God of Pain (Legacy of Gods #2) by Rina Kent

“Papa!” She cries harder.

I snatch the phone from Adrian’s hand so that it’s only me again. “Don’t cry, baby. I hate it when you do. We’ll do our best to make everything all right.”

“How can it be when it’s all…wrong?”

My heart splinters along with hers, and her pain streams through my veins as if it’s my own. It takes all my strength to remain calm. “Let me ask you this. How does Creighton remember? He was adopted soon after his mother’s death, so he can’t possibly recall all the details from such a young age.”

“You know about his adoption?” Her lips part, letting the tears stream inside her mouth. “Don’t tell me you shadowed his life all this time?”

“No, of course not. I’ve never met him, but after I heard about the incident, your father and I asked Rai to find him a better home. Her sister does a lot of social work and she agreed to sponsor him. He was soon adopted by European parents and left the States.”

I was glad the innocent boy would have a better life and that the nightmare was finally out of our lives. I never liked the media play I later found out that Adrian had conducted, or the way he dragged Richard and his family through the mud because he considered death by so many stabs was too little of a punishment.

I just never thought those European parents were actually English and that we’d send our daughter straight into the boy’s path.

“He must’ve found out the truth,” Anni whispers, her voice spooked. “That’s why he’s been ignoring my texts.”

“There’s no way for him to know,” I soothe. “This event is a mystery to everyone except for our family. Even his adoptive parents weren’t given the full recounting of events, and from what Rai disclosed about them, they’re people of great status and wanted to erase that part of his origin. I doubt they would tell him anything.”

“But he has to know. He’s been searching for the truth for so long.”

“You will not meet with him, Annika.” Adrian slides into the frame again. “It’s dangerous.”

“But—”

“No buts. We’ll see you back home in a few days.”

And then he ends the call.

“I didn’t finish talking with her,” I protest, dabbing at my eyes with the back of my hand.

“Anything you offer her would be an excuse that she won’t understand in her current state. She needs time to process what she’s learned, and hopefully, she’ll come to the logical conclusion that whatever she had with the boy is ill-fated.”

“The boy had nothing to do with what his father did. He was only a toddler back then.”

“No, he didn’t, but the truth remains that I was the one behind his parents’ deaths and his family’s demise. He’ll only look at Annika as my daughter, and I will not allow him to put her through such torture.”

“She’ll hate us…”

My husband’s large hand cradles my cheek and he strokes gently, causing tiny shock waves to erupt on my skin. “A few years down the line, she’ll know we did this to protect her.”

But at what price?

Adrian has always been methodical and solution-oriented, so he doesn’t care much about feelings, but I do.

And I know, I just know that we might have accidentally killed a part of Anni that we’ll never be able to get back.





28





CREIGHTON





There was a plan all along.

The universe’s.

My parents’.

Landon’s.

Everyone had a course of life and a path to follow from the beginning.

The universe decided my biological parents didn’t deserve to live and destroyed my life in retrospect.

Mum and Dad thought any information about my past was unnecessary so they went to immaculate lengths to hide it from me.

Landon needed me as his instigator of chaos, the variable that he used to have the Heathens and Serpents clash without getting the Elites involved, so he withheld information.

But he had my revenge in mind.

That’s what he called it earlier, after he casually mentioned that he kidnapped Nikolai because we can use him to draw out Jeremy.

“Once the Heathens’ leader is here, you can punch him, kill him. Get your long-awaited revenge. What’s better than punishing the parents’ sin by taking away their only heir?”

Eli thinks Landon said that so I would let him go, but his words aren’t far from the truth.

I’ve stayed locked up in my room since, sitting in the dark for hours, a whole day even, staring at my bloodied hands.

It’s not enough.

This amount of blood is simply not enough.

There needs to be payback. Eye for an eye. Life for a life.

And since the parents are untouchable, the children will pay on their behalf.

Just like I did over seventeen years ago.

That would hurt them much more anyway, considering they poured all their lives into raising them to be the future leaders of the Volkovs.

A tinge of pain explodes behind my rib cage, achy at first but soon becoming absolutely unbearable.

The thought of her slashes through my bruised chest and brutally confiscates my air.

I always considered myself a little bit heartless, but it was Annika who proved that I actually do have a heart.