Vicious Prince (Royal Elite #5)(79)

Thank God.

“What do you plan to do with him? His blood is messing up my kitchen,” Lars asks after I hang up on Knox. He’s glaring down at Eduard as if he’s mentally sharpening the best knife in his collection so he can drive it into his chest.

“Do you have a rope?” I ask.

He smiles. “Of course, sir.”

I hope I’m not too late.

Don’t do it, Teal. Don’t make this mistake.





34





Teal





My fingers hover on the engine’s button.

I can’t.

No, I can.

This is what I’ve lived all my life for. This is my mission in life, the reason I exist.

The shadow of the girl on my shoulder is begging me to go on, to step harder on the accelerator. I need to go, I need to— “Char…lotte… Ronan…” Edric mumbles from beside me. His foot kicks forward but soon falls down.

“Shut up.” I release the steering wheel and grasp the needle. “You don’t get to play the victim game with me. You don’t get to use Charlotte or Ronan.”

He’s staring at me, but there’s no fear or franticness in his eyes as I expected. He’s not even pretending to have any acceptance. If anything, he appears sad, mortified, even.

“…w-write s-something to h-her…”

“Why would you get to say your goodbyes? Knox and I didn’t. We couldn’t. We had to run away so you would never come near me again.”

“N-No…not me…”

“You won’t even admit to it?” My voice rises. “The curtains have fallen, Edric. There’s no one to save you.”

Or me.

I’ve already picked my path. I don’t get to change my mind.

A banging sounds on the door and I startle. Shit. No one is supposed to come this far out.

I hit the ignition and spring into action.

“Teal!” Ronan’s voice comes through the window, muffled but strong.

My shoulder blades snap together.

What is he doing here? How did he find me? He’s not supposed to find me.

Don’t look at him.

Don’t you dare look at him.

I slowly close my eyes. If I look at him, I won’t be able to go through with this.

If I look at him, I’ll be tempted to abandon everything and run into his arms, but that will only destroy me in the long run.

“Teal!” He bangs on the window. “Open up.”

I don’t.

I won’t.

“Ma belle…please look at me.” His voice softens, and something inside me breaks. It breaks at his nickname for me and the way he’s calling me his beauty.

Tears stream down my cheeks. I couldn’t stop them even if I wanted to. I held them hostage for so long, and now they’re breaking out.

I hit the button, and the lowering sound of the window echoes in the silence of the morning. However, I don’t look at him. I feel like if I do, I’ll break down in sobs, and I can’t have that.

“Teal,” Ronan coaxes. “Can you shut off the engine?”

“No.” My voice trembles around the word.

“Hey…I know the amount of pain you’re in. I won’t pretend I understand it all, but I understand some. However, you’re making a huge mistake, Teal. It’s not my father.”

This time I do look at him, my veins nearly popping out of my neck with tension.

How dare he say it’s a mistake?

Just because it’s his father doesn’t mean he didn’t do it.

I regret lifting my head immediately. Ronan is holding up a half-conscious Eduard, his face nearly unrecognisable. Blood drips down his temples, his chin, and his ugly red suit.

“It was this fucker.” Ronan’s jaw clenches. “He’s the only paedophile in our family.”

My jaw drops open as Ronan tells me the story of how his uncle used to go to Birmingham and how Charlotte was sick at the time so Edric never left her side, not even for a minute.

I can’t concentrate. For a second too long, I’m just staring ahead as the pieces fall together.

That’s why Eduard seemed familiar when he was talking to Ronan in his room that day…the tenor of his voice, his back. I gasp as the rest of Ronan’s words register.

The only paedophile in our family.

He’s the man who molested Ronan, isn’t he?

Why had I thought the secret was that Eduard was Ronan’s biological father? He couldn’t be; the similarities between Edric and Ronan are undeniable. I was only trying any method possible to stop relating the source of my pain to the source of my happiness.

My gaze bounces between Eduard and Edric, whose eyes are rimmed with tears. He figured it out, too.

I kill the engine. My own eyes won’t stop fucking leaking, and I don’t have the will to wipe the tears away.

“E-Edric…” Eduard begs. “Stop your son’s madness.”

My skin prickles with all the emotions I’ve been directing at the wrong person.

This arsehole has been hiding in plain sight all this time. I’ve been plotting Edric’s demise when he didn’t do a thing.

God, what have I done?