Page 49 of The Spare (The King Dynasty #2)

Chapter twenty-nine

The One That Died

B ack at home in New York, I bite my lip, the letter in my possession burning a hole in my pocket. I pull it out as Mason rolls our luggage through the foyer, and I can't even wait for him to put his wallet on the sideboard before I'm bursting at the seams with anticipation.

"Have you seen this?" I say the second we're back in our house and out of earshot of the security .

"Seen what?" He glances down curiously at the piece of paper I'm clenching in my fingers. My hand shakes, just knowing I've hit the jackpot of all jackpots with this letter. A small part of the missing piece of the King Dynasty archives I'd been studying. But a piece nonetheless.

I thrust it at him, eager to get answers. "How come you've never told me about this before?" I say accusatorially.

"About what, Melody?" he says sharply tilting his head. "Jesus, you're practically vibrating."

"Your aunt Stephanie!" I pause at the perplexed look on his face. "The…the second," I whisper, feeling stupid. Suddenly hit with the knowledge that I might have unknowingly stepped into something bad.

"Who?" His eyes meet mine sharply. "What are you talking about?"

I falter, feeling my face pale. "Um…" My fingers tighten, wanting to rewind the last minute of time so I can tear the paper up and act like I'd never seen it.

I have no such luck. Mason takes the paper from me, opening it slowly. I blow out a calming breath in a feeble attempt to still my racing heart as his eyes widen at the beginning contents referencing Richard and William.

"Where did you get this?" he asks. At my silence his eyes go back to mine. "Melody?" I wring my hands as his voice lowers. "Did you steal this from William's library?"

"No!" I snap. "I'm not a thief. I made a copy of it. He's still got the original."

We stare at each other for ten very long seconds before he turns, stepping further into the den, then sitting down on a seat.

He puts his elbows on his knees and reads silently, still as a statue.

His brow furrows, and he sits back in the seat with a rough exhale, scrubbing a hand across his jaw as he holds the paper higher.

When he's finished, his hand falls to his thigh, and he just stares off towards the glass windows.

The second morphs into a full minute of teeth-clenching silence.

"Mason!" I grit out, reaching forward and shaking his arm. He turns his head and looks at me, his eyes roaming my face thoughtfully. "Well?" I ask hopefully.

"I didn't know anything about this," he says in a hollow, almost disembodied voice. "I didn't know I had an aunt….Father's never mentioned any of this." His face is tight with distress, and I knew I was right to wait until we were home before I sprang this on him.

"I'm sorry, Mason," I say quietly, rubbing his thigh, not knowing what to say.

What a horrible family secret.

He shifts in his seat, reaching to pull his phone out of his pocket.

"What are you doing?" My voice is hesitant, hoping to God he's not calling his father.

He works fast, swiping into his phone and clicking a number. "Calling Hendrix." My brows rise at the sound of the phone ringing over the speaker.

"Hey, Mase," Henny answers. "It's good to hear from you. How was your honeymoon?"

"It was amazing, Hendrix, but uh…" Mason trails off, bringing a hand up to scrub down his face. "Hendrix, who's Stephanie?"

"Who?"

"Stephanie."

"Mason, don't be a jerk. You can say the name a million times, and I still won't know what you're talking about.

How am I supposed to know? The only Stephanie I know of works in HR at King Dynasty," he pauses.

"Fuck," he says in a rough tone. "Am I being blackmailed or something?

Goddamn it, Mason. Whatever she's saying, it's not fucking true! Do you hear me?"

Mason sighs, digging his fingers into his eyes and just breathes for a second. My lips tip into a frown and worry fills me at how serious of a situation we're in.

"Mase…." Hendrix says. " Are you okay? What the fuck is going on?"

"No, uh…." Mason scoffs. "Hendrix, I don't know how to tell you this, man..."

There's silence on the phone, and the sound of the door closing loud almost makes me jump. "What happened? Is it Melody?"

"No."

Hendrix pauses. "Is it you?"

Mason's jaw clenches. "I think we need to get Teresa on the phone, Hendrix."

"Oh my God, Mason." Hendrix bites out a curse. "Well, hurry up! Only you could have my ass cheeks clenched like this."

Mason huffs a humorless laugh, not responding to Hendrix's comment as he works to dial Teresa on speakerphone. It doesn't take long for her to answer.

"Hey, bro," Teresa says brightly, and in my mind's eye I can picture her beaming smile.

"How was your honeymoon? Did you have a lot of sex?

" she asks suggestively, and I put my hand over my mouth, blushing, but even her ribbing us about fucking doesn't break Mason from his stoic demeanor.

He just clears his throat and glances back down at the letter in his hand.

"Well, come on, don't be shy. Tell me all about it," she says in a chipper voice.

"It's not like I watched you guys do it like Hendrix did," she cackles, snickering and snorting.

"Hey!" Hendrix butts in, sounding offended. "You weren't supposed to tell him that we told you that. "

"Hendrix, is that you? What are you doing on the phone?" Teresa says in a shocked voice before going quiet. "Oh my God, what are you doing on the phone? We've never had a three way call before. Mason, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm okay… but we need to have a talk. Melody stumbled across a letter in Uncle William's library. One that isn't in Father and Madre's library."

They all go silent for a few seconds before it's broken by Hendrix. "Well?"

