Page 80 of Wicked Bonds

Issac’s ire increased by the second, all the pent-up rage he’d held inside flaring out of him in a breath.

Because now there was no chance at Mateo being innocent.

He’d just bloody admitted his guilt.

And so fucking casually, too.

The nerve of that man to speak as though he were worth the chance of an explanation!

Issac?Aya whispered.

Mateo is confessing, he replied, unable to hold back the note of anger in his mental tone.He’s come here to explain himself. Which wasn’t bloody happening. “Why would I give a damn about your explanation?”

Mateo flinched. And rightly so. He’d given key information to Jonathan that had allowed him to attack the island. “Ayadied.Because of you.” It was a fucking miracle she’d come back. “I don’t—”

“Because of Jonathan,” Mateo interjected. “The update I sent through was for Osiris, but Jonathan used it to exact his own revenge. I could never have anticipated that.”

“You should never have been informing on us to begin with,” Issac countered, furious. “Itrustedyou, my own progeny, and you—”

“I’ve been protecting you!” he shouted.

Tristan’s jaw clenched in response, his expression otherwise giving nothing away.

“Osiris has always known about your ties to Luc, how you and Aidan were secretly meeting with the Hydraians, how your relationships were the same as they’d always been. He was concerned that technological advancements would make your connections obvious. He ordered me to ensure that didn’t happen.”

Issac gaped at him.

“Now you see why I agreed to let him explain himself to you,” Tristan muttered.

“The communication about the wedding was meant as an update on Elizabeth,” Mateo continued, ignoring Tristan’s side commentary. “Osiris and Jonathan had an alliance primarily founded in research. Elizabeth was the first successful lab creation and Osiris wanted updates, but he had me sending them through Jonathan since they mattered to him, too. I had no idea he would… he would…” He trailed off, swallowing.

Issac’s fists clenched, the beach massacre playing out behind his eyes.

Not from Mateo’s mind, but from his own.

Aya’s dead body.

Aidan’s last breath.

The screams.

Issac’s grief.

The agony of losing Aya…

His gaze misted over, the memory too fresh, too new, tooreal.

“Osiris compelled me not to tell you,” Mateo continued in a whisper. “But I assisted him of my own accord. I was… I was protecting all of you. All ofus. Which was how I justified it. And for decades, that’s all it was. Until Jonathan…”

“You framed Clara,” Issac whispered.

“Osiris did,” Mateo clarified. “But yes, I helped. Because he told me it was a test for Stas. A way to teach her about her gifts.” He swallowed again, his face pale. “He lifted my compulsion last night. Otherwise, I would have come forward sooner.”

Issac’s forearms were beginning to ache from clenching his fists so hard. He was torn between punching his progeny in the face and throttling him.

But a logical part of him also wanted more answers.

Anything to help him understand Mateo’s decisions.