Chapter 65: Truths and Lies
Aira’s POV
A groan leaves my lips as I wake up in an unfamiliar room. I take a look around to find that we are in Vincent’s mansion. How did I get back here? I thought I was on my way to get the deed to the company.
My eyes widen slightly as the memories come flooding back in. Oh my God, am I dead?Nôvel(D)rama.Org's content.
This did not feel like a vision, and besides, I had already lost my powers, so there was no way I had crossed over to the dead world. Unless I am never returning, that is.
Tears sting my eyes, and I throw my arms around in frustration. “No! I am not meant to die! If I die, then Alex will as well. I have to find a way back. Maybe there is still time.
“I am surprised you didn’t come with our little niece. Are you ever going to let us meet her?” My head snaps up to find my father, mother, and Vincent together. Marco just offers him a tight smile.
“Maybe one day,” Marco answers coldly, and Vincent places a hand over his chest, feigning hurt.
“You have become quite rude, Marco,” Vincent says before turning his gaze to Caroline. “Please talk to your husband.”
Caroline snorts, “This man doesn’t even listen to me anymore. He is a force that can no longer be stopped.”
“Well, that he is.” Vincent says, clearly dismayed. “Why don’t you join the women in the kitchen? I have a few things I wish to discuss with my brother.”
Caroline and Marco share a glance that suggests that neither of them wanted to leave the other, but they just had to. They share a quick, loving kiss before parting ways. Vincent and Marco walk out to the garden, and they spend the first few minutes in silence.
“What is your secret, Marco? Tell me how you were able to build such an empire in such a short amount of time. You have investors all over the world, and more are flying in just to come offer their contracts to you. But it has taken me over two years to make a million-dollar profit in my tech company. How do you do it?” Vincent asks, clearly desperate for his brother’s answer.
Marco just shrugs. “I suppose it is just sheer luck. Perhaps one of these days I will take a look at your marketing strategy and budgeting and see what it is you are doing wrong.”
It is clear that Vincent did not like Marco’s tone one bit. Even a child could tell that the smile he had plastered on now was fake.
“Or we could just join firms and become one. I feel it would become a much bigger entity if we were partners. What do you say?” Vincent asks his brother, who clearly is not in support of the idea in any way.
“That company belongs to my daughter and no one else. Besides, I am sure you will do just fine on your own,” Marco says before turning his back on his brother to walk back into the building.
A man walks up to Vincent and asks, “Do you still want us to do it?”
“Yes, and do it well.” Vincent says it coldly, and the man nods once before disappearing. Vincent joins the others back inside, and I can’t help but wonder what it was he had told that man to do.
“Come with me.”
My body jolts with surprise as the little boy who had appeared in my last dream does so again. But soon, that panic turns to relief.
“Ah, you are here. Look, I really do not have time. I have to get back and”
“Come with me,” the boy says again, paying no attention to the words that were coming out of my mouth. Begrudgingly, I seal my lips shut and take his hand. We take just one step forward, and we are in a different part of the compound-the front yard, to be precise.
I watched as that man Vincent had spoken to in the garden walked up to a car. He searched his surroundings to make sure that no one was watching him before taking out a dagger and puncturing a tire.
“What the fuck?” I say it out loud.
The second he leaves, Marco and Caroline step out of the house with Vincent and Malaya. Vincent stands on the front porch, waving them goodbye, as Malaya gives my mother a tight hug.
“Say hi to my little niece for me,” Vincent says as he continues to wave goodbye, the smile on his face a bit wider than normal. My eyes widen slightly as I start to put two and two together.
No. This can’t be.
“Wait, don’t get in!” I scream at my parents, but they just walk right past me. They get into the car, and my heart grows heavy as I watch them drive away.
“Did you do it?” Malaya asks Vincent, who nods.
“I hope you said your proper goodbyes, sister. Because that is the last time we are ever going to see our brother again.”
That bastard!
He killed his own brother!
The hatred I feel towards Vincent grows more than ever before. The hatred that I feel towards all of them is like nothing I have ever seen before. How can greed be the reason you would kill your own brother?
“I don’t get it. Why didn’t my father see this?” I ask the little boy, who looks up at me.
“His visions never clearly state what is going to happen. He knew he was going to die, but he just never knew how. The power that both you and your father possessed required great wisdom. It could save lives, but it could also destroy them,” the boy explains, and I shake my head in disbelief.
“Please take me back. I have already lost my powers to him. I can’t lose Alex as well,” I say, feeling tears well up in my eyes. It hurts that my own family will forever be the cause of my own downfall.
The boy takes my hand and says, “There is one last thing I want to show you.”
We take a step forward, and the world around us vanishes. We now stand in a room-a familiar room.
My heart skips a beat when my eyes lock with the warmest pair I have ever seen. Camille.
