Page 38 of Trial of Deceit (The Family’s Oath #1)

Chapter twenty-one

“W here were you these past three months?” Bryony asked. She dipped her index and middle fingers into the tube of ointment, scooping a generous amount onto them, then tentatively massaging it into Ashari’s back.

Ashari hissed. The coolness from the healing ointment seeped into the open wounds in her skin, gradually fading seconds after while it soothed the wounds. She stared at the ring on her finger, its diamonds glistening beneath the room’s lights.

“He was worried sick, Ash,” Bryony added.

Ashari scoffed. “Am I supposed to believe that?”

“Yes. Him put the entire family legacy pon the line when him marry yu, and yu still turn round and betray him.”

Ashari looked from the ring to see Bryony’s reflection in the mirror.

Her eyes flickered to the nearby open window, then to her belly, which she could see because of the height of the chair she sat on.

Its back faced the mirror, her arms resting on the top of it while her legs were spread on either side of the seat.

The door opened, and she looked up, meeting Jediah’s eyes in the mirror. He stood in the doorway with one hand in his pocket. He was still in the suit he wore to the extravagant donation ball.

Bryony scowled at Jediah’s reflection while standing. She practically glued herself to the door jamb to brush past him without touching him. Jediah’s head hung low, his jaw clenching while Bryony’s loud footsteps faded down the hallway until there was silence.

Finally, Jediah entered the room. He closed the door.

Ashari swallowed a lump that formed in her throat as he approached her.

Jediah stopped behind her, his eyes holding hers for a few seconds longer than she would’ve liked.

He removed his hand from his pocket. The addictive aroma of his musky cologne mixed with hints of woodsy tobacco permeated the air, making Ashari stiffen.

A clink stemmed from where Jediah placed something on the table, where Bryony had scattered many tubs of ointments, rolls of bandages, and bottles of pills.

Ashari broke the stare to look at what Jediah had placed there.

She read the label on the small white bottle, and her jaws tightened as her eyes dragged to Jediah’s.

Walking around the chair, Jediah stopped before the mirror. He tucked both hands into his pockets. “You have two choices.”

She forced her jaws to relax just enough to say, “I’m not killing it.”

“So, option two?” he asked with a smirk. “Whose baby is it?”

Gasping, Ashari got to her feet as quickly as her aching body would allow. Her fists clenched at her sides while she glared. “If you’re gonna accuse me of being a whore, be man enough to say it.”

“Yu missing fi three months, then yu come back pregnant? Yu study all a mi medical records. Yu know mi caan’ breed yu. Tell me who the father is, or else—”

“You can’t kill me, Jediah,” she declared with certainty, lifting her chin. “I have your present hidden and your future growing in my belly.”

“So, you’re invincible?”

“Yes.”

He threw his head back, laughing boisterously for seconds that dragged into minutes. Ashari’s chin lowered, her brows pulling together as she watched him. It took longer than Ashari would’ve liked for Jediah to calm down.

He removed his hands from his pockets to wipe tears from his eyes. A silly smile was on his face as he buried his hands in his pockets while meeting Ashari’s eyes. “Oh.”

A chill ran down Ashari’s spine. Her eyes darted past Jediah to lock on her reflection in the mirror. Her eyes widened at the glowing red dot at the center of her forehead. “J-Jed,” she forced out, her voice raspy from her throat that had gone dry.

Jediah’s smirk stretched. “What was that, Mrs. Richardson? Thought you weren’t scared of me.”

She gulped hard, opening her mouth, then shutting it as the door opened. She looked over her shoulder at Elias. He walked further into the room with something in his hands.

Ashari stepped backward and bumped into the table. It toppled over with a loud crash, scattering the medical supplies across the floor. “You can’t be serious.”

“I am.”

Two of the guards entered the room. Jediah moved out of the way as they crossed the room in quick strides and restrained Ashari by her arms. She flailed against them, hurling protests and insults at the top of her voice.

“Mind her belly…” Jediah muttered.

Elias stooped before Ashari, then secured an ankle bracelet onto her right foot. He stood while the guards freed her. While the guards left the room, Elias lingered, staring at Ashari in sympathy.

