AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Are you sure you wanna know?” Cameron asked, though it was more tired than taunting. “It won’t make things easier for you. It won’t make any of it better.”
“Nothing will make it better, but I deserve to know,” Mari countered.
Cameron sagged in the chains, but I kept my narrowed gaze on him. He was too good of an actor for me to believe he had any remorse. When he lifted his head and forced those rage-filled eyes on Mari, I knew I was right.
“It should have been mine.”
Mari paused. “What?”
“Everything. After Antoni died, it all should have gone to me, but it didn’t. Rey never wanted to lead. He was always content in second place. I wanted what was rightfully mine.” Cameron shook his head, that rage morphing into something deep and ugly as he spoke.
“At first, I let it go, thinking either you would fuck up and they’d kill you, or you’d give up and they’d hand the city over. Then you fought back. You kept fighting, and when you settled into your skin as you did, I realized it was over. You would do whatever it took to keep what was now yours: the city, the power, the money, the throne. I thought I could accept you because you were so much better at everything than I’d expected, but the anger just kept growing. How could they bow to you when I was right here? When Cash made me an offer, it was easy to take it.”
Easy to betray a lifelong bond. For power.
The saying was true; absolute power corrupts absolutely. Except in Cameron’s case, it was the thought of it that turned him against his family. Disgusting.
There was another edge to the jealousy that I couldn’t quite pinpoint, but it wasn’t my place to ask. This was Mari’s show, her need for closure and clarity. I was just a witness. I could only see a sliver of her profile, but the tension in her jaw was hard to miss. “What about Aislynn? Why manipulate her?”
“It’s like I said, she’s mine to protect. I hated you for giving her to me at first. I didn’t want another spoiled mafia princess, and there were times when I genuinely thought about wringing her neck. Then I realized that, with her, I could take the O’Bannon territory too. All it would take was a little engineered luck.”
The implication slithered under my skin. Holy shit.
Mari stared at him, but I could tell she wasn’t really seeing him. She was seeing the monster she hadn’t realized he was.
“You were trying to get her pregnant.” It was the first time I’d spoken, but it had to be said. The evil had to be purged before any of us could move on.
Cameron tried to shrug, but his position made it impossible. “She’s my wife. Babies are part of the deal.”
“She loved you, and you used her.” Mari’s voice held a graveyard of memories, the destruction of the last good thing she’d ever thought about her cousin laid at her feet.
Cameron huffed. “If she does, then she’s a fool.”
“No, you are. She would have given you everything, and you spat in her face.”
He grinned at her, and I finally saw how unhinged he was. “All’s fair in love and war, Mari.”
“Are we at war, cousin?”
“We’ve always been at war,” he spat.
“Why is that?”
This was it, the real truth of why he’d done it, and I had no idea what he’d say.
That hatred was there, desperate to break free, clawing its way out in the vitriol of his words. “Because since the moment you were born, you have taken things from me. Men who should’ve been my allies willingly swore to you instead—my brother, my cousin, even Greyson.”
Shock rocked me, though I fought not to show it. I was his excuse, but why? He’d never been interested in my friendship. Or maybe he had, but my bond with Mari and Antoni was too tight from the beginning. Maybe that was why he’d lost himself.
“When you walk into a room, people gravitate toward you like you’re the sun, and everything else gets blotted out by your presence. Perfect, precious Mari. Rey knew it. Antoni knew it too. Hell, Nate nearly died trying to get back to you because he knew it. You are a force to be reckoned with, and for so long, I haven’t had the power to fight back.”
“And now you do.” Mari’s voice was cold. Empty.
“Now I do.”
“You went to Cash out of jealousy. You sided with him like a child desperate to cling to his toys.” Mari scoffed, twisting around like she couldn’t stand to look at him anymore. “You would’ve made a pathetic king.”
He’d kept cool the whole time, but his eyes flared at her scathing remark. “I sided with Cash because I wanted my birthright. The one that you stole straight from my waiting, bleeding hands. You’re too soft to rule, Mari.”
