Page 38 of Volatile King (The Kings of Wayward Academy #6)

“Victoria, listen to me…I’m not joking,” he said calmly.

Her smile vanished. Her face paled.

“I…I’m sorry, what did you say?” Vicky’s voice came out hollow, the shock of the moment catching up to her.

“Lilya is my daughter. My blood.”

Vicky walked away, hand on her forehead. Tension filled the room like a balloon, and Vicky held a pin. I stayed perfectly still, watching the train wreck that was coming as she slowly turned to face Edmundo.

“You…you mean. You mean…her?” Vicky pointed at Ren.

The low tone of her voice was more terrifying than the explosion.

“You want me to believe that the girl who came to Wayward with no family connection, no name, no money, is not only a Mikhailov…” Vicky licked her lips like she was struggling to get the words out.

“She’s also your daughter? The one person I can’t stand in this entire world… is my sister?”

“Yes, Victoria, that is correct. It’s a long story, but Lilya didn’t know who she was. The knowledge was kept from her on purpose, and she only learned the truth on her eighteenth birthday.”

“Halloween?” She nodded, sucking in a ragged breath that I could hear from my position across the room.

“That’s why you were together.” She shook her head, the disbelief being shoved to the side by something far darker.

Vicky’s face contorted, and her brows pulled together.

She marched back to the chair she’d been sitting in and gripped the back.

“Wait…you cheated on Mama? You had an affair, and a secret lovechild, and just…what? Decided to keep it quiet for eighteen years?”

“No,” Edmundo said, calm but firm. “I loved Lilya’s mother, Yuliana. Long before I married Patricia. Your mother knew about Yuliana and our love when she suggested we marry. She knew it was only a marriage of convenience.”

“I don’t understand. Why would Mama do that? Why would she suggest that?”

“Your grandfather wanted to marry her off to a friend of his who was thirty years older. She was looking for a way out, so she approached me. I never hid any of this from her, and she knew before signing her name that Yuliana and I had our own predicament we were trying to escape. She knew that I would never love her.”

Vicky’s expression twisted. Her lips parted like she was about to speak, but no words came. Instead, she turned away, paced three quick steps, then whipped around to face him again. Vicky’s hands were shaking. Her voice cracked, and I couldn’t believe this, but I felt bad for her.

“You mean to tell me that all this time…my entire life…you’ve been lying to me? That I cried, and hated how you and Mama never spent time together, and thought it was somehow my fault…and you had it all planned that way?”

Edmundo cringed. “We hadn’t intended for you to think that the distance in our marriage was your fault.”

She laughed, but it wasn’t a happy sound.

“Yeah, well, you both failed…miserably.” Vicky pointed at Ren.

“She has been some hidden chapter in your story, and I’m what?

I didn’t matter enough to tell? You didn’t care enough about my feelings to see what you two were doing to me? Did I even make it onto a single page?”

“That’s not fair,” Edmundo said, finally raising his voice. “You have always been part of the story, Victoria. I raised you. I protected you. I loved you. I do love you, but I couldn’t tell anyone about Lilya for her and her mother’s safety. It’s all very complicated.”

“But you could’ve at least told me the truth about your marriage,” she shot back. “I blamed myself every day. I tried so many times to get you guys back together. I worked harder in school and tried to be everything that both of you wanted.”

She shook her head, and this time there was pain in her eyes…a deep, raw tearing at the fabric of who she was. I knew all too well what lies like that cost. I’d found out about my mother in the most disturbing of ways, but the betrayal was the same sensation.

Vicky looked at Ren again, and I saw it…hatred morphing into something else. Jealousy. Loss.

“I always knew she was hiding something,” she whispered, malevolence curling around every syllable.

“But I never imagined it was something this low. This calculated. This manipulative. You’ve single-handedly dismantled my entire life one brick at a time.

” She clapped her hands. “Wow…I’m impressed.

You really are a bigger bitch than I am. ”

Ren looked away from Vicky, and I could tell she wasn’t enjoying this either. Walking over, I sat down beside Ren and laid my hand on hers.

Vicky’s face contorted like she was going to cry, but she didn’t. Instead, she turned to Edmundo and shouted. “You lied to me! All these years! I trusted you! I looked up to you! I wanted to be you!”

Edmundo remained calm and let her work through the emotions.

“You were supposed to be better,” she whispered. “Better than everyone else. You are my papa…my hero.”

Edmundo stood and took a step toward her. “Victoria. I never lied to you. But I did keep this from you. I thought I was protecting everyone, including you.”