"Is it bad?" Teresa asks, concerned. "Can you read it to us?"

"Yeah, it's pretty bad, I think. What are you guys doing this evening?"

"Why?" Hendrix asks hesitantly.

"Because we're probably going to want to go to King compound and talk with Father about this."

My eyes widen as both Hendrix and Teresa curse now.

Mason takes the letter, and in a strong voice, begins to read:

To my sons,

Richard and William,

The past few years have been heartbreaking, yet comforting, knowing that we are now safe together as a family.

Even though it was at the expense of your beautiful sister, Stephanie II.

Her murder at the hands of your father is something that I don't know I will ever heal from.

And though your father pulled the trigger and successfully killed Stephanie, I know that the two of you will forever also bear the memories of him turning the gun on you two as well, and I will carry the weight of that consequence on my soul for the remainder of my life.

I couldn't protect Stephanie, but I thank God that I was fast enough to save the both of you.

I want to apologize to you both for spending so long under your father's abuse.

I thought that you two would be protected from his wrath if I bore the brunt of his stress and ire.

I see now that it was the wrong move. I want to take the opportunity to remind you that even though I failed as a King, as a wife, and even many times as a woman, my most hurtful failure, and I believe impactful failure, has unfortunately been my role as your mother.

I have failed you three in ways that I don't know if I'll ever be able to make peace with.

Naively, I thought by running King Dynasty, and following in the footsteps of your grandfather, that our family's success and reputation would protect me from the world's cruelty.

And so, when I fell in love with your father, I did so without an ounce of caution.

And, consequently, fell into a trap I couldn't see my way out of.

Especially within the way we snare our spouses.

To put it simply, I was stuck. Your father became abusive, a monster, all in the name of power.

And when he was done breaking me down, he moved to your sister.

And I wasn't fast enough to save her. It is my hope that even though your father attempted to thwart King Dynasty's powerful legacy, and shatter the remnants of our family, that the two of you will come together to rebuild this family's legacy into something more powerful than ever before. Always put each other first.

Do not let anyone come between the two of you. Choose your spouses wisely. Make sure you take the time to ensure they are worthy of this place within this family, within your heart, and within your life. Look to each other for love and understanding. This is how we honor your sister, Stephanie .

This is how we avenge her death.

Your mother,

Stephanie King I

Eerie silence cloaks us in an oppressive blanket as Teresa nor Hendrix say anything, and neither does Mason.

"Let's meet at Father's in an hour," Hendrix says simply, not elaborating enough for me to get any clue of what he might be thinking or feeling, hanging up without another word. Mason bites off a curse and shakes his head.

"Wow," Teresa exclaims in a shocked tone.

"I don't think this is the end of the secrets, Teresa," Mason turns his head to the side in a frustrated move. "Melody mentioned our parents’ documents are missing from the archives."

"Well, they're s upposed to be sealed, right? Only to be opened upon their deaths."

"Okay, so explain to me why this letter is not in their archives either. This is William's copy. Where's Father's?"

"Well…" Teresa trails off. "I mean…that's not something I can see Dad wanting to keep, Mase."

Mason's brows rise as a shocked look clocks his features. "Teresa, he's not supposed to remove anything from the archive. It's in the code."

"Mason, it's none of our business! You know what happens when we press Father too hard."

"Yeah… but don't you want some answers, Teresa?" Mason questions in a hard voice. "Don't you want to know this business between William and Father? And why keep the fact we had an aunt a secret? Why didn't they tell us, Teresa? "

"I-I don't know, Mason, but I'm sure there's an explanation for it.

We need to at least give him a chance to explain himself," Teresa says rapidly.

"Calm down. We'll meet up at Father's, and I'm sure he'll be more than willing to answer any questions we have.

I'll see you there." She hangs up, and Mason's eyes, hard and full of resolve, slide to meet mine. Which I'm sure is full of trepidation.

"Will you come with me?" he asks.

My lips part on a sharp inhalation of breath.

"Of course, I'll come with you, Mase. I'll always be here next to you.

" Despite my best efforts, my voice shakes.

This man has proven to me time and time again that he's here for me no matter what, and I'll be damned if I let him go face Richard's potential wrath alone.

"Do you trust me?"

I blink, tilting my head and regarding him quietly. "Yes," I say.

His chest rises and falls with his breathing and I can tell that the Mason that's being presented to me is one that took him years to evolve into.

"Good," he says. "Because between you and me, I feel like we're on the cusp of something that's going to alter this family forever.

And I don't know if I want to be a part of it, baby.

And when I say it's time to go, we're going. "

Goosebumps erupt across my chest and arms at his words.

"Okay," I say quietly, reaching a hand out to squeeze his.

"As long as we have each other." I slide to my knees in between his legs and raise my hands to his face, pulling him down to me.

I kiss him slowly, thoroughly. Needing that intimacy and wanting to show him that no matter what happens we will have each other. Even through the ugly times.

He makes a sound deep in his chest as his tongue touches mine, and he pulls me into his lap as he sits back against the cushion, forcing me to straddle him while he palms the back of my head and kisses me deeper. "You'll always have me, butterfly. I ain't going nowhere."

A tiny thrill courses through me, because it's the first time I've believed anything without a shadow of a doubt. This man won't leave me, and he won't break me.