Ashari’s breaths were short and quick as she looked at the ankle bracelet pressing into the softness of her skin. She bent over and reached for it.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Jediah advised.

Ashari’s fingers froze, just shy of touching the bracelet. Her head snapped up, a crazed look in her eyes. “You think I’d come back if I was against you?! You promised me you would never lock me up again!”

While motioning for Elias to leave the room, Jediah continued speaking as if he hadn’t heard what Ashari had said. “If you try to go beyond the gazebo or the driveway…” He clasped his hands, then opened his fingers while bringing his hands further apart. “Jediah: three. Ashari: zero.”

Ashari froze. She slowly moved her hands away from the bracelet then stood upright. “You’re gonna kill me? Even though you know that I’m pregnant, and that I—”

“You what?”

Her mouth snapped shut. Lifting her chin, Ashari spun around and crossed her arms. She sneered at Jediah’s reflection, then uncrossed her arms to grab onto the back of the chair. Slowly, she lowered herself onto it, returning to her original position. “Call Bryony. I need more ointment.”

“No. Suffer.” Jediah exited the room and slammed the door shut. The door’s lock clicked from the outside.

Ashari’s sneer deepened. “Since you wanna be petty, I’ll never tell you what Kayon hid from you.”

Jediah took a sip from his drink before placing the glass on the desk beside all the pieces he’d captured with his black chess pieces. He focused on the board as he said to Sahil, “Did you come to speak or look at me?”

“Speak,” Sahil answered. “But yu naa look pon me.”

“Don’ need mi eye dem fi listen.” His brows furrowed as he stared at the rook. He’d planned on moving it, but if he did, he could use the white knight to capture one of his black pieces.

Jediah was annoyed. It’d been a long day. His patience was wearing thin from the situation with his wife, this game, and the man sitting across from him. Sahil had arrived as the last set of patrons was leaving. He’d told Elias he wouldn’t leave without speaking to Jediah.

Sahil grunted before asking calmly, “Where’s Acacia? Mi need fi finally thank her fi wa she do fi wi family. Raven seh—”

“She’s out of the hospital?”

Sahil, shuffling about, cleared his throat. “Yes.”

“Hmm. Interesting,” Jediah said. “Thought it’d just be you and Mrs. Majors tonight.”

“Raven woulda never miss tonight. Shi been a call Acacia and naa get her.”

Jediah looked from the board to raise a brow at Sahil. “What about you? Did you call Acacia?”

Sahil shook his head. “Neva have a reason to. Mi know she in a good hands.” Sahil’s eyes drifted to Elias, who’d shuffled about on his feet.

Jediah shifted his gaze to his adviser. “Is there a problem, Eli?”

“No,” Elias replied tightly.

Jediah’s gaze lingered on Elias, daring him to say more. When Elias remained quiet, Jediah looked at Sahil. “Tell Raven to mind her business. My wife and I aren’t her concern.”

“Wife?” Sahil asked, his eyes brightening. He clapped his hands. “Mi did know yu mean business! The engagement was too long anyway. Mi glad yu do the right thing and just marry Acacia. Mi can finally expand—”

“I will not protect you,” Jediah interrupted, and Sahil’s mood dampened. “I did my part of the deal and got married. You will receive protection if someone attacks you. Not if you attack them.”

“A no so this work.”

“Are you asking or telling me?”

“Me a tell yu,” Sahil gritted out.

Jediah smiled. “Okay. You’re right. I don’t know how this works. I’m not the one who made the arrangement anyway. I think you should go talk to Kayon about my marriage.”

Sahil pursed his lips. “Weh Kayon?”

“Where he’s been for the past seventeen years.”

“Sahil,” Elias called out, and Sahil looked at him. “Kayon is on a new medication that makes him drowsy. Be quick in your conversation lest he falls asleep mid-convo.”

Sahil stood, nodding toward Elias before leaving the room. The door closed behind him. Elias waited a moment before taking Sahil’s seat.

“You shouldn’t have done that,” Elias said.

“This isn’t going to end well. We both know Sahil couldn’t care less, but that won’t be the same for Raven.

