you. What I’d say.” His smile deepened. “But I suppose, what I first want to say is, thank you.”

“Thank you?”

He nodded, again not looking at me. “It’s because of you I have a future here again in Maywood Heights. A town who, though hesitant, is very much open to allowing me to coexist here, and a family who seems to be on the cusp of doing the same.” His head swung in my direction. “My son has actually opened up the lines of communication regarding him and myself, and I have nothing but you to thank for that. He’s very grateful for my part in your return, so is the rest of the city. Again, I thank you for this.”

I gripped the chair as he came over, the cane definitely just for security. He barely used it on the way over, and when he spotted me looking at it, he smiled again.

“You’re wondering about it?” He handed it over to Lucas before folding his body into the chair across from mine. Lucas handed him a box of cigars then, and after Callum selected, Lucas lit it for him. Thick smoke curled out of the aged man’s mouth. “I have a bum leg. An accident and one involving your very own grandfather, Ibrahim.”

I said nothing, trying to focus and not die on that fucking smoke. It stunk to high heaven.

“Your grandfather laid low for a long time, quiet,” he said, nodding. “Our last meeting together ended up being a café in Sicily. He had a terrible accident there. A bombing actually.”

My mouth parted. “What? What are you…”

“As you can see, I didn’t come away without my own scars that day.” He patted his leg, making me twitch. “Old leg acts up every once in a while. I was a bit slow that day and, unfortunately, failed to get out unscathed.”

I was trying to wrap my head around what he was telling me, not believing it. “Are you saying you killed my grandfather?” The words didn’t make sense. None of this made sense. “You’re the reason he’s…”

“Dead.” He said it so easy, cruelly. Like this wasn’t his first time getting involved with something like this, and he definitely didn’t care about that fact. He adjusted in his chair. “Your grandfather wronged me, but it started way before his last day in Sicily.”

My phone buzzed, but as it was still in Lucas’s hand, I could only look at it flash.

“My grandson probably?” Callum asked, studying me. He gestured toward the phone with his cigar. “You want to answer it? I can wait.”

I twitched, the dare in this man’s voice evident. Especially since he’d said he didn’t want us to have any distractions when he spoke to me.

I stayed in my place, not sure what would happen if I didn’t. I didn’t know if Callum had a weapon, but I was definitely aware of Lucas’s. He was his bodyguard. I swallowed. “Are you going to kill me?”

His brow lifted, slow with the question. He tapped off some ash in an ashtray Lucas provided. “What makes you think I’d want to kill you, or that I’d ever have any desire to do that?”

“I don’t know.” My voice shook, watching Lucas. He took a new position by the window, but it’d be naive of me to head for the door behind my chair. Stupid. I faced Callum. “Besides the fact you’re keeping me here, you just said you killed my grandfather.”

And he’d obviously hated him. I didn’t know what that had to do with me, but he was keeping me here.

“I did say that,” he stated, the admittance clenching my stomach, racing my heart. He crossed his legs at the knee. “But this was penance. I don’t do anything unless it’s necessary, and I very much want you alive. Like I said, I have a proposal for you.”

“Which is?”

“First is that you hear me out.” He waved a hand. “And though some of this may be hard for you to hear, painful, I hope, by the end, you’ll understand. It’d be wise of you, for yourself as well as your family. You seem to find a lot of people in your life you care about these days. Family and friends.”

So that was definitely a threat, the breath coming out short from my lips, choppy. “What is all this, Callum?”

And what, upon me hearing, would be painful.

His silence felt like the prelude to that, and when he puffed out more smoke, I nearly did gag. His smile was small. “You are beautiful, you know that? I can see why my grandson is enamored with you.” My stomach soured, and his grin widened. “Surely, you know how beautiful you are?”

“Stop please.” I swallowed down the bile. “You’re making me uncomfortable.”

“I don’t want to do that.” He nearly sounded genuine. “I do find you lovely, and I want you to see that by the end of the conversation. I admire you, Sloane. You’re strong. Resilient. Whatever life has tossed your way, you’ve navigated those waters and brilliantly.” He laughed a little. “How you didn’t know you weren’t Godfrey and Marilyn Sloane’s child, I have no idea. Your adoptive father, though a good man, was very weak and your adoptive mother the same.”

“They didn’t adopt me. They kidnapped me.”

