Page 218 of Endgame

“I would’ve been with her!” Aurora’s teeth are bare, and I see it now. It’s her anger spilling out of her.

Pride fills my chest at the sight. How she’s pulled herself together. How she won’t go down without a fight. It’s awe-inspiring. It also gets my dick hard.

“You tortured me.” The venomous words and the way she delivers them send another surge of pride through me. “You had something to do with my mother’s death. You’re the reason I’ll always be a product of rape.”

His mouth opens to cut her off mid-sentence. I take an intimidating step toward him. That silences him.

“Both of you.” When she lifts her left hand, her ring reflects the soft light in the room. The light dances on the walls as her hand quivers. As she expands her lungs to say her piece. “You wanna talk about what you’ve given me? To my family? Heartache. Trauma. Death. It’s all on you.”

Winston has the nerve to appear bored. He sighs, looking at me. “Is she done?”

I sure as fuck am. Done, as in done being polite. Done pretending to be civil.

Just because I won’t kill him, doesn’t mean I can’t hurt him in other ways.

He approached us while she talked and is so close now that one step is all it takes for me to reach him. Hand around his throat, I push him to the floor, going to my knees beside him.

“Leave him alone!” Molly screams, but is smart to stay in place.

I growl, squeezing his putrid breath out of him.

He claws at my hand.

It’s no use.

He and I both know it.

“Aurora,” I call her without looking away from her piece of shit father. “Come here.”

Her ballet flats are silent as she pads toward me. She rests her hand on my shoulder, careful as if she were handling a wild animal.

“Thank you.” Emotions thicken her voice.

I shake my head. “Winston here asked whether you were done or not.”

I might be her husband, but her jailer? No. Fuck that.

The reason I’m asking is for her. So that our enemies can see Aurora is a powerful woman, not my prisoner.

“I’m not.” The warmth of her envelops me once she kneels beside me. “Why did you let me live, Winston?” She chokes at the end of the sentence. “Why did you have to kill her? Why?”

I wrap my free arm around her waist.

Winston looks from her to me. Then at the closed doors. He’s listening to the commotion downstairs, assessing just how bad things are.

Very bad.

“We know you raped my sister. We aren’t here to pull a confession out of you.” I tighten my grip on him until his lips turn blue. “In addition to Lotus’s diaries, we have a court order to obtain your DNA and prove that you’re the father. We have Aurora’s testimonial about the years-long abuse. It’s just amatter of time until your staff cracks and cuts the deals I pre-approved today and rats on you. You’ll be put behind bars no matter what you say, so might as well tell the truth.”

“What—” The breath he’s been working so hard to take turns into a cough. The satisfying sound vibrates beneath my palm. “What’s in it for me?”

I pull his head up, only to slam it back down. His skull makes a nauseating sound as it connects with the floor.

“Asshole.” Aurora joins me, slapping him hard. Again. Again. “What’s in it for you? What’s. In. It. For. You?”

At this rate, she’s going to lose it altogether.

He’ll laugh when that happens. Nothing will please him more than Aurora breaking down.