“You failed.”

Vicky’s bottom lip trembled, and her face twitched like something had cracked inside of her.

“But what about me?” She whispered. “You and Mama…you had me, right? You may have married for a contract, but I’m still your biological daughter.” Edmundo didn’t say anything. He just stared at her. “Right?” Tears spilled over and ran down her cheeks. “Tell me!”

Edmundo hung his head.

“No,” he said gently. “You’re not my biological daughter. I adopted you when you were born.”

Vicky staggered back like she’d been slapped.

“No. No, that’s not…” She shook her head, hands raised as if she could physically push the words away. “That’s not real. That’s not true.”

“It is.”

“I don’t believe you!”

Tears streamed down her face now, unchecked.

Vicky turned in a slow circle, looking for an exit, for oxygen, for anything that would make this stop.

I knew that feeling all too well and glanced down, gripping Ren’s hand tighter.

I hadn’t thought Vicky’s pain would pull up mirrors and force me to stare mine in the face all over again.

“You are my daughter in all the ways that count. Blood is not everything,” Edmundo said.

How many times had Myles and I had this very conversation?

“I’ve seen the destruction that someone who claims to be blood can do. I would never let that happen to you. I love you, Victoria.”

“Then who am I? Am I some discarded child? Some charity case? The result of an affair that Mama had. What am I, Papa? Ren and I are too close in age for this not to have been planned. Oh my god…I’m the decoy…I’m a fucking decoy…I’m nothing but a placeholder.”

“No…you are my daughter, that is what you are,” he said. “Nothing changes that.” Edmundo took another step toward Vicky, but she kept moving further away.

“But it changes everything,” Vicky screamed, hands smacking her chest. Tears came out in ragged sobs. Her voice dropped to nothing more than a whisper. “You’ll end up loving her more! She is your child. I’m…I’m something created for show. I’m…nothing.”

“That’s not true,” he said, but Vicky was beyond listening.

She lunged toward a decorative table and swept everything off it with one arm. Statues crashed and glass shattered.

“It’s all fake!” Her screams cut deep. “I’m fake!”

Guards ran in, but Edmundo raised a hand.

“Let her.”

Vicky was fully feral now. Screaming. Destroying anything she could get her hands on. Breathing like she was being choked from the inside out.

And then…she stopped. Standing in the middle of the wreckage, her makeup streaked down her cheeks, her chest heaving, her eyes wild, and a broken picture frame in her hands, she looked up at Edmundo and then at me.

“I hate you,” she whispered, and I felt the pain inside of her. “I hate all of you.”

She looked at Ren.

“Congratulations. You’ve successfully taken everything from me. My boyfriend. My father. My life. My place. Day one, I knew. I felt it deep down that you were a threat with your innocent smile and mysterious past.” She shook her head. “You pretend to be kind. Is that what you call this?”

Ren remained quiet.

“What? Got nothing to say? Don’t want to gloat that you’ve taken the Queen Bee down and stripped her of everything.”

“No,” Ren said, shaking her head.

“No, of course you don’t. You’re perfect. So much like your father,” she said each word like they were bitter on her tongue. Her eyes filled with distain.

“Victoria—” Edmundo started, but Vicky cut him off.

“No, I’m done listening to anything you have to say right now. Have fun visiting with your family.”

She snatched her purse up off the floor and stormed out without another word.

“Follow her, make sure she doesn’t do something harmful to herself,” Edmundo said, voice hollow. Marcus nodded and disappeared after her.

The room fell still, and we looked at each other, like one of us might have an answer.

Edmundo slowly sat.

“Well,” he muttered. “That went better than I expected,” he said, breaking the tension. I smirked at the attempt to lighten the mood.

“Eddie? I’m sorry. We go,” Ren asked.

He smiled. “Don’t be sorry. And no, I don’t want you to go.

I should’ve told Victoria long before now.

I’ll be honest. I knew that she wouldn’t take it well, and…

I’m getting soft in my old age, I guess, because I didn’t want to cause her that kind of pain.

I should’ve known it would only get worse. This is on me. Please stay.”

Ren nodded. “Okay.”

Clearing his throat, he stood and grabbed his cane.

“Excuse me. I need to make a call.”

Edmundo stopped when he reached me and put a hand on my shoulder. I looked up at him.

“Learn from my mistakes,” he said.

I nodded but wasn’t sure if he was referring to our earlier conversation, just talking in general, or the fact that I needed to tell Ren about the contract. Her silvery eyes pulled me in when I turned to face her. After Thanksgiving…I’d tell her then.