“Actually, it was an adoption, and one I made happen almost legitimately,” he admitted, my eyes wide. His head cocked. “Surely, you didn’t believe Godfrey, as weak as he was, could have pulled off such a feat on his own. The man could barely get himself out of bed most days, and your adoptive mother wasn’t far off from that before her accident. She had such issues having children before Bruno came along and was just as depressed because of it. At least, that was what my people told me from the therapist records we acquired.”

I didn’t get any of this, my palms sweating and dampening the leather under my hands. “You kidnapped me?” The words drifted away from my lips whispered, panicked. “You took me?”

Callum’s focus on me didn’t waver, his face barely made out through the cloud of smoke that thickened the air around him. His lips turned down. “I told you some of this would be painful for you to hear, and it doesn’t please me to see you in pain. I’ve grown quite fond of you, Sloane. Truly.”

My throat jumped, and he set his cigar on the ashtray Lucas, once again, provided. The man actually lifted it for Callum’s use, and it seemed Lucas wasn’t just a bodyguard, but a henchman in the truest of forms.

Callum’s nod of gratitude was small in Lucas’s direction, his attention shifting to me. “I didn’t take you personally.”

“But you had people do it?” My throat jumped again. “Was it even Godfrey?”

“The particulars don’t matter there,” he said, his voice passive as if it really didn’t matter. As if this wasn’t my whole fucking life, and he’d, apparently, been the puppet master tugging the strings. “But yes, I orchestrated it. You being with Godfrey and Marilyn served a purpose, and it was something I made happen, yes.”

“Why?” I scanned Lucas when he moved to Callum’s side again. He simply stood by his charge, his master.

“That unfortunately lies with your dead grandfather, the why,” he said, his head tilted. “The origin of which started that day he asked me to help cover up the murder of one of my son’s friends.”

“Dorian’s aunt?”

His eyes flicked my way. “Yes. I wasn’t lying to you when I told you my son was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The Prinze name couldn’t be associated with any of that.” He waved his hand, dismissive. “My son was foolish and got himself swept up in trouble. He needed to be rescued, and fortunately for him, I was around.”

He sounded like he had no remorse, none at all. “What does that have to do with me?”

“Oh, everything, dear girl.” He smiled, the cigar returning to his lips. He drew long and hard off it before pointing it in my direction. “You see, your grandfather was a cheat, and though I wanted to help my son, I valued what your grandfather offered a bit more. He said if I helped him and your great-uncle, he’d give me a sizable stake in his company Mallick Enterprises, a promise, in the end, he never fulfilled despite me holding up my end of the bargain.”

His phone rang, and he checked it, as if this conversation truly meant nothing to him. He chose not to answer and after, sat back.

“So, you’re saying this is revenge?” I asked and froze when he leaned forward. The move hadn’t been done like an old man, but one with physical power and influence.

And the look in his eyes…

Dorian had told me I’d always see a monster in him, but even with what he’d told me, I never saw that in his eyes. In fact, when we’d talked about that summer, I’d seen nothing but a scared little boy in his ebony irises. I’d seen someone who’d made a mistake and was remorseful. I saw no remorse in his grandfather’s eyes now.

Only vengeance.

“It shouldn’t have had to be that way, though,” Callum said, the words chilling me. He sighed. “But your grandfather was smart and picked up that I’d bribed quite a few of his shareholders out of their shares. Their stake and what your grandfather had promised me would have given me quite a bit of control over your family’s company.” He laughed a little. “Ibrahim obviously hadn’t liked that. He reneged on his promise, had his people tell me why, and though I understood, I gave him one last opportunity to make us square. We were both going to prison for what we did with the cover-up, but he could go an honest man. I said if he didn’t make us right, I’d take what I wanted anyway. Take what he loved and make him feel it.”

My lungs squeezed, his continued smoking not helping.

Callum wet his lips. “I think back then he thought I meant his company, but I wanted to take everything he loved.” He smiled as if recalling a fond memory. “Anyway, I’ll never know. I obviously didn’t see him after he and I went away to prison. I had people on the outside, though, and had them monitor him, as well as the rest of your family. I saw an opportunity with you and your brother Ares’s births, and I took it.”

He passed Lucas a look, and out of nowhere, the man pulled a file, paperwork. It was handed to me, but I didn’t open it. “What’s this?”

