Page 40 of Broken Obsession

They hadn’t talked in years, but Eden had figured that was because he’d pulled away from everyone. There’d even been fleeting moments where he’d thought of his friend and felt guilt for ghosting him. But now…

To learn this…

He didn’t think he could handle this new information.

There was a click, and a second later, Ares was standing at his side.

“It’s my fault,” Eden whispered. Inzer must have seen his dad counting the coin from the register. Or overheard his parents discussing the bank run planned for the next morning. Either way, he’d believed he’d learned the store's schedule because Eden had brought him there. “I let him in.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong,” Ares disagreed.

Eden reacted without thought, grabbing him by the collar of his sweatshirt. He barely registered the blaster in Ares’ hand, the one he had pointed at Zonnie, or how Ares didn’t botherresisting or fighting back when he shook him. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Sure I do.” His expression remained enigmatic. “We’re talking about revenge. More importantly, we’re talking about who deserves to pay. Eden? That isn’t you. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“No, I—”

“Everyone trusts the wrong person eventually,” he cut him off. “You aren’t special. Come down off your high horse and catch a glimpse of reality. That,” he shook the gun aimed at Zonnie for emphasis, “is who you should be disgusted by. He’s one of the reasons your family is gone. Not you.”

He blinked, some of those words managing to cut through the pit of despair and self-loathing he’d plummeted into. “One of?”

“You heard him, babe.” Ares took a step closer, Eden’s hold loosening in the process, but he still didn’t make him release his grip. “Three. There were three of them that night. And they’re not even the final boss.”

“Final boss?” Eden didn’t care that he’d been reduced to an echo machine. Every word Ares spoke seemed to bring more confusion and more questions.

“Think about it. How could three idiot high school kids, high off their asses on bolt, get away with a messy murder involving an entire family? Did you see the crime scene? I have. There’s a whole filmed walkthrough in the police report. There should have been enough evidence to implement them within an hour of the search beginning, and yet all these years have passed, and still nothing? How is that?”

“The Dephiks.” That was right. That’s what they’d learned from Galen. It’d been a cover-up. A cover-up because the Dephik heir had been involved.

And now he was here. Tied up.

Begging for mercy.

Had Eden’s family begged? His mother?

“He’s so young,” he admitted. He’d been expecting someone older.

“You didn’t look him up after you learned his last name?” Ares asked.

“No.”

“Because?”

“Because you already told me you were going to handle it.” That, and because Galen’s death had affected him more than he’d let on. Or, at least, he’d wanted it to. Eden had been too busy pretending a part of him cared that a man had lost his life. Too busy dealing with his mixed emotions toward Lucifer.

It wasn’t that he hadn’t wanted to find answers now that they’d finally been within his reach, it was more that he knew even if he did, he’d still be powerless.

But not with Ares.

His hands clenched tighter on the thick material of Ares’ sweatshirt, then he forced himself to let go and retreat a full step.

“Do you want him to tell you the rest, or would you prefer I give you the abridged version later?” Ares seemed more than willing to leave all the decision-making up to him.

“Would you call me a coward if I said I don’t want to listen to him say another word?” This was too real. Too much. Eden had come here tonight fully expecting Ares to have found something, but he never would have guessed it would be one of the perpetrators. After years of failures and dead ends, he’d lost hope this day would ever come.

Even after he’d learned Dephik's name, that hope hadn’t returned. If anything, discovering such an influential family was behind it only made things worse for him.

But Ares had kept his word.