Page 122 of Tangled Lies

“It was for your own good, Margaux. The Thornes would have given you status,” he said before spitting out blood.

I studied him. I wanted to understand.

“Tell me, Uncle. When exactly did you lose your mind? When did the human part of you die leaving this little empty shell of a psychopath?”

When he smiled, blood covered his teeth, leaving me with a memory I knew would either haunt me or give me peace. I assumed peace was more like it.

“Oh, my pet, do you think your father had a soul any more than me? Do you think anyone can climb and climb and reach the top of the tower without sacrifices that would have destroyed any moral part of you?” my uncle asked the rhetorical question.

I thought about it, and then I realized it didn’t matter.

“I fail to understand how every little scar you placed on my body would have ever helped you climb anywhere. My father, evil or not, knew I would marry whoever he wanted me to, and my trust fund proves that.”

I stood up, and Ronan came over toward my uncle, holding out an email like he would have time to read it.

“The lawyer sent over some basic information for me. He’ll be meeting with us tomorrow. However, it looks like Margaux’s trust fund was never anyone’s but hers and mine. You were never going to get it. Not the Thornes, not my father. Even in death, her father protected her, soulless or not.”

For the first time in my life, I had the power.

“My father, dear uncle, made sure I was worth more to Ronan and the Barone’s alive than dead. Even more though, he made sure I couldn’t have gotten what you coveted so much had I married anyone else. So even though I am already legally married, you were going to lose.”

My uncle remained kneeling, his face a mess of blood and an emotion I don’t think he could identify.

“That feeling inside you, the one that has you suddenly feeling a bone chilling cold? That’s called fear, Senator,” Ronan said as he stood up and Talon walked over.

Talon handed me a knife.

“Princess, you have a lot of choices. You seem to do well with a knife though. What would you like to do to your uncle before we move on to Angelino over there?” Talon asked.

I had choices, and I liked it.

I could remember every strike of the belt on my skin. I could remember how it felt when the vase he threw at me shattered around my legs. I could remember going to bed hungry and waking up starved with no promise that it would end. I remembered the way it felt to be broken. The feeling that I’d been abandoned by the world and all that was left was hopeless, unending compliance.

“Uncle, do you know what might be the single most horrible thing I can’t ever seem to forget?”

He didn’t answer me, but I continued anyway.

“The emotional abuse of you telling me how worthless I was. The jokes that I was the problem and the reason you couldn’t love me. The games where somehow it was always my fault. Everything was always my fault. But really, Uncle, you know what it all was?”

He watched me through those dark, furious eyes.

“It was that I’m not a fragile little bird. I’m not some princess you can lock away and forget about. You didn’t know I could never be broken because once upon a time I meant the world to someone, and now I get my happily ever after.”

I took the knife, stood tall in my stained wedding dress I hated, and walked right up to my uncle. Knox still held the chain, but I knew my uncle wasn’t going to fight anymore.

“Thanks for nothing, Uncle. See you never.”

Before I could overthink anything, I ran the blade hard against his neck, right where they had told me would strike most quickly. Not because I wanted him to die fast, but because he would just die.

The floor was slick with the fresh blood, and I almost slipped when I turned back to my men.

“What next?” I asked.

Jett’s sweet smile had all the approval in the world.

“Pretty girl, please let me be next. You look so hot like that. I’m in love,” Jett said, his hand clutching his chest.

Ronan pulled my wrist into his hand, and Talon helped guide me away until we stopped by Barone.