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My insides were cold, contracting. It felt like I’d just been punched right in the gut. I shook my head. “That… that’s impossible.”
“Contraceptive shots aren’t a hundred percent effective. Close, but not quite. Sometimes one just slips through.”
Instinctively, one of my hands went to my belly. The nausea, the tiredness, all the other weird symptoms I’d been getting lately… I thought it was just a bug, or a virus, or stress. I hadn’t even considered that I might be pregnant.
“So you’re going to kill me because of that?” I said, my stomach churning. Just when I thought this place couldn’t be any more twisted, it turned out that another bombshell was awaiting me in the darkness, ready to explode and shatter my whole world.
He let out a derisive snort. His expression was as dark as a black hole. “I don’t want you to have my first grandchild. I want Elias to have children with a girl from a respectable family. A girl with refinement. Elegance. You are none of those things. You are vulgar, insubordinate trash. Not to mention an attempted murderer.”
I gritted my teeth. “For the millionth time, I didn’t kill Ben!”
“I know. I said attempted. I’m referring to the time you stabbed me.”
My eyes widened. I took a step back. “You know I didn’t kill Ben?”
His eyes crinkled around the corners as a devious smile spread across his face. “Of course. Who do you think the court’s secret witness was?”
It felt like the earth had just opened up beneath me. How many more cataclysmic shocks could I handle before I slipped into a state of catatonia, never to return to the real world?
“What did you just say?” I whispered. My legs were shaking so badly I thought I might actually collapse.
Tobias leaned closer, a devious smile playing on his lips. “It was me. Believe it or not, I was there that night. The mansion where that party was held belongs to a friend of mine. I was visiting, but then his daughter decided to throw a rager, so I took a walk along the beach to escape all the noise and annoying young people. I saw exactly what happened between you and Ben. I called the police and told them.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “I… I don’t understand. Why would you do that? Your testimony kept me out of trouble. Why would you let that happen when you obviously hated me so much?”
“I didn’t hate you. I saw an opportunity in you. I knew you would be the perfect girl for Elias. The kind of girl who would force him to follow in my footsteps; make him see what women are really for. But it would only work properly if he hated you. So yes, Iwas the one who kept you out of prison. The courts had to believe the testimony of a relative of Ben, because what reason would I have to lie for the girl who supposedly killed him?”
“So you lied to Elias after that. You made him hate me by pretending you thought I actually killed Ben,” I said flatly.
“Yes. I had some fake wildlife camera footage shot to make it look like you pushed Ben right off the cliff. It wasn’t exactly hard for someone with my money and resources to pull off such an exploit.” He shrugged dispassionately. “I showed it to Elias. Convinced him you were guilty. Told him the footage was deemed inadmissible and quashed during some legal process. All the hate he had in his heart for you after that… I knew it would work. He would pour that hatred into you and become the man I knew he could be. Then he would continue my work with Crown and Dagger, just as I always hoped.”
I took a deep breath, trying to steady my racing heart. “So you were trying to force him to turn out like you. I guess it’s too bad it didn’t work.”
A sneer curled up his lips. “It did.”
I shook my head, my cheeks flaring hot with indignation. “No way. Elias isn’t like you at all.”
Tobias lifted one brow. “I think you’ll find he is.
“No.” I gritted my teeth. “I know your game. You only want me out of the way because you’re worried he might actually have feelings for me. And he does. He told me. He’s fallen for me, and he’s going to help me out of this. He’ll never let you and your cronies murder me, especially once he finds out I’m pregnant.”
He laughed. “Oh, Tatum. You poor, naïve creature. You don’t really believe that, do you?”
I nodded. “I do.”
“In that case, why don’t you listen to this?”
He pulled his cell phone out and clicked a few things on the screen. A recording started playing. The voice was unmistakably Elias.
‘As for why I don’t want to share Tatum,’ he was saying. ‘I have a long-term plan for her, as I was discussing with my father recently.’
‘Please elaborate,’ said another male voice.
‘She can’t be owned by me in the same way you all own your girls, because she genuinely hates me. Hates the King name in general. She had absolutely no idea she would be given to me when she sold herself to the society, and after her subsequent behavior, I quickly realized she would never submit to my ownership with the usual methods.’
‘So what are your new methods, then?’
‘I intend to make her fall in love with me. When I finally let her discover the truth, she will be so crushed that she will become permanently broken. After that, I have a feeling she will become the most submissive sex slave this place has ever seen.’