Anton still looks blank and the fact that he still hasn’t worked out who I am speaks volumes. “Rochelle and Jacob Daniels. You gave a knife to a kid and beat him until he had no other choice but to slice it along my mother’s throat.”
Understanding dawns in Anton’s eyes and his only reaction is to press his lips into a thin line. “What do you want from me?”
“I want you to suffer. I want you to feel the pain of what it’s like to watch your parents being slaughtered right in front of you and knowing that there’s not a thing you can do to stop it. I want you to feel the fear of sitting in a cold basement, terrified that you’ll never make it out alive, terrified that your little brother is just moments from dying in your arms. I want you to feel what it’s like being sold to a rapist who sneaks into your room at night and takes what he wants despite you screaming for him to stop.”
“I can’t control other’s actions.”
“No, but you put me there. You stole me from my home. You took our parents and then you took our freedom and you need to be punished.”
He rattles the chains on his wrists. “Take a look around you, girl. I am being punished.”
“Not enough.”
Anton sits back and lets out a heavy sigh, watching the emotions written all over my face and finally realizing the real reason I’m here. “What do you want to know?”
“The kid,” I find myself saying. “Who was he?”
“Why?”
“Because I fucking asked, that’s why. Who is he?”
“His name is Samuel Mathers. He is my son.”
I suck in a sharp breath. “But you beat him. You forced him to kill my mother. You made him slice her throat and stab her until she died. What the fuck is wrong with you? What kind of monster are you? Who does that to their child?”
“I was teaching him an important lesson.”
“You were teaching him how to do your dirty work, you pig.”
Anton sits forward, slamming his hand down on the table. “I was teaching him that in this life you have to take what you want. When someone disrespects you, you punish them and no one disrespects me or my family. I was teaching him how to be a man worthy of the Mathers name.”
“You’re despicable. Tell me, does your son love you?” His jaw clenches and realizing I’ve hit a sore spot, I keep prodding. “Does he come and visit you? Does he share his life with you?”
Anton’s cold eyes blaze as he seethes through his teeth. “What is the purpose of you being here?”
“Why did you do it? Why did you kill them? They were good people.”
“Whether they were good people or not, it didn’t matter. They had a debt to pay. It’s just business, kid. That’s how it works.”
“So, you just killed them with no regard for their lives, their children?”
“It’s not my job to care.”
My hands curl into fists and I feel my nails digging into my palms once again, only this time, they’re drawing blood. “Then why did you take me and Blake? You killed them. They’d already paid their debt with their lives.”
Anton laughs and the sound chills my bones. “You don’t know, do you?”
“Know what?”
“Your parents were never the target. You and your brother were.”
I rear back, my brows furrowing in confusion. “What? We were just kids. How could we have been the targets?”
“Because Maria Valentine made you the target. It was just sheer luck that your parents happened to be in my debt. They still had three weeks to pay, but I cut it short for a little entertainment. It made for an interesting night.”
Fury pumps through my veins but I put it to the back of my mind. I can process that shit later, but for now, I need to understand what the fuck Maria Valentine had to do with this. “What are you talking about?”
“Maria wanted you. She wanted to take everything from Rochelle, so she took what she valued most.”
“You’re lying,” I demand. “Maria is a bitch but she wasn’t behind this. You were. You and Lucien.”
“Lucien couldn’t tell his ass from his nose. Maria has him on strings like a little puppet. Always has and always will.” His eyes glisten with excitement and as he leans forward, I know I need to start preparing myself. “Where do you think she gets it from? She is my cousin after all. It’s in her DNA.”
My heart races. No.
All this time I was wrong. I thought Lucien was the devil of the family. Turns out, Maria with her fake titties is even worse. She is the one who did this. I always assumed it started with Anton needing to settle the debt with my parents but it was Maria. She is the one responsible for my parents’ deaths, she is the one who had us taken, and she is the one who kept us locked up in her ivory mansion, all because she was jealous of my mother in high school.