I furrowed my brows at him, still struggling to process this as real.
“So now that I know the truth, my body will just start to revert to normal?”
“Eventually, yes,” he confirmed.
I looked away from him to stare out blankly into the ocean.If my body went back to normal, Darren would no longer believe I was pregnant either once he realized my stomach wasn’t growing.And then what would Darren do once he caught on to the deception?How long did Sid think he could keep this going?What the hell was the endgame in all this?
“Sid…how exactly were you planning on getting away with this?Eventually the truth would come out.How long did you think you would be able to keep this charade up?”
Sid shrugged, completely at ease with his explanation.“At first, the plan was to fabricate as many miscarriages in the first trimester as I could get away with.Those would be easy to fake, given that a first trimester fetus is barely visible in all the expelled blood and uterine tissue,” he explained.“But the longer you remained pregnant, the less likely Darren was to cause you physical harm, so deciding when to stage a miscarriage was difficult to determine.The next phase would be to falsify fetal genetic anomalies that weren’t compatible with life, which would result in obvious termination.Basically, I would try to stall for you for as long as I could.But now, I’ve run out of time much sooner than I thought I would, and I won’t be able to continue the charade for you any longer.”
I was beside myself with how well Sid had planned for this little ploy to last.He could have easily kept this going on for years if done right.But what was even more crazy was that he had successfully managed to fool both me and Darren for so long.But now that the veil had been lifted from my eyes, what the hell was I supposed to do?
“So why are you telling me this now?You could have gone to the grave with your little secret and kept us all in the dark.What the hell am I supposed to do with this information, Sid?I can’t continue this lie on my own, especially now that I know my body is going to eventually revert to before.”
A dark shadow cast over his eyes as he returned my gaze.
“By tomorrow, none of it will matter anymore, Jaden.”
I furrowed my brows at him.“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
Sid continued to walk his leisurely pace down the shore, prompting me to follow him.“I considered finally going to the police, confessing to everything I knew, but I recently came into contact with some very powerful allies of yours that appear to have united outside of Darren’s control or knowledge.”I found my mouth suddenly incredibly dry.Had Sid actually found Jason?“Your friends convinced me that going to the authorities was a fruitless endeavor, and they wanted to handle this the only way they knew for sure would finally bring down an empire.And I agreed.”
I, too, strongly agreed with the assessment.Even if Darren was arrested, there was no guarantee the courts would actually do any good, or if prison was even strong enough to hold a man like him.I doubted the effectiveness of the legal system wholeheartedly at this point.Even if I were free, if Darren was alive, then I would never be safe from him.
“And what are my allies planning to do now?”I asked carefully.
“Well, they already released the information about the destruction of the contents contained within the server farms.But my reveal of the letter Diana had written?Now that had come at quite the surprise for us all.And all of this has led to a very real uprising within the underground community that now seeks to unseat Darren’s rule.”
“How interesting,” I commented, but then paused for a moment.“Wait, you knew about the letter?”
He shook his head.“Not until I overheard Darren and Daniel arguing about it.Apparently, they either forgot I was in the room, or didn’t care, likely expecting my discretion as usual.”
I smiled internally at the fascinating turn of events.So my reveal of Diana’s letter had made a bigger impact after all.
“So now what?”I asked, my questions seemingly never-ending.“What are they going to do?”
Sid cleared his throat as he coughed into his sleeve again.“They tell me that tomorrow, they plan to lay siege to this estate.”
I nearly tripped over the damn water as I sputtered to an abrupt stop.They were going to attack the estate?But that was impossible.They had failed to successfully kill Darren at the country estate with far less security measures.How the hell did they plan to succeed with this one?Matt had to have explained to them of all the various defensive strategies Darren had established here.
“Tomorrow?How the hell do they plan to pull that off?This place is a fortress.”
Sid shook his head.“I don’t know, Jaden, but they clearly have some kind of plan.They are well aware of what they are up against at this location and have already developed some kind of strategy that I didn’t bother to try to understand.”
I was suddenly hit with a devastating blow of déjà vu.I had gotten my hopes up once before, and now I was potentially going to have to relive it all over again.Because I couldn’t fathom how they were going to pull this off.
“Why tomorrow?”
Sid coughed again into his elbow, his voice shaking uncomfortably as he turned to answer me.“Apparently, there is a very important meeting taking place here with all of the heads of the neighboring and global crime families and gangs.A meeting that your allies have been waiting for Darren to organize.”
My mind ran rampant with theories.Were they looking to clean house all at once.This was one hell of a sweep they were looking to operate.But it felt like nothing short of a goddamn suicide mission to me.
“And what will be my role in all this?”I asked tentatively.
Sid shrugged.“From what I understand, they plan to draw Darren away from the house for a period of time, which will also include a good portion of his security team.I don’t know how they will do this, but when they do, that is when the attack will occur.So your only priority should be to secure your own safety the moment he leaves.”
I almost scoffed.Like I was going to sit out another fight when I knew Darren wouldn’t be there to stop me this time.