On The Border - Marry Him Or Die

2.29

Lucas’s POV

I heard it all through the closed door. It made it easier that they were sitting on the ground opposite the door.

I guess Angelina’s legs couldn’t carry her any further than that before she collapsed there.

I heard her sobs and her guilt, I also heard the last thing she said to my mom before she resumed crying for a long time.

‘You don’t know that much about me, if you did……You would hate me’

Why would she hate her?

What the hell was she too afraid of revealing?

That last sentence was driving me crazy.

Were my suspicions correct? Was she really not that innocent after all? Was it all just a pretense? If she was, why would she tell that to my mom? Why would she give herself away like that? Was she really feeling guilty? Was it her remorse for the way mom has been treating her that had her changing her allegiance against Zade?

Too many fucking complicated questions and no way to answer them. At least not right now. But soon. Very soon. An hour and a half soon.

I already know that my men were now driving on their way from Fairbanks to Snow. They contacted me as soon as the plane landed. They said the man wasn’t causing any problems or asking them any questions after they ignored him the first thirty times he tried to seek info from them. He was fully cooperating.

I couldn’t wait to get my hands on him.

I was too caught up in my own head, I jumped a little when the guest bedroom door opened and my mother got out, closing the door firmly behind her.

She froze in place when she saw me standing next to it and anger replaced her blank expression.

“Eavesdropping to make sure she was really hurting the way you wanted? Satisfied enough or looking for other ways to deepen her wounds? Shame on you Lucas! Just shame on you! We were both there last night when we confirmed that her mom was killed right in front of her eyes. You saw and heard first hand how much that destroyed her and nearly killed her. How dare you open up another wound like that when the first one hasn’t even healed yet? How dare you put that guilt inside her when we both know she was taken against her will?” she snapped at me.

Her words cut at me so gruesomely, My eyes sting from the verbal slap she delivered to me.

She doesn’t let me say anything as she says in a final tone I know too well by now, and I know by experience with that specific tone of hers, that I will definitely have no choice but to listen to her.

“You will apologize to her right before lunch, in front of us. And you will mean every single letter. You’re not allowed to go near her again unless I’m there with her”

She left me speechless and walked past me down the stairs.

I leaned my head back against the wall as I stared at the ceiling.

OK, deep down inside, I knew I was being too harsh to blame her for everything that happened. Especially if she was truly kidnapped against her will. Even if I have my suspicions, I shouldn’t have said what I said. I should have just sat back and waited for the damn evidence to come to me.

If she really turned out to be the furthest thing from being innocent and I had reliable proof of it, no one could stop me from punishing her, not even my own mother.

I sighed and went downstairs to find my sister coming through the front door accompanied by David behind her.

I froze on the last step as they in turn froze by the front door, and we all gazed at each other.

“I thought you were at your friend’s house?” I asked with narrowed eyes.

She replied softly “I was, David came to give me a ride back home”

“So considerate” I smirked at him while his ears became red at my questioning and comment.

I walked past them into the kitchen and sat at my chair, waiting for everyone to gather around the table.

After about five minutes, everyone was sitting in their chairs, including Angelina.

She was purposefully avoiding looking at me altogether as her eyes focused everywhere else.

Her eyes were still red along with her nose.

April and David shared concerned looks with my mom when they saw her like that, while my mom just bore daggers into me, explaining everything without the need to utter any word.

I cleared my throat and stared straight at her as I spoke in a gentle tone “I want to apologize to you, Merida. I was way out of line, placing any blame on you when you had no hand in what happened. I lost control of myself and started spitting hurtful words at you without really meaning them. I’m really sorry. Sorry for blaming you and sorry for hurting you by doing that”

She was looking at me with a sad look in her eyes.

Probably not buying one word out of my mouth.

She knew I was only apologizing because my mother wanted me to.

She knew that I would never do that out of my own free will.

She nodded her head at me in acknowledgment of my apology nonetheless and went back to avoiding my existence in the room.

The rest of lunch passed by silently as we ate our fills of the chicken fajita with a side of Caesar salad.

As soon as I was done, I grabbed my winter coat and got out of the house, heading straight to the warehouse where I told my traveling buddies to take our Ben Collins to.

There was still an hour left till they arrive but I just couldn’t sit at the house anymore. I was too agitated to get my hands on the man, I decided to wait for him to come to me.

David came along with me but remained silent by my side. I wondered vaguely what was on his mind, but I was too keyed up to ask him about it right now. So I shoved it aside for later investigation.

I was busying myself with my phone, distracting myself while passing the time by playing Candy Crush. And I was killing it. I haven’t lost a single life since I started playing.

The hour passed by pretty quickly and David was the one to alert me that a car just parked outside the warehouse.

I locked my phone and tucked it inside the back of my jeans pocket as I clasped my hands at the desk in front of me and waited for the guys to bring him inside my office.

One minute later, a tan, tall, bold headed man in his forties is standing in front of me.

He had brown eyes and short, brown beard.

There was a scar running from his left, side mouth all the way to his chin.

I focused on his eyes and saw a mix of fear and nervousness pouring out of him.

He was looking at me cautiously, sizing me up silently.

“Are you Lucas Snow?” he asked in a gruff voice.

“I am” I said simply, waiting to see what he was going to say before I start asking my questions.

“Where is Angelina? What have you done with her? I was expecting your men to take me straight to Zade, to Canada. Instead, I find myself here, in some town I never heard about my whole life. Can you explain to me what the hell is going on?”

“Oh I will explain everything right away, without missing any detail, you know why? Because after I’m done explaining exactly who I am, I want you to tell me exactly who you are and what the hell your connection with Zade is, along with your daughter’s importance in all of this”

I motioned for him to sit at the wooden chair in front of my desk to the left, while the right one was occupied by David.

He sat on the chair and waited for me to speak without reacting to my earlier words.

“I’m Lucas Snow, the leader of this town and the person responsible for controlling the town borders between here and Canada…”