Katherine scoffed.“Foolish woman.”
I nodded in agreement.“To be fair, she was dying of ovarian cancer and probably wasn’t thinking all that clearly.Desperate mothers can do foolish things.”
Katherine sighed softly as she looked down into the clear water.“And what foolish thing would you have me do, Jaden?”she asked softly.
Foolish wasn’t exactly the word I would have used.Volatile would have been more appropriate.
“I revealed Diana’s letter to Darren, Daniel, Scott, and Sloane weeks ago.But Darren burned the letter to destroy the evidence.He said it would cause chaos in their world if anyone found out the truth.”
Katherine sighed a fresh breath of anger as she held me, but her facial features remained schooled.“Yes, I imagine it would.”
“I think it’s time your father heard the truth…along with everyone else.Even if there’s no physical evidence, rumors alone can crumble entire kingdoms.”
She paused as she stared back at me, unsure of my request.“You want to unleash the chaos,” she stated, trepidation tainting her voice.
“Absolutely.”
Katherine remained silent for another minute as her eyes drifted over to the ocean.For decades, Katherine had been raised to be loyal, passive, and obedient to Daniel, and I was asking her to betray him, to knowingly commit an action against him.I couldn’t blame her if she didn’t have the ability to overcome her conditioning just yet, but I hoped a crack could be found somewhere that I could dig my fingers into.
“This will likely get a lot of people killed,” she muttered to herself.
“Hopefully the right ones.”
I just had to hope that Katherine’s father still had enough sway in their world to convince people the rumor was true and worth acting on.
Katherine released a slow, heavy breath from her nose, a decision finally settling in her mind.
“I don’t even fucking like my father,” she suddenly said, taking me by surprise.“But for once, maybe he can actually be of some use to me.”
I smiled in return.“Let’s hope so.”
I just had to pray to the universe and every god known to man that it had the effect I was expecting it to.Coordinating chaos was becoming a full-time job, but I was only too happy to jump into the role as often as I could.
“Come on, you guys, get out of the water,” Sloane called from the shore, holding up a couple of towels.
Katherine and I stood from the water and made our way back to the beach.I allowed Sloane to drape a thick beach towel over my shoulders while Katherine took the other and wrapped it around herself.Sloane had clearly already dried herself when she grabbed the towels, her clothes still wet but no longer dripping.Together, the three of us walked back up the grassy lawn toward the house when we noticed a tall figure appear on the back patio.
When we got closer, I realized with disgust that it was Daniel.He stared down at us with disapproval as we rounded the stone railing he was currently leaning against to walk up the stairs.
“Why the fuck are you all wet?”he asked Katherine, his voice tight with anger.
“We went swimming,” I answered bluntly for her.
Daniel’s eyes shot to mine.“I didn’t fucking ask you, Jaden.I was talking to my wife.”I shrugged and brushed him off, knowing his time would be coming very shortly.“Get upstairs,” he ordered Katherine, causing her to side-eye me with the ghost of a smile before quickly scooting around her dick of a husband to disappear into the house, hopefully off to make a very important private phone call.
“I don’t care how you want to celebrate your little pity party, but you’re to leave my wife out of it.Understand?”Daniel scolded.
I snarled at him.“Fuck you, Daniel.If she wants to join me, I won’t stop her.”
Daniel’s eyes lit up with ferocious anger.
“Listen to me, you little shit,” he started, taking another step closer to me and prompting Sloane to loudly follow suit.Daniel noticed her abrupt proximity, glancing at her with a warning in his eye before he continued.“I won’t have you filling Katherine’s head with your vengeful nonsense because of the problems you created for yourself.It’s your fault your stupid dog got killed last night, no one else’s, so deal with it in private and away from my wife.”
I scowled at him, the urge to bash his skull in with a bat incredibly strong.“Is that what you think I do?Fill her head with vengeful nonsense?”
“I don’t think.I know it.”
I laughed at him.“I didn’t realize I was such a threat to you, Daniel.Thank you for the compliment.Now, if you’ll excuse me,” I said, then moved to sidestep him.