Rebellion of a Kingdom by G.N. Wright
Chapter 26
ELLE
Ihave no idea where we are going. Ash is driving, I’m sitting next to him and Marcus is in the back. Max and Elijah are following in the car behind us for extra security, but none of us have a clue where we are heading. Asher has been cagey ever since he read the note from Michael last night. He said he knew who Beth was and then he got up and left the room. None of us knew what to do and I didn’t see him again until this morning when he walked in the kitchen with Max and Eli saying it was time to go. It’s the first time we have left Cassie and I didn’t want to go, but I could tell from the look in his eyes he needed me. So here we are.
We drive for about two hours and when we pull into a gated community, I sit up straight, knowing we must be close. Asher shoves a wad of cash into the hand of the security guard, and he waves us right in. Money really can buy fucking anything. We stop in front of a beautiful white house lined with trees and a big blue front door. I turn to ask Ash more questions now we have finally arrived, but he is already getting out of the car. I look to Marcus who mouths ‘what the fuck’ before we both get out and follow him.
We have to rush to catch up to him and by the time we make it to him the door is already swinging open. It’s a woman who looks to be in her early forties. Beautiful and blonde, dressed in a casual pair of linen pants and a denim shirt. She’s got a pair of oven gloves folded in her hands like she just took them off and when her gaze lands on Asher her face falls.
She looks like she has seen a ghost. “Asher?” Her voice is barely audible as she chokes out his name.
“Hi, Mom.” He replies.
My eyes nearly pop out of my head. Beth is Elizabeth Donovan, Asher’s mom. She has never been in the picture and I didn’t dig up anything about her, I just presumed she was dead. Nobody ever spoke about her, especially Ash, yet here she stands. I have never been more confused and when she swings her gaze to me and Marcus, I see recognition flow through her.
“My god, you look just like them.” She looks between us, “you both do.” That’s when it hits me that she means our parents. She must have known Michael and Sarah.
“We’re not here for a trip down memory lane, we need something. Can we come in?” Asher snaps and his shortness is even sharper than usual. The tension between them is thick. The bitterness in his voice cuts me deep.
She looks at him hesitantly, before looking over our shoulders and no doubt eyeing the guards we came with. “Where is your father? Does he know you’re here?” She asks and I can hear the undercurrent of panic in her tone.
“Elliot knows nothing about where I am.” He bites back and she softens slightly and nods. She steps back and welcomes us into her home.
I look over my shoulder and offer a nod to Max and follow the guys inside. She leads us to a living room and gestures for us to sit on the sofa there. The room is decorated in soft creams and golds with plants giving it a pop of color. I notice there are no pictures or personal effects anywhere, and when I bring my gaze back to her, she is staring intently at Asher. He is still standing and gazing around the room with a scowl. I can’t imagine what is going through his head right now. All I can think is why did he never talk about her? Has she been here all this time? Why did she leave? And more importantly why didn’t she take Asher with her when she left?
“Can I get anyone a drink, some iced tea? Coffee maybe?” She's standing in the entrance which I guess leads into the kitchen, looking like she would rather be anywhere but here.
“How did you know Michael Riviera?” Asher barks at her, not wasting any time to get to the point and she sighs, coming into the room fully and sitting down. She looks at him until he sighs too and comes to sit next to me and Marcus.
“Michael and I grew up together, before my family left Black Hallows. We lost touch for a while, but he was always there for me and Sarah.” She looks at Marcus, “how is he?”
Marcus grimaces slightly, looking at Asher before admitting solemnly, “he’s dead. Almost four years ago now.”
“Elliot murdered him. Shot him right in the head in the foyer of his own home. Leaving Marcus to find his body.” Asher bites out in disgust, and I see her thick swallow as she fights against her emotions. A lone tear tracking down her cheek.
“I’m so sorry. He was a good man. The best man.” She whispers.
I reach into my bag for the note, “He left this behind, we only just found it.”
She takes it and inhales a deep breath as she reads it. She stands on shaky legs leaving the room and then returning a few minutes later with a big brown box. It’s slightly worn, like it has been used or touched multiple times. She sets it on the coffee table in front of us.
She puts her hands on top of it, gripping it like it’s a lifeline before she locks eyes with Asher. “I know I should have taken you with me, I regret that decision every day.”
“I’m not here to cry about why Mommy left me,” he spits bitterly, “I’m here to protect my best friend and our daughter.”
The words cut right through her and she stutters out, “you have a daughter?” She looks between me and Ash and then takes in Marcus’ arm around me and I see the confusion. She has no idea of the dynamic here.
When Asher doesn’t respond I jump in, “her name is Cassie, she’s three.” I pull my phone out and show her a picture.