She and Acacia had a tight bond. It won’t be long for Raven to start asking uncomfortable questions after the media publishes the images we choose from tonight. ”

“Raven probably just done get beat by her man and gone back a hospital. Acacia is the least of her concerns,” he dismissed, causing Elias to hiss his teeth. “I will tell the photographers not to publish any pictures with me and Ash. Is that good?”

“No. You keep delaying the inevitable,” Elias said. “Howie isn’t even a teenager yet, and the bonds she has with her closest cousins makes me know how women are when their comfort gets taken away. Think of Reine. If anything happened to her, you’d want to know.”

“Nothing can happen to Reine.”

“ Can… It’s words like these, which you always use, that fuel your belief that you can control the future.

” Elias’ eyes flashed to the board before meeting Jediah’s eyes.

“You’re playing with the Richardson name.

I know you don’t like that Kayon downgraded me from being his right hand to being your adviser, but you will soon realize that this is real life and not your little board games. ”

Jediah’s eyes narrowed. “Get out.”

Elias’ jaw ticked before he placed a hand on the table.

His chair scraped against the floor as he pushed it backward, stood, then took long strides out of the room.

The corner of Jediah’s mouth tugged upward into an angry sneer as Elias slammed the door shut.

Shaking his head, he relaxed his facial muscles and looked back at the board.

He hadn’t realized when he’d started playing against himself.

Only his king was left on the board, surrounded by most of the white chess pieces.

His brows furrowed further as new thoughts plagued his mind. They sucked him into an endless abyss of mental torture, only freeing him hours later when the sound of a car in the distance driving away interrupted him.

Standing, he reset the board, then exited the office.

He went to Kayon’s side of the wing, passing by Bryony on the way, who refused to acknowledge him.

Her actions wounded him, but he pretended not to care.

After his mother died, he and Bryony bumped heads all the time.

Except, this time, he wasn’t so sure they’d make up so easily.

Bryony couldn’t have any kids of her own. She had an extra soft spot for pregnant women, and for Jediah to—

Jediah released a heavy breath as he entered Kayon’s room and closed the door. Jazz music welcomed him. Jediah walked toward Kayon, who was already at the window, and stood at his side.

“Sahil expressed his disappointment that he was not invited to Acacia’s wedding, but he is happy to now have ties to the family,” said Kayon. “Have you not told him that his daughter died?”

“Why you never do it? Nuh yu friend?” Jediah jested.

“I’m not in the position to tell a man that my son killed his daughter.”

“So, you’re admitting that you’re weak?”

“I’m Kayon Richardson. I’m never weak.”

Jediah scoffed as he watched Kayon’s hand loosen around the joystick. “The irony,” he muttered before looking out the window.

“Eli is not satisfied that you left Sahil with the impression that Acacia is your wife. That’s not true,” Kayon said, and Jediah stiffened.

“I know everything that happens in this house. You’re beating yourself up about what you had to do to Ashari.

You love her, I know, but women have to be punished sometimes when they forget their place.

We don’t do it because we want to, we do it because we love them. ”

Jediah’s jaw clenched as his eyes moved from the trees lining the backyard to settle on his mother’s grave. Memories flashed across his mind, but only one stood out the most right then. “You said that every time you hit Mom… Even when she didn’t deserve it.”

“So, you’re saying that she deserved it sometimes?”

He quickly spun around to look at Kayon. His eyes narrowed. “ No . She neva deserve none a wa yu put her through. Especially on that night.” Jediah sucked in a deep breath as Kayon’s lip twitched into a tiny smirk. “It’s your fault she died,” he gritted out.

“It isn’t. It’s yours, Jediah. Are you forgetting what really happened that night?”

“We were driving home and you hit her.”

“Why did I hit her?” he asked, but Jediah refused to answer. Kayon’s hand moved quickly. “Why did I hit her?”

Jediah looked back to the window, focusing on his mother’s grave.

His hands balled at his sides, his nails digging into his palms. The sting was nothing compared to the one building in his eyes.

Jediah blinked and lowered his head. His feet and the floor blurred, so he closed his eyes.

Stubborn tears broke his resistance as he forced out his next words: “Because I became a man and made you proud, got scared and called her, then she showed up at the club with Reine…”