“What’s going on?” I question, turning to shut the door but stopping when I find Osborn following me in.
“Landon.” When the cop turns, I recognize him as Arlen, his caramel-brown curly hair sticking out from under his black police cap around his bright freckled face. He’s built like an athlete and has been a client of ours before he was ever on the force. I head up the steps, and Charlie squeezes my hand. I turn my head and find her eyes wide as saucers and staring past me. Following her line of sight, I see my father looking right at her with hunger in his eyes. I’ll deal with him in a minute.
“What can I do for you, Arlen?” I ask, shaking his hand.
“As I told your father, we cannot locate Charlotte Evans. We–” He stops and lifts his index finger, pointing at Charlie. “Is that—” His brows furrow.
“Thank you for your time, Arlen, but it’s been handled,” I interrupt.
“I see. Well, good. My men and I can get back to our job then.” Arlen looks over his shoulder, glaring at my father before trotting down the stairs. I wait for him to leave before I turn to address Miller.
His face is still blistering red. He’s in his red robe, his dark silk sweats showing from under it. You can tell he’s not slept with the large bags forming under his eyes.
“You betrayed me,” he spits, his fists clenching. I don’t respond.
“An Evans. You let an Evans into my household after what her whore of a mother did to me.” His lip curls, and his eyes squint with insanity.
I sigh.
“Maria got pregnant by you. We all knew she was here for money, and she had dreams, goals. We all knew that. Getting pregnant by your bastard baby and getting stuck here as your side ass wasn’t going to happen,” I remind him. Maria was a quiet person, but that was something she did tell everyone. She wanted better.
He turns, running his hands over his face. “She killed my blood. There is no explanation that could justify that!” he shouts, pointing at me. “But to make it worse, she had a daughter.” He twists his face in anger, looking directly at Charlie. My body tenses as anger fuels my veins. “And she was alive this whole time.” His face goes lax as he looks at me. “Did you know she had a daughter? Because she never told me. She didn’t tell anyone.”
I swallow, my tongue feeling thick in my dry mouth.
“I did,” I respond strongly.
His head whips up and his jaw clenches. He wasn’t expecting me to answer, nonetheless admit to knowing Maria had a daughter.
“I saw her hiding under the table that day,” I continue, rolling the cuffs of my sleeves.
“You what?” he hisses, blood vessels protruding on his forehead.
“You were out of line that day. Out of your mind, to be exact. You would have killed a nine-year-old little girl,” I fire back.
“Damn right I would have. And I will,” he sneers, pointing at Charlie. Hearing him threaten her makes me want to snap his neck.
“No, you won’t,” I seethe, stepping nose to nose with him.
“I will, and I will do the job myself this time, seeing how incompetent you are. I should’ve made Roman the head of the estate. At least he has the balls of a Blackwell,” my father states.
“I’m good. I don’t want the position,” Roman adds, stepping up the stairs in his usual messy attire.
Father looks down and scowls at Roman.
“You won’t go near Charlie,” I tell him, my tone serious.
Father laughs, his bellows echoing through the estate.
“Oh, please don’t tell me you’ve fallen for the whore. After everything I taught you about them. Let my mistake be a lesson, son. They don’t care about us Blackwells. They just want what’s better for them.” He chuckles, his eyes watering from his amusement.
“Fuck you,” Charlie clips, her body puffed out in absolute fury. I grab her hand and pull her behind me. I don’t need her to make him any angrier than he is.
“So, Charlie is just okay with you killing her mother in cold blood,” he states loudly, trying to look around me.
“I told her how if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have been able to save her from you.”
My father sighs loudly and looks to the heavens. “Oh, how my son has deceived me,” he mutters.
“What I should have done was turn the gun and killed you that day. It would have saved everyone a lot of grief,” I grit.
“It’s not too late,” Roman clips, standing next to Charlie.
“Screw you. Screw all of you. You don’t know what power is, what control is.” He points at all of us.
“Baby?” Tara walks out of the hallway, concern written on her face as she makes her way toward us.
“You need to leave.” I take a step forward, ready to throw my father out the door if I need to.
“What?” He stops, his eyes wide.