“Take a look for yourself,” Callum said.

I didn’t, feeling there was more games here. I already thought I was going to throw up, and Lucas had to physically open the file for me in the end.

I recognized the paperwork. There was a lot of it, but I did recall most. After Godfrey had initially died, I’d gotten this stuff at the will reading when Callum had been named Bru’s guardian. Bruno was a minor, so he needed one.

“You’ll recall your signatures,” Callum said, a lot of signatures in my face. Callum and his team had had me sign all this stuff that day, things for the funeral he’d said. I didn’t understand why he was giving me all this now, though. His lips lifted. “You gave me… everything you own, sweetheart.”

I said nothing, my mouth dry.

“Control over all your assets,” he continued, sitting back. “You signed everything you own over to me to aid your adoptive father’s funeral expenses.” A slight laugh escaped his lips. “You were so adamant about helping.”

“I…” I gazed down. I had wanted to help. He’d been a stranger, and I hadn’t wanted to take anything from him. He’d convinced me eventually, worn me down.

“You signed everything we gave you, but granted, I’m sure you didn’t know how much you were worth.”

I dropped the folder, all those documents I’d naively signed on the floor.

“What used to be yours is mine now, and thank you for that.” His eyes warmed. “Once you turned eighteen, you got access to your own shares in Mallick Enterprises, as well as what your late grandfather left for you, and since you’re still technically, legally Pilar Mallick you can do that.”

“This was about money,” I gasped, things suddenly blurry. I fought the tears, the heat in my throat. “You took me from my family over money!” I started to get up, but Lucas moved his hand.

He flashed his gun.

I wasn’t in control of this situation, Callum was, and it seemed like for quite a long time. I sat down, and he had Agnes come in. She picked up all the paperwork I’d dropped like a good little servant, placing it on the table between Callum and me.

She stepped out, and I heard the blood pound in my ears, the nausea surfacing.

“I told my old friend I would take everything from him. I left his family intact, but I’m sure it was never right after you were gone.”

I ached, rocking in my chair.

“And he was a friend, you know.” Callum frowned. “Your grandfather and I had an upstanding relationship. We ruled this city together with some of our closest in the community.”

I barked a laugh, a raspy, thick laugh. He made himself sound as if royalty, a king.

Callum leveled me with a look. “You served a purpose, Sloane, and I’m sorry you had to pay for your grandfather’s lies. Your grandfather had a debt to pay, and it’s unfortunate you were needed to settle the score.”

“Why bring me back at all?” I ground out, the gut-churning pain physically causing tremors to hit my body, my hands. I held them. “Why bother with all that? You obviously got what you wanted.”

And none of it required bringing me back here. Especially if he wanted revenge.

A smile touched his eyes again. “You are smart, and that’s why you’re here instead of six feet under yourself.”

I jolted, quivering, and Callum put his cigar down.

“Though, heaven help you, that had nothing to do with your late caregivers.” His expression tugged at clever, coy. “You could be right where they are now due to their stupidity, but gratefully for you, you had a willingness to survive that by far exceeds them and their foolishness.” He got up, gooseflesh hitting my arms. Lucas returned Callum’s cane, and the older man used it to navigate to the fireplace. He stoked the flame. “Marilyn tried to take you back here once. Playing the hero.”

“What?”

Our gazes clashed, his cold, chilled. “She was a very stupid woman who couldn’t count her blessings. She and Godfrey tried for years to have children and racked up the medical debt to prove it. It proved fruitless, and all the medical debt did was make them vulnerable. Godfrey was a good man, though. Loyal, and a fine employee on the payroll. I had my people pay off his debts while I was in prison, with only one caveat.”

I studied him, and he stood tall.

“To return the favor one day if I needed.” He smiled, again as if to a memory. “He took the money. They all take the money, and eventually, they did have a child on their own. Your brother Bru. I had you delivered to them around that time. You needed a place to stay until you were eighteen and I could take everything your grandfather owed me.”

“You said she took me back here?” I asked, and he nodded.

“Tried to, foolish woman,” he spat, and I sneered. He shook his head. “She found out your mother Brielle worked as a headmaster at the school and tried to take you there one day. Of course, all that did was get her killed and you hurt. From what I heard, something in the building made you scared. You ran from her and hit your head. Fell and got a pretty ugly scar on your wrist.”

I played with it, the scar.

