Vengeance

VENGEANCE

By Kelly Carrero

Copyright 2013 by Kelly Carrero

This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons either living or deceased is purely coincidental. Names, places, characters and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author holds the rights to this work. It is illegal to reproduce this novel without written expressed consent from the author herself.

Cover Design by Robin Ludwig Design Inc.

http://www.gobookcoverdesign.com/

Formatting by Polgarus Studio

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Chapter 1

How do you know if a guy really loves you if he never consciously made the decision to like you in the first place?
Aiden had been forced against his knowledge and will to bring me closer to the one who’d manipulated my entire life. The love of my life was nothing but a pawn, and he’d never truly loved me by his own choice.

My life was a lie.

Chelsea walked in and held out a glass. “Here, have some water.”

Instantly, I recognised that I was living my vision. I remembered telling her I didn’t want any and then I cried into the pillow. I was so not going to play out that scene. I sucked in my breath and held it, trying to stop the next lot of tears that threatened to spill. I didn’t want my vision to come true. Although without a doubt, it already had. But I wanted to believe my future was not set in stone and I had the ability to make my own fate. Ah, who was I kidding?

Tears rolled down my nose and onto the already soaked pillow. Aiden and I… well, there never was an Aiden and me. For all I knew, the Aiden I loved never existed. I mean, he did date Georgia, after all. Maybe he was really like her before my father got control of his mind.

Chelsea sighed and put the cup on the bedside table. “You can’t keep doing this to yourself.” She sat down beside me and brushed my hair out of my eyes. “It’s been two days. Aiden deserves to know why you’ve suddenly left him.”

While I had been lying in the bed crying, Aiden had been meeting Chelsea at the hospital to continue to take away Marie’s pain during her bandage changes. He was desperately trying to get Chelsea to tell him where I was and why I’d left him without any explanation. But being the best friend that she was, she stuck by the code, even if she had a little help from me to keep her from talking.

“I can’t see him. I’m sorry. I just can’t.” My heart felt as if it had shattered into a million pieces.

My parents had created me as if I were some kind of science experiment. Someone who I had begun to think of as a friend had turned out to be my father. I thought I was an only child then discovered my mother had been keeping Gemma—whatever the hell relation she was—from me, and then I found out I had a brother and sister. And my boyfriend…
he
never truly loved me.

I closed my eyes, trying to numb the pain. I wished there was some way I could take it all away. But of course, I hadn’t learned to do that one yet. And if I had, I didn’t think I would stop with just the pain. I would probably have removed all my memories of the people who had said they loved me then tried to move on as a person with no memories at all. Anything would be better than the hurt and betrayal.

Chelsea looked at her watch. “I’ve got to be at the hospital in two minutes.”

I gave her a slight nod and sat up, wiping my tears with the sleeve of my top. “Just give me a sec.” I stood and went into the bathroom.

I locked the door then turned on the taps. I didn’t bother waiting and splashed my face with the ice-cold water, wanting to feel something other than crushing pain inside. But I didn’t feel a thing. It was as if my skin had become numb to life as well.

I looked up and stared at my reflection in the mirror. For once, I could say that my appearance had changed. My face was swollen from all the tears. My hair was a mess from lack of showering the last two days and my eyes… they appeared soulless.

Chelsea knocked on the door. “Jade?”

I thought about saying I would be out in a second, but I couldn’t even bring myself to say so many words out loud. I took a deep breath and opened the door.

Chelsea stood on the other side, wearing a sad smile. “Come here,” she said, pulling me into a hug.

I put my arms around her and transported us to behind a tree on the hospital grounds.

Chelsea gave my back a quick rub. “Thanks.”

I hated seeing myself through her eyes, but she was the one person who was truly there for me without any interference by my father. I hated what I was about to do, but I couldn’t think of any other way. If I didn’t do it, Aiden and my father would possibly find out what I knew, and I couldn’t risk her like that. So I entered her mind and removed all the memories she had of the reason why I had walked out on lunch two days ago.

“Text me when you’re ready to come back,” I said after I pulled out of her mind.

Oblivious to what I’d just done, she smiled and waited for me to leave.

“Jade.” Aiden stood behind Chelsea, the pain in his eyes crushing my heart all over again.

I stared at him, knowing I should’ve left but aching to see his face, even if seeing him was going to kill me later. Not knowing I could already hear his thoughts, Aiden opened his mind as he slowly walked toward me. He feared he would scare me away if he moved too fast. He couldn’t understand why I’d left him, why I wouldn’t speak to him, and why I was blocking him from our mental connection.

Tears spilled down my cheeks, and my heart broke all over again when I heard how much he was hurting and how much he
believed
he loved me. All I wanted to do was to rush over to him and hold him tightly, to take away all the pain I had caused him. I wished I could forget about the last two days and live the rest of my life under the delusion that he was truly mine. But his love wasn’t real. My father had made him feel that way, and I couldn’t live a lie.

I slowly shook my head as a fresh bout of tears escaped the floodgates. “I’m sorry,” I whispered.

“Jade!” Aiden yelled. Fear gripped his heart as he reached for me, hoping he’d get to me before it was too late. I felt his arms try to hold onto me, but I phased out before I changed my mind.

I collapsed onto the bed in the hotel room and cried until my tears ran dry. Seeing him there and hearing the desperation in his thoughts was all too much. He truly believed he loved me with all his heart and soul. And my heart shattered into a million pieces all over again.

Chapter 2

The sound of my phone vibrating on the bedside table woke me. I lifted my head and reached for it. I had five missed calls from Chelsea.
Crap.

I punched in a quick reply to her text.
Are you ready?

A moment later, my phone vibrated again. The message was short and straight to the point, which was uncharacteristic of Chelsea:
Yes.
She must be pretty upset, and I was guessing it had nothing to do with her mum and everything to do with Aiden and me.

I lay my head back down on the pillow, pulled the sheets over my head, and brought Chelsea back to the hotel room. She didn’t say anything at first—another sign that she was worried—and the thoughts running through her mind confirmed my suspicions in the worst possible way. Her brain was filled with messages from Aiden to me. He had told her everything he was feeling: the confusion, the hurt, the despair, and, most importantly, the fear. He knew Chelsea’s thoughts were all he required to make me understand just how much he needed me.

I thought about erasing everything Aiden had said from her mind, but I couldn’t do that to her. I was already screwing with her brain more than I wanted.

Chelsea stood there, not knowing what to do because she had no idea why I was acting the way I was. I went back