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Veronica shakes her head, unfazed by the gun now pointed at her. “She broke the curse, Brantley. One of the girls fell pregnant during The Hunt that Saint was present in. She carries the gift from the original Hayes’ witch, passed down from her father. It’s the only reason why I wanted her.”
“She has them because she has—I don’t fucking know—psychic abilities. It’s not fucking magic.”
She tsks, wiggling her finger at me. “Such a skeptic, son. I knew after you told me about her first sleepwalking encounter that she was gifted. I knew right then I needed you to trust me so that when the time came, you would allow me to take her under my wing.” She smiles up at me, and I know right here and now. I know I didn’t inherit my malice from my shitty father. It was all from her. She is why I am the way I am. She is why I will never reproduce children. And Lucan, obviously. “Lucan sniffed me out when I was ten years old. He was already in his early thirties. I was pregnant before my twelfth birthday, birthed you that same year.” Her eyes glass over. “I hated your father, and you were a constant reminder of all I endured. That he made me love him in his sick and twisted web of darkness. I always found myself wanting to please him. Do better. Even though I hated him.”
I pause.
Her mask slips back up as a loud cackle roars out of her. I have to fight all that’s inside of me not to kill her right now. “Every step I took was to earn him back. He eventually came to me. Helped me. We kept the lie that you thought he thought I was dead, because it would be easier for me to play the victim if you knew your father tormented me. He put everything in motion the day that girl walked her bright little soul into the darkness of our manor. I walked from you, from him, to fulfill this, and Brantley, it will be fulfilled. Your father was a powerful man in all the right places. While The Kings were playing god, he was getting dirty with scum, but the scum is what made this happen.” She can’t look at me as she speaks. She’s lying.
“Why. What’s it to Lucan?” I start counting in my head. I can’t be standing here for minutes longer. The more she talks, the angrier I become, but I need answers—and I need all of them before I make a move. A move I don’t even know yet.
“Let me ask you something.” Veronica leans forward, gazing up at me. “All those girls he made you have sex with. All the boys. The videos he made. What did you think that was for? Aside from trying to impregnate girls?”
I hear the beating of blood being pumped through my veins. “What?”
Veronica smirks up at me. “The Vatican, Brantley. They were for The Vatican.”
“The fucking orphanage that Saint was in?”
“Yes.”
I pause. “You told me that she was to wear that emblem. That it was to keep her safe.”
“I lied,” she whispers. “That was just a simple step to see if you trusted me. One of the many steps.”
“The fucking Vatican. Wait.” I squeeze the handle of my gun. “Are you saying she was brought to me for fucking that?”
Veronica shrugs. “Hector, in his defense, didn’t know what The Vatican did with your father. He put Saint in when she was a baby, thinking they would keep her safe. The Vatican called Lucan right away to collect her, that she was to be protected. They urged Hector to take her to Lucan, feeding off of the fact Lucan only cared about the continuation of his bloodline. But then you became fierce over her. Like an animal, unhinged. Lucan couldn’t whisper her name without you flipping your shit, so we had to play it safe and allow you both to come together organically. I wanted Saint, Lucan wanted her to be with child.”
I start pacing because if I don’t, I’m going to kill her and everyone in this house. Fuck if my brothers die. “What do they do to them when they’re in The Vatican?”
“Some are sent to covens, but mostly, they all die if they can’t be sold.”
“Virgins are worth more money. Doesn’t make sense why he would make me fuck them before.”
“Not every man wants a virgin, and you didn’t get them all.”
Saint was sent to me from The Vatican without Hector’s knowledge.
To be a recording.
But Lucan knew she was more worthy than that.
I keep my tone neutral. I don’t want her to notice she has thrown me off-balance. If Lucan was sending them to The Vatican, then that means he had his nails deep into witch business way before we even knew about Saint being gifted. “Why did he do this?”