“She’s beautiful.” She hesitates and I can practically hear the questions she wants to ask so I answer them before she has to ask.
“When I was fourteen, I was kidnapped and raped. The result was my daughter.” I pause reaching out to clasp Ash’s hand in mine. “Our daughter.”
“It was Greg.” Ash adds in a cold tone, “in case you were wondering.”
She closes her eyes like she’s in physical pain. Putting her hands on the box again. “Your father is an extremely sick man. Always has been. I didn’t see it until it was too late. By that time Greg was already following in his footsteps.” She shakes her head, “I didn’t know what to do. There had already been so many girls that I’d missed.”
Her admission should shock me, but I think I am numb to anything I learn when it comes to the Donovan’s.
“So, what you did nothing?” Asher snaps in disgust.
“I did the only thing I could do. I took this and I ran.” She sounds ashamed and I want to feel sorry for her, but I can’t imagine ever leaving a child defenseless against a monster like Elliot. She left Asher behind, left him to be surrounded in darkness and grow up to become who he is now. How different would his life have been if he’d have escaped with her?
“My dad helped you, didn’t he?” Marcus interrupts my thoughts, and she nods.
“I didn’t know who else to turn to. Michael was still in Black Hallows and I knew he had helped Sarah out years before, so I knew he would help me too.”
“How did he help my Mom?” I interrupt, but she ignores me and focuses on Ash.
“I watched your father for weeks. He was taking you boys everywhere. It’s like he knew what I was planning. I waited until you were all out of the house and I broke into the cellar.” She stops closing her eyes like the memories are haunting her, “what I saw I won’t ever forget. I found this.” She pats the box, “then I planned my escape. I knew Elliot would let me go, especially when he knows I have this. But I knew he would never let you or your brother go. So, I made the hardest decision I’ve ever made. I ran and left you behind.”
“What’s in the box?” Is all he responds.
She sighs pulling the lid off and pulling out a huge binder, “evidence.” She mutters before handing it over to him. He takes it flipping through it and all I see are newspaper clippings, missing persons posters, and what look like bank statements.
“What is all this?” He questions as he takes in every page.
“It’s everything I could find.” She shrugs, but I can see how long she has been holding onto this. “We moved around a lot, Elliot said it was for work and I guess for him it was. I didn’t realize it at the time, but whenever he felt the heat got too much, we moved. But he kept this box, like a sick little box of trophies of all the girls he’d sold.”
Asher continues to flip through it but I can’t bear to look at it any longer, there are so many pictures in there. Elliot has kept track of every girl he’s ever fucking taken. I shouldn’t be shocked, but this is sick even for him.
“These all look like girls without families or runaways.” Ash muses and I know we had already come to that conclusion, that prior to me, he only ever seemed to take girls that nobody cared about.
“Safer that way,” she mumbles and then sighs, “from what I gathered he would use Greg to lure in the younger girls his age and they would do whatever with them and then they’d disappear.”
I fight down the bile as I remember what they did to me and what has been done to hundreds of others. All without justice. I can’t ignore that. There is just too much to let it go and it’s worse now, before he got away with it because it was girls nobody gave a fuck about. Now he gets away with it because he found his people. Just as sick and fucked up as he is and with power like he wouldn’t believe. He thinks he’s untouchable.
“So why ruin that by taking Elle?” Marcus wonders aloud.
“That was personal.” Beth responds mindlessly before I see her eyes widen like she’s said too much. She knows more, more than I ever could have anticipated. Ash doesn’t miss it either and calls it out straight away.
“Why do you think Elle was so important to them? She was just a fucking kid and a King. Taking her was reckless even for him.”
She blows out a breath and I know she doesn’t want to tell us, but I also know she can see how much of a force her son is. He won’t let this go. “It was never about her,” she replies looking at me now, “this was set in motion before she was even born.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.” I quip back.
“Not to you. It all comes back to Elliot and Sarah.”
I frown, “Impossible. They didn’t even know each other until Elliot moved to Black Hallows.”
“Trust me, they did. Sarah comes from a powerful family. You know that better than anyone. She was wild, never did what they said. They went away one summer and when she came back, she was different, quieter, calmer. I barely saw her and then a year later she was being forced into an arranged marriage with your father.”
“What has any of that got to do with Elliot, or Elle for that matter?” Asher questions and she glances at him before looking back to me.
“Elle was payment. A child for a child.” She says the words slowly like they are going to make any sense, but none of us pick up on whatever she means.
“Stop speaking in fucking riddles!” Asher shouts and I can see the anger in him rising. Being here is not good for him, it’s digging up too much of the past. We need to go.
She takes a deep breath and then says four words that change everything.
“Zack is Elliot’s son.”