Parking at the estate, I can tell everyone is on high-alert. Osborn is standing at the front door, along with some other no-named guards here and there.
“Osborn,” I greet, shutting my door. I hurry my step and open Charlie’s door, helping her out. Her face is pale, and her eyes dart around the yard.
“Landon.” Osborn takes my hand and slaps my back.
“My father in?” I ask.
Osborn nods, his sunglasses blinding me from the glare of the sun reflecting off them. I open the large door and find my father yelling at a man in a police uniform at the top of the stairs. I lift my chin and exhale, my hand finding Charlie’s as we charge forward.
“Last time I checked, Miller, you weren’t running the show anymore. So why am I even talking to you? You can’t benefit me in any way. What I’m doing is a favor to your father,” the cop sneers, his hand on his gun.
“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.
“Why?” Tara cries, draping herself across my father.
“You need to pack your things and leave the estate. I can’t have you here anymore. You’ve done enough damage to the Blackwell name.” I lower my head and glower at him. “Besides, I’m sure Charlie will feel uncomfortable having you under the same roof.” Now, I’m just trying to piss him off. I’m past the point of caring.
“You will not kick me out to move that… that…” He stutters on his words, his tone becoming flustered as he points at Charlie.
“I will, and I am,” I interrupt. I stomp forward and clutch his arm, pulling him, ready to throw him out the fucking door in nothing but his robe. Tara screams and starts slapping my back in a fit of rage. It doesn’t surprise me, Tara is obsessed with my father. She’ll do anything to protect him.
“Don’t you touch him!” Charlie shouts, grabbing Tara by the hair. Tara suddenly stops her belligerent slapping. I look over my shoulder to see where she went when Father roars, flinging his robe open and pulling a black pistol out. His chest heaves as he points it at me. I let go of his arm and take a step back, my hands raised. I look over and see Tara and Charlie going at it. Tara is pulling Charlie’s hair, her teeth baring with anger as Charlie tries to gain her balance on the edge of a step. I take a step toward them to break them up and help Charlie, but father shoves his gun in my face, stopping me. Roman raises his hands, too, standing right next to me.
“Tell Maria I’ll see her in Hell,” he growls, cocking the gun. My eyes widen and my body tenses before a loud bang rings out and I flinch. Realizing I’m not hurt and the sound came from behind me, I turn to find Osborn in position, his gun aimed right at my father. A loud thump sounds as my dad falls on his back. He’s sprawled out on the stairs, eyes wide and blood pooling underneath him. One bullet hole rests in the center of his forehead.
“Holy shit,” Roman whispers, turning to look away from Father.
Tara screams loudly as she sees my dad on the stairs, shoving Charlie off her. She falls to the floor, crawling toward him and in slow motion, Charlie loses her balance from the violent shove and goes flying down the stairs.
“No!” I bellow, trying to grab her, but my hand just misses her and she tumbles down.
I rush down the stairs to Charlie, a bundled mess at the bottom step, and pick her up.