Shadowed (Team Zero #4) by Rina Kent

“I’m your granddaughter.” I stick out my chin. He’s the last person I want for family, but he’s also the only person who can help Shadow and Ghost – and therefore Elle and I. However, a tyrant like President Joe needs to be dealt with caution.

He motions at the henchman clutching me to bring me inside, then he goes in like a king in his kingdom – which he is.

“I can walk on my own.” I attempt to squirm free.

The guard crosses both my arms at my back until I wheeze in pain. He pushes me forward. I trip and almost fall to my face.

The whole way inside, I try to keep up with the guard’s wide strides.

We go into a room with an orange light slipping through the window. Two Chesterfield leather sofas sit in the middle of the room. There’s an office area, too, but President Joe is sitting on the highest chair, slightly leaning to one side. He removed his jacket and remains in his striped waistcoat. The only thing that seems awfully out of place is the deep red bow tie.

He looks like a king on his throne and he damn well knows it.

The stoic guard shoves me down on a chair across from his boss and keeps both hands on my shoulders. It’s to stop me from any surprise attack — not that I’m stupid to do that.

President Joe reaches to the coffee table between us. A flask filled with an amber liquid rests between a few square glasses. He pours the alcoholic beverage in a glass and goes back to his nonchalant position on his throne.

For what seems like forever, he fingers his bow tie while his cold gaze looms over me with disdain.

When I think he’ll judge me then dismiss me, he speaks with haughtiness like a snobby principle at school. “You look so much like her. It’s disgusting.”

That’s supposed to spring a feeling in me. Maybe a normal person would feel offended on behalf of their mother.

I don’t.

It is disgusting. What’s more disgusting is that I sought revenge for her all these years. However, this man isn’t blameless. In fact, he should be blamed the most.

“Don’t act like you didn’t play a part. Mum was obviously fucked up in the head. It was your duty as her father to help her, but you threw her away. Maybe if she’s been saved earlier, she wouldn’t have become that way. If her own father didn’t throw her, she wouldn’t have become the type of mother who thinks she can take away the life she’s given to me.” My lips tremble but I set them in a line.

He remains silent for a moment as he takes swift swigs from his drink. “She’s not my daughter.”

“Just because you disowned her doesn’t mean she’s not your flesh and blood.”

“She’s not my flesh and blood.” He stands up, his shoulders tensing with barely concealed rage. “I adopted that devil and brought her to my home. What did I get in return? Ungratefulness.”

My mouth hangs open. “She’s adopted?”

“I loved her as my own spawn,” he continues while pacing the room as if he didn’t hear me. “I always considered her my eldest and gave her everything she wanted, but what did she do? When my wife gave birth to Rachel, Renee fucked up everything. She was smart at it, too. We never saw the abuse or noticed how much Rachel kept to herself. We thought she was merely an introvert. I should’ve seen the signs. I should’ve seen that it wasn’t normal for Rachel to agree to whatever Renee wanted. Or that Renee would take away whatever Rachel had just because she can. She played my daughter like a damn instrument.”

I stare, incredulous, at President Joe’s reddened cheeks. If auto-combustions are possible, he’d be blown all over the elegant room about now. My mother didn’t only hurt me and my dad, she also destroyed her adoptive family.

“What else did she do?” I whisper.

He laughs, the sound is humourless and filled with pain. “The better question would be what didn’t she do? My wife and I made sure to not let her feel inferior to Rachel. No matter what we did, Renee always thought that. She destroyed Rachel’s life and as if that isn’t enough…” His face contorts like he’s fighting deep emotions.

I edge closer, but the guard pins me in place. I shoot him a glare and focus back on President Joe. “Then?”

He stops pacing and loosens his bow tie as if it’s strangling him. “Rachel wanted one thing so much that she fought Renee for it. I wish she didn’t. That devil Renee never lost.”

Appearing nostalgic, President Joe resumes pacing. “Rachel never begged me for anything, but she begged me to be with him. I didn’t agree. He was a soldier and therefore, her future with him wasn’t sure, but she pleaded with me for weeks and months. When that didn’t work, she got pregnant with him while she was a freshman to force my hand. They were only eighteen and nineteen when they got married.” His lips pull in a snarl. “Of course, Renee had an eye for him, too, and she eventually took him for herself.”

“My dad…?” My head spins.

Oh my God. Rachel is the same Rachel Mum talks to in her manic episodes. She was talking to her non-existent sister after she took away her husband.

I want to throw up.

“Did Mum become pregnant with me to take Dad away from her sister?”

“No. At least not in that order.” President Joe throws his weight on the chair like a dying old man who just wants life to be over with. “Rachel was pregnant ten years before you came to life. She and Jason had a beautiful boy and he promised to stop being deployed abroad once his tour at the time ended. After Jason’s blunt rejection of any advances from Renee, she should’ve given up. She didn’t. As soon as Jason was deployed, only months after the birth of Jason Jr., Renee never left Rachel’s side.”