It’s hard to believe that Mother masterminded her own abduction. Mother kept that side of herself hidden from Quinn. Now, Quinn must remain hidden until after I’ve made peace with the Bestlasson family.
Grief wraps around my chest, until my lungs fall still and the edges of my vision turn gray. Relief and sorrow war through my insides until I’m reeling for breath.
I gaze through the gap in the door and force out a long sigh.
Mother is gone.
It’s over.
There are a hundred things I want to ask the woman lying beneath that sheet, starting with why she kept returning to Crius, even though he mistreated her at every opportunity.
She was his prisoner for two decades, locked in that apartment and never permitted to leave. Her only freedom had been the balcony and the few times Crius took her out, only to return her broken and bruised.
“Mother,” I murmur through the window of the antechamber. “What hold did that creature have on you?”
I shake my head. Even though the murders I carried out when I was younger had bought our physical freedom, Mother’s mind had always been his captive.
It’s the reason why she continued to see him after he had released us and the reason why she concocted this plan for me to save his legitimate son.
Quinn said Mother was so conditioned to being the property of Crius that she never embraced her freedom. She called it baby elephant syndrome and described a situation where the young elephant learns to give up trying to escape, even after it grows large enough to break its chains.
“You’re free from him now,” I say, keeping my voice low. “Perhaps you’ll find a semblance of peace in death.”
The examination room’s door handle turns downward, and my heart skips. I slip out of sight into the antechamber before it swings open.
A figure in black steps into the examination room and walks up to Mother’s body and pulls back the sheet. His head is bowed, but I already know from his athletic frame that this isn’t Crius. My birth father is far too cautious to enter a room without backup.
The man stares down at Mother for several seconds before reaching into his pocket and extracting a phone.
“Sir, I’ve found her.” He pauses, walks to the other table, pulls back the sheet, and winces. “Hard to tell who the second one belongs to. Looks like they bashed in his skull and burned him to death.”
Holding my breath, I recede further into my hiding spot and hope Crius takes the bait.
I hear the man walking a circuit around the tables. He tries the door of the antechamber, making my heart skip. Fortunately, it’s still locked.
“Alright, sir. Coast is clear. I’ll be waiting.”
He slips the phone back into his pocket and tilts his head, staring down at the charred corpses.
“Paranoid, fucking coward,” he mutters under his breath.
I swallow back a bitter laugh. It’s only paranoia when they’ve lived a blameless life. Crius Vanir has spent decades trading and imprisoning women like cattle. It’s time for him to be slaughtered like an animal.
The next wait feels like an hour. I’m so focused on who might step in through the door that I don’t bother to keep track of the time.
Eventually, the door opens, and the knot in my stomach loosens, only for it to tighten again when a man I don’t recognize steps into the room.
“All clear?” the newcomer asks.
The first one nods. “All clear.”
When man number two steps out, I reach into my holster, pull out the gun, and remind myself not to make the same mistake as last time and miss.
The moment Crius enters the room, there’ll be no time to berate, no time to hesitate. I must take out his guards first and shoot him before he has time to run into the hallway.
There will be no slow torture, no last words. I will kill Crius and leave.
“Is that understood, Marius?” I whisper under my breath.