Page 35 of Innocent Salvation

Now he was intrigued, watching her face as her expression closed revealing nothing to him at all. “And what could your personal interest be in me, Snow?”

“My birth mother is Dominique Dupont.”

She said no more, and he rocked back as if struck, the sudden resemblance striking. But how? Nobody had ever heard a whisper of Dominique having a daughter, especially one as beautiful as Snow. The need to deny her words struck him and he stood, pacing to the door and back before he sat once more as another, heftier, realisation struck him. He looked up sharply at Snow and saw she knew he knew and was waiting for his reaction.

“That means you’re Fleur’s aunt!”

“Yes.”

His initial reaction was relief that he no longer had to do this alone. That he had someone who’d love Fleur as much as he did if something bad happened. Despite all the crazy revelations, he knew from watching them together that what she had with Fleur was real. As his brain processed that, hot betrayal that she’d lied her way into his home burned through him. “Why didn’t you just tell me?”

Snow had the good grace to look contrite and he could have let her off, but he was angry.

“Great plan. Oh hi, Sebastian. I’m the sister of the man you hate. Can I just get to know my niece? You would’ve shut me down and rightly so. You’re protecting her, I get that.”

Now he felt contrite because Snow was right. He’d have absolutely shut her down and taken out every restraining order he could to stop her from getting close to Fleur. “So, you posed as a nanny to get to know Fleur.”

“Partly, but also because we needed to know more about your relationship with Dominique.”

“Why does that matter to you?”

Sebastian leaned forward, her scent catching him and making his dick stir. Even in this fucked up situation he wanted her, and it was infuriating. That fuck nugget sitting next to her just made it worse by angling his body close to her in an attempt to wind him up.

“Dominique didn’t raise me. I’ve seen her in person once in my life and that was the night she had my father murdered. She let him raise me and turned her back on us because he wasn’t the calibre of man she wanted, and by association, neither was I.”

Sebastian felt his hatred of the Dupont family double at her words. Acid burned his gut at the thought of the pain and rejection Snow must have felt as a child. He itched to go to her to hold her and absorb the pain he knew she was feeling but his stubborn pride stopped him from moving. “I’m sorry.”

A humourless snort came from Snow, and he looked up to see the sad acceptance in her eyes.

“It was a long time ago and I had a good, if unconventional, life with my father, but she took that away and now she needs to pay.”

Her voice had gone from calm to cold rage that he’d never heard on her. She was the warmest, most positive person he’d ever come across and this side of her didn’t sit well with him. The badass Snow he could handle, she was sexy as fuck, but he didn’t like this bitter side to her one little bit. “So, what do you want from me?”

Snow cocked her head and then glanced at Reaper, an unspoken conversation happening which made him see red. As he was about to react, Reaper stood and left the room, leaving just the two of them. Without thought, he stood and went to sit beside her on the couch. Her closeness instantly made him feel better in the strange world he found himself. Sebastian didn’t touch her, but he was close enough to feel her warmth as she turned to him.

“You have a history with them. You seemed close to Dominique.”

His lip curled and he swallowed the snarl that almost left his lips.

“That woman is fucking poison and so is her son.”

Her soft hand on his arm made him look at the contrast between her pale skin and his tanner one. She was trying to offer him comfort in this nightmare, and for the first time in a long he took the comfort she offered. Twisting his arm and linking his fingers with hers, the silky texture of her palm so small in his and so right.

“My sister was like you in that she saw beauty everywhere. She believed people and took them at face value. I hated Patrick from the first time I met him and when I looked into him, what I found didn’t make me feel any better. He was a narcissistic asshole, bordering on psychotic, and left destruction wherever he went. I tried to warn her but she was in love or so she thought. Then she got pregnant. I knew I had to support her and him or I’d lose her and she’d be alone. I agreed to go and meet his family and spend the weekend with them.”

He looked at her as if really seeing her for the first time and saw not only the warmth but now the strength and resolve. She was kind and sweet with a backbone of steel and he was enchanted with all of it.

“Have you ever spent time with someone and know, despite the persona of perfection they present to the world, that inside they’re rotten to the core?”

Snow nodded. “Yes.”

“That was how I felt the entire time I was there. Like a putrid scum was leeching into me from the rot they were trying to hide. It was clear that Dominique was behind everything her son did, and if not the details, she was certainly the puppet master. Her husband was the most insignificant man I’ve ever met. He was hardly around and seemed to shrink when Dominique and Patrick were there.”

“Yes, Jean-Claude Dupont is a weak man, but he has money, and his family history goes back generations. Which is why Dominique chose him. He’s the perfect foil for her political aspirations and that’s proven by the seat she holds now.”

Sebastian nodded, agreeing.

Snow squeezed his hand. “What happened to your sister?”