“Have you been here before? In Maywood Heights?”

Ares’s question that day by the graffiti wall haunted me. He and Brielle had both asked me if I’d been here, but I didn’t remember.

Callum said I’d hit my head, had gotten… scared. I’d had dreams recently of a monster, something trying to eat me, and if Marilyn had tried to take me back to the headmaster’s office, something definitely stood out about that location.

The king busk.

The gorilla head was scary there.

Had she really gotten me that close? What had to have been only feet away from my mother? My real mother.

“Got her killed?” I blinked down tears, so much making sense now. I must have lost my bracelet that day, the necklace I wore now.

Callum frowned. “I don’t take kindly to deceit, which is what Marilyn did when she decided to go back on the debt Godfrey owed. She became a liability after that.” He stoked the flame again, sighing. “And poor Godfrey spiraled after. His grief made him foolish. He ended up taking you and Bruno and disappearing for years after that. I don’t know if he was trying to be a hero too or what. Must have been, but my people did ultimately catch up with him.”

I glanced down, tears coating my braced hands. He’d tried to help me? They both had?

And died for it.

“I told him he had only one way to make it right, and he did decide to do the right thing when it was all said and done.” Using his cane, Callum stood before the flames, the shadows on his face dark and demonic but only due to his lack of expression. He didn’t care about anything he was telling me. At least, his face didn’t. It was like he was a complete sociopath.

And maybe he was.

I obviously didn’t know him, knew nothing.

“He helped me bring you back here and did pay for it with his life,” he said. “Like I said, a good man. He was willing to fall on the sword so I could get what I needed. His debt paid.”

So, Callum was in on it the whole time, Godfrey faking his death… everything.

“You haven’t said why you brought me back.” I stood, noticing eyes on me. Lucas was still here, but I didn’t fucking care. I swallowed. “You got what you wanted. My money. Power.” My voice quivered, laced with emotion. “Why bother bringing me back to my family?”

For that question, Lucas interceded again. He pulled something out of his jacket, giving it to me. It was a picture of me, but one taken without my consent. I was sketching on the old stoop of the last house we’d lived in with Godfrey, my head down, legs out and ankles crossed. I had my earbuds in and had escaped the world.

At least, I thought I had.

“You changed it.”

My head shot up, Callum too close. He stood before me, tobacco and aftershave clouding the air around me. He reached out and flicked my hair off my shoulder. I twitched, but that didn’t stop him from reaching for me again.

I wanted to gag.

The stomach acid literally shot up into my throat, his fingers guiding down my bare shoulder. I’d taken off my coat and left it with his servants.

I jerked my shoulder away, and he smiled.

“You were supposed to die, you know,” he said, my lungs freezing. “But you changed that. You’re right. I could have easily gotten what I needed from you, then taken you out.”

“But you didn’t.” I looked at him through watery eyes, his head shaking.

“I did let you live, Sloane. I gave you a chance to be here and back with the people who love you the most. I even let Bruno live. I was going to get rid of him too. Especially after I decided to do what I was going to do with you.”

Shaking, I stepped back. “What are you talking about?”

“Why, his illness, of course.” He placed both hands on the top of his cane, rubbing the jewel. “I was going to take care of him right then, but ultimately, decided against it.” He frowned. “I guess I knew what that would do to you.”

He got closer again, and I did gag. Especially when he put his hand on my jaw, the pads of his fingers rough, calloused. With as much money as he must have had, he’d clearly done things with his hands.

Preformed deeds just as dark.

His thumb grazed my lip, but when I attempted to tug my jaw away, he didn’t let me. He gripped it, his hold solid, unyielding. He forced me to look at him. “I told you I had a proposition, and one that can make everyone in this situation happy. You, Bruno… You know, he’ll do anything I want him to, right? He does because he trusts me.”

He did trust him, but only because he didn’t know the facts.

“And if for some reason that changes, I can make sure he’s neither seen nor heard from again.” His fingers bit into my jaw. “Just because I’m keeping him alive for you doesn’t mean he has to see the light of day.”

He kept saying that, keeping him alive for me and knowing what the alternative would do to me. He’d said I had changed things.

“And if you agree to what I have to say, it also works out for your family as well,” he continued. “It does because I won’t dissect your family’s company piece by piece.”

I winced, my swallow hard. “What do you want?”

