Stolen Beauty (Jackson Family 1)

“So, you then thought it would be okay for him to try to kill Emmaline?!” I barked down at her. “Let’s not forget that part!” She sobbed. “You’re dying here today no matter what the fuck you say,” I warned her. “I don’t care what kind of shit you and Dad had between you two. I tried for years to give you the benefit of the doubt, that maybe he just had his claws sunk into you so deep that you felt trapped – like his command was the only way you knew how to stay alive.”

I released her and paced away, shaking my head. “But then I did some digging this morning – found out that you had affairs, that you were ordering hits on him behind his back – though you failed at that shit.” I turned my stormy gaze to her traitorous face again. “So, let’s see if I have this correct now.” She only watched me with fear in her eyes. “Darren and I mean the world to you, right? We’re the only good things that came out of your marriage with Dad.” I clasped my hands behind my back and slowly paced the floor in front of her. “You faked your happiness with Emmaline, making her believe that you actually gave a fuck.” I shook my head with a humorless laugh, rage making me see red. She’d played with my woman’s feelings. That alone was enough to sign her death certificate. “You know, she actually somewhat tried to defend your actions last night?” I asked her. “My woman has such an innocent soul – tries her best to see the good in everyone, and she tried her best to see the good in you, too.”

“James, I love you,” my mom pleaded. I scoffed. “I know I did a lot of fucked up shit, but please, just give me a chance to make this right.”

I shook my head. “I don’t give second chances, Mom,” I reminded her. “Especially not since you played with my woman’s feelings. Not to mention, you’ve been a shady bitch my entire life. You had years after I took over to take me up on my offer to save you, and you stayed. You faked your happiness of my relationship with Emmaline just so you could stab her in the back and come out the victor in the end – or so you had hoped. You probably would have come here and taken care of me and helped me take revenge on father.” A careless, cold smirk twisted my lips. Her face paled at the sight of it. “But shit didn’t go according to plan, did it? You expected Alfonso to follow through on his orders. You never expected me to find out about it and for Emmaline to escape. You knew shit was going to come out into the open, so you tried to kill Adrian to shut him up.”

I stepped towards her. “That’s where you fucked up. You were just shy of hitting an artery and forever killing my second in command.” She swallowed thickly. “It takes training to hit where you did, but my guess is that it wasn’t exactly the spot you were aiming for, was it? You wanted to aim just a little bit higher, but Adrian was moving, so it made it harder for you to hit the perfect spot.” My smirk widened. “And then, he came back and told me everything.”

I rolled my neck around. “Everything done in the dark eventually comes into the light, Mother. And all of your dirty little secrets have finally come out. I know everything, and Darren is currently being informed as we speak.” I shrugged. “Too bad he won’t get to do this himself considering I’m sure he’s really fucking pissed that he got sent away for your mistake.”

That was another thing I’d found out. She’d sabotaged the weapons exchange at the docks, thinking my father would be there, but instead, it was Darren, and he took the fall for her mistake.

“I didn’t know he was going to be there,” she whispered.

I shrugged. “You should have thought about that before you set up that exchange to be sabotaged. Father was ill that day; you should have known that he would have sent either me or Darren out instead, and you still didn’t call it off. And you had the audacity to sit there in the courtroom and bawl your eyes out as if you actually felt sorry for him.” I laughed as I shook my head. “You’ve crossed all of us wrong, Mother.” I pulled my gun out of my blazer. “And you seriously fucked up when you went along with the hit on Emmaline. I might have found the heart to forgive you for everything else, but you fucked with my queen. That has serious consequences.”

I shoved the barrel of my gun under her chin. She cried, her hands wrapping around my wrists to pull the gun away, but I was a hell of a lot stronger than she was. “Any last words, Mom?”

“That woman of yours will be your undoing, James. She’s going to cross you, too,” she whispered, malice for Emmaline slicing through her words.

I smirked down at her, quiet anger simmering beneath my mask as I met her eyes. “She’s the only person in this world that I would gladly allow to betray me. I’d even let her live afterward,” I told her, meaning every word of it. She had the audacity to glare at me. I grinned as I shoved the barrel of my gun into her mouth, my eyes steady on hers. She began to panic. “Burn in Hell.”

With that, I pulled the trigger, splattering her skull all over the walls, her blood painting my face, hands, and shirt.