She is lying on her bed with a picture in her hands, although I could not exactly see it from this angle. From what I can see, she is lying in bed with the same clothes I found her in. This must be the day that she died.
I take a step back. I want to disappear from this scene. “No, please don’t let me watch this. I can’t.”
But the boy does not say a word.
Camille stares at the picture so lovingly, running her finger through it. “I hope I made you proud, little brother, and I didn’t fail you again.”
“Indeed, you have.”
All eyes snapped to the entrance of the door, where Vincent stood tall and mighty. What was he doing here?
Camille didn’t move a muscle as she watched her brother walk up to her and sit beside her on the bed. “What do you want, you demon?”
Vincent places a hand over his chest, feigning hurt. “I simply came to talk. I have missed my big sister quite greatly. How long has it been? Two decades since I last saw you. You don’t even care to check up on any of us. That is not how you treat family.”
“You all stopped being family the moment you killed our brother,” Camille says through grit. Her nose was flaring as she watched Vincent with disgust.
“He was just collateral damage. I was only trying to teach him a lesson. You know how I feel about people who defy me,” Vincent says coldly.
“Ah, yes, I do. You get them out of the way,” Camille states, knowing her brother all too well.
Vincent grins and brings her lips closer to his sister’s ear. “And since you know just how far I can go for people who defy me, you would do well to answer my questions. Where. is . my . niece?”
For a moment, Camille doesn’t say anything. She just looks at Vincent with a stone-cold face. “I would rather die than let you go anywhere near her.”
Vincent purses his lips, then nods slowly. “Then so be it.”
What happens next must be tagged as one of the most horrifying scenes I have ever witnessed.
Vincent raised his hand in the air and clenched his fist. And just like that, all the air in the room seized.
Camille’s eyes widen as she struggles for breath. She desperately tries to get up, but Vincent holds her down by pinning her by the chest. She tries to fight him off, but clearly, their strengths are unmatched.
Tears brimmed my eyes as all I could do was stand there and watch Camille fight for her life. But soon, that fight begins to lessen, and her body starts to grow slack.
“It’s about time you finally get some rest, sister.”
A tear slides down Camille’s face as she watches her brother take her own life. She slumps on the bed, unmoving, with her eyes still open. When Vincent shut her eyes, I knew that it was already done.
His attention falls on the picture in her hands, and he takes it.
“Oh, don’t look at me like that, Marco. If you all agree with me, none of this would have happened,” Vincent says to the picture as he walks out of the room. Before he is completely out, I manage to get a glimpse of the picture.
No way.
I look down at the little boy standing beside me with amazement, almost too scared to utter the word that I have been longing to call a man for years.
“Dad?”
For the first time since I have encountered him, he smiles. He transformed before me into his devilishly handsome adult self, and my heart grew heavy. Tears begin to spill out of my eyes as the man I have desperately wanted to meet now stands before me.
And then, I hugged him.
I hug him so tight that I never want to let go. I let the tears I had been holding back for the past few years fall violently.
“I wish you were really here; none of this would have happened because I would have had you to protect me.” I sob into his chest as he caresses my hair.
“I will always be there to protect you, my little one. Always,” he pulls away from me and takes my face in his hands. “But now I want you to fight. Vincent needs to be put on hold.”
“But dad, I can’t sacrifice Alex. I love him too much,” I say through my sobs, and he smiles at me softly, looking at me wholesomely.
“I know what it is like to be in love. You would sacrifice the world for them, but my dear, I am telling you that some sacrifices are worth making,” he says, and I take a step away from him. I stared at him in disbelief.
“What are you trying to say? That I should let my mate die?”
“It is not just you who is in danger here. This city, this world, and everyone in it will be in danger if you sign that deed in Vincent’s name. There is a certain power locked within the deeds of the Kingston empire-the power that orbits every power of every Kingston that ever lived. That is why Vincent wants it so badly. It was infused in there after the last vessel could no longer hold it in.” My father explains, but I still shake my head in refusal.
“A life full of power yet void of love and warmth is not a life worth living. I will save Alex,” I say decisively, and I am shocked when a proud smile lifts his lips.
“You really are my daughter,” he says, taking my face gently into his hand and placing a soft kiss on my forehead. “I just want you to know that no matter what, a sacrifice is inevitable.”
He starts to vanish from my sight, and a wave of panic rushes over me.
“But dad, wait.”
My eyelids part, and I shoot up into a sitting position. Desperately filling my lungs with air. My eyebrows furrow as I take a look at my arm; there is blood on it but no cuts or bruises of any kind. I thought, with my powers gone, that accident would have killed me.
I look around to see that I am in some kind of hut. Where am I, and how did I get here?
“It is about time you woke up. I thought you were on a tight deadline.”
My eyes snapped to meet the eyes of a woman I never thought I would see again.
“Moriah.”