“For you to keep everything, have everything,” he said, his voice tender now, his touch. His grip loosened the same time he guided his finger through my hair. Tears fell from my eyes, but he merely looked at them, scanning my face. It was like he was a fucked-up scientist and I was simply his petri dish. “I need a companion, Sloane. Someone to tend to me as I’m getting along in years. I don’t plan to work this hard forever, and I’d like to settle down and be with someone.”

The air fell from my lips. “You want me to be with you?” I couldn’t even… “Like with you?”

I thought I really was going to be sick now, trembling when he lifted my face.

“It doesn’t have to be what you think or even physical.” He touched my lip. “Though, I’d enjoy that. In all honesty, I can and already do have others fulfilling that obligation. They’re nice, but they do come and go. What I’m looking for really is just someone to be there. A constant in my life, a partner and equal. You’re young and still have time to be that for me.”

I didn’t know what would make me throw up the most. He’d given me plenty of options.

“I’d simply like you to be around for me.” His hands braced my arms. “A friend and confidant, and if you want more, that’s fine. If you don’t, that’s fine too, and you can take on suitors if you need that. I just want to make you happy.”

Like a sugar daddy.

Oh fucking God…

“I find myself enamored with you too, Sloane, and it only deepened when I met you. Before I did, you were just a file of information. Facts, but that changed.” He squeezed my arms. “You showed me who you are, your fight. The adversity and challenges you continue to rise above showed me your strength, and I’d like to take care of you if you’d let me.”

I didn’t know what to say to that. I couldn’t say fucking anything, completely disgusted by all this and whatever crazy shit he had to have in his head about me and us.

“You’re strong, and I find I need that in my life.” He scanned my face. “And what’s good for you is you’ll get a say in what happens to your family’s assets. In fact, I’d give you complete control of it. Once you graduate and we go away together, we can make that happen.”

He was sick, truly. My jaw moved. “And so the fact that I have a relationship with your grandson means nothing?” My voice quivered. “The fact that I love him and he loves me means nothing?” We did love each other. I loved him so much. I lifted my chin. “You’d do that to him?”

“Love is fleeting, Sloane.” His hands left me, and I nearly fell to the floor I was shaking so bad. “Like I said. You’re young. You both are, and you’ll get over it.”

I trembled.

“And everything I do is with my grandson in mind. He’ll get everything after I’m gone. Control over Mallick included.” He smirked at me. “But I suppose, by then, he won’t even want you.”

The metaphorical dagger shot through my chest, the pain of even the thought of that causing me to sag forward.

“You’re fucked in the head,” I stated, my throat clenching. “You can’t possibly think I’d actually—”

“The alternative is, well…” He paused, his head tilting as if almost considering. “The alternative is you lose everything you love. Needless to say, I’ll make sure your grandfather’s legacy turns to ash and all the people in your new life will suffer for it. People like your mom, your dad, and your twin. As far as Bruno, he does do anything I say. I’ll make sure he lives a life far away from you, and I can do that since I’m technically still his guardian. I’d not test me here, Sloane. This plan was over twenty years in the making and long before you. You can make things harder for the people in your life, or not, but the decision is ultimately up to you. I’ll leave that for you to decide.”

He walked off, as if I were nothing, and this was nothing. Like he wasn’t trying to take any more than he already had from me.

“You did get Dorian arrested, didn’t you?” I asked, wondering why. I blinked down more tears. “You did that and threatened his mother?”

The answer seemed clear, and it was so crazy how what had started as a need for clarity had turned into this, as well as how I’d ever, ever doubted the man I loved.

Maybe I’m the monster.

“I didn’t get him arrested, Miss Sloane. You did,” Callum stated, shocking me. He picked up his cigar. “The tracking devices in the phones I gave you and Bru helped with that, and as far as threatening my grandson’s mother, I’ll do whatever I have to do to make sure I’m a part of his life.” His words were serrated, deadly. I saw a peek at the monster again, and he let me see that. He pointed his cigar at me. “I’d think real carefully about your next moves, Sloane. Because you see, whatever you do next will affect everything in your life as you know it.”

I knew it would because lately, that was all I seemed to do. Everything I did affected everyone. It hurt everyone, and I was so sick and tired of it. I wouldn’t let anyone else get hurt.

I wouldn’t let anyone else pay for my grandfather’s sins.