Page 51 of Trial of Deceit (The Family’s Oath #1)

Chapter thirty-one

D imitri’s eyes flashed to Jediah, rage vivid in them, then his jaw clenched. He stood and moved toward them. His shoulder bumped Jediah’s as he walked away. Sashoy sighed before following him.

Ashari stood and moved toward him. Jediah wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her close to place a kiss on her forehead.

“I thought he’s with your sister?” Ashari asked.

Jediah looked at Ashari, his brows pinching together. “You don’t know her?” he asked. He smirked after Ashari shook her head.

Rolling her eyes, she swatted his chest and pulled away. “You haven’t one-upped me, Jed.”

“Whatever yu say,” Jediah joked, following her to their wing, then into their bedroom. He watched as she lay on the bed, settling comfortably on her back, before he sat beside her. “I’ll tell you about them later.”

“Where are you going?”

“I don’t want you to worry about that right now. I have something else that I need to talk to you about.”

Her brow rose. “Is this about the meeting you went to today?”

His chest tightened. Despite their rocky relationship, he didn’t like lying to Ashari. Especially not since they’d stopped playing cat-and-mouse after Ashari had finally accepted her faith and succumbed to her feelings for him. He couldn’t tell her everything now, but still, he nodded.

“Alright. I’m listening.”

Jediah inhaled a deep breath, then he explained as much as he could to her.

When he was done, she didn’t reply. He didn’t know if it was a good or bad sign.

Jediah turned his head to the side, listening as a heated argument drifted from somewhere in the house.

Sighing, he looked back at Ashari — that vacant look still in her eyes. “Get some rest, okay?”

Ashari stared at him for a moment before turning away from him. Jediah withheld a sigh. He knew she was upset, but other priorities demanded his attention right now.

Deciding he’d deal with her attitude later, Jediah exited the room. Hearing a commotion drifting from downstairs, Jediah casually strolled in that direction while debating if he should light a cigar.

“Weh yu did deh?” Dimitri hissed, his hands balled at his sides.

“Mi caan’ answer that,” Sashoy stated, ignoring Dimitri’s anger. All traces of bad nerves from the initial meeting were gone. “Only Jed can.”

“ Jed ?! You a come tell mi ’bout Jed? After yu disappear how long? When yu know mi did need yu after wa mi do?!”

“It don’ as simple as you a—”

“Explain!” Dimitri boomed.

Jediah hurried his steps. Dimitri was on the verge of losing control. He couldn’t allow that to happen.

“Wa happen—” Reine gasped as she entered the room. “ Sash ?”

Jediah entered the living room. The tension was so thick, the air was stifling. Jediah inhaled a big breath, then released it along with every fiber of his being that’d make him think irrationally.

Sashoy glanced between Dimitri and Reine, who stood at Dimitri’s side. Her eyes narrowed at their proximity before she chuckled. “Wow…” she laughed, shaking her head while anger rushed to her eyes. “You a go get mad wid me when you a deal wid somebody else? Likkle Reine outta everybody?!”

Dimitri’s jaw ticked. Jediah couldn’t tell if it was from anger or guilt.

“Enough,” Jediah ordered.

Everyone looked at him, including Bryony, who had rushed into the room with a blanket-wrapped baby cradled in her chubby arms. The fire left Sashoy’s eyes as she moved to Bryony and took the baby. Reine’s eyes widened while Dimitri’s mouth gaped slightly, some tension leaving his shoulders.

“W-Whose baby is that?” Reine forced out, an edge to her voice as if she was scared of the answer.

Ignoring Dimitri’s shell-shocked gaze, Sashoy didn’t spare Reine a glance before looking at the baby. “Acacia’s,” she spat, and Jediah clenched his jaw.

“ What ?!” came a shout from behind Jediah, causing him to tense.

“Acacia isn’t dead?” Bryony asked with a spark of hope.

Ashari marched toward Jediah. Glowering, she stopped before him. “You have a baby?! Don’t you think you should’ve told me that before telling me what you wanna do with ours?!”

Jediah looked down at the raging woman. “You agreed.”

Ashari scoffed. “ Wow . Agreed,” she mocked, making air-quotes around ‘agreed’.

“That’s before I realized that it isn’t ’cause you care about me, it’s ’cause you’re trying to trick me!

You’re unbelievable! I hate that I agreed to do this ’cause I love you!

” she yelled, knocking the wind out of him.

She stomped away while wiping the back of her hand across her eyes.

Love.

This was the second time she’d ever used that word toward him.

“Somebody need fi start explain wa a happen!” Reine exclaimed.

“That’s a question for Jed,” Dimitri spat.

Jediah’s eyes narrowed on Dimitri, who gave him an equally menacing glare. “Sashoy, give the baby back to Bryony. Everybody else: go take a breather, and don’t come back until unu ready fi talk to mi wid sense.”

Sneering, Dimitri stomped toward the nearest exit. Reine watched after him, her brows crinkled while she debated her next move.

“Reine,” Jediah warned.

She snapped her head toward him. Reine’s face was a mix of emotions. Pressing her lips together, she walked away in the other direction.

Jediah exhaled a deep breath. He closed his eyes, pinching the space between his eyebrows. Shaking his head, he murmured, “Everybody in a this house a go mad mi.”

A throat cleared, followed by a loud oink.

Jediah stiffened.

“Jed—”

“Cameron,” Jediah said slowly. “I’m going to count to three… Three.” Jediah opened his eyes and surveyed the room. His shoulders loosened after he saw that no one remained in the room.

Releasing another heavy sigh, he moved to the kitchen. He grabbed a random bottle of liquor before moving to the backyard. He didn’t expect to stumble into anyone out there except the occasional groundsman.

His shoe clacked against the stone tiles embedded in the grass leading to the two graves. Avoiding Malia’s, Jediah focused on Kayon’s. He popped the cork off the bottle, took a chug, and wiped his hand across his mouth with a wince.

“If only you were alive to see this,” Jediah said, allowing memories to infiltrate his mind as he took another swig.

The person before him removed their gas mask faster than he could lift his gun.

Jediah’s eyes widened at the face that stared at him.

Then, he recovered quickly. He aimed at the woman, who consequently raised her gun at him.

His finger ticked against the trigger, but he just couldn’t bring himself to apply enough pressure to fire it.

It was strange seeing her in tactical gear.

“Malia…” Jediah said through clenched teeth, his voice dripping disgust and his lips twisting into an angry sneer.

She coughed, blinking rapidly at the dust that got into her eyes.

Those eyes he last saw when he was twelve.

Those eyes he spent the next seventeen years staring into through a blown-up photograph. Cursing the Universe for ridding him of his mother. Loathing the responsibilities of the life he lived, and longing for the life he could never have.

“I can explain…” Malia forced out.

“Explain?” Jediah repeated as she coughed again.

He wished she’d just put the mask back on already.

He didn’t have the willpower to squeeze the trigger, but if her wish was to cough herself to death, he feared he wouldn’t be able to stop his body from rushing over to soften her fall.

“You faked your death, then came back to betray me?!”

Malia got a hold of herself. She frantically shook her head. The action angered Jediah further. Wore his patience thin.

He squeezed the trigger.

In that split second, Malia’s eyes widened.

Jediah’s heart stilled.

Malia had anticipated a death that never came.

Jediah’s gun had jammed.

Malia shook her head in disbelief before holding her mask to her face. “You’d really kill your own mother, Jediah?”

His eyes narrowed, though he didn’t lower his gun from his shaking hand. “My mother died years ago, and she’d never betray me.”

She looked around the room as a round of gunshots went off. When she looked back at him, she was frantic. “Please, Jediah. Just hear me out. It’s too much for me to say right now. We need to meet—”

Jediah calculated if he could grab the pistol tucked into his side, and make a clean shot at Malia before she took one at him. From this distance, her eyes seemed watery from the smoke and dust. “Talk now.”

She lowered her hand with the mask. “Kayon lied to you about the families. He made me leave my family, and made me believe he would help me build something from the ground up. Marquis wasn’t supposed to be the head of the Valcourts.

Neither was your father supposed to be the head of the Richardsons.

It’s all mine, and—” she paused, as if she was unsure how to continue.

Questions formed in his mind, but Jediah didn’t allow his stance to falter at her words.

The clock was ticking.

Malia needed to finish explaining soon before his patience wore thinner.

“Ah!” she screamed as a bullet came out of nowhere and hit her.

Jediah’s eyes widened. His grip loosened on the jammed gun as Malia gripped her chest, and stumbled backward into the thick smoke.

Jediah spun around while grabbing his other gun.

He dropped the jammed gun, grabbed the pistol from his waist, and aimed around the room while searching for cover. He noticed an overturned table.

The room closed in on him when he heard a strained whisper, “J-Jed…”

Jediah rushed toward the table. He dropped to his knees and reached his arms out, seconds to spare as Ashari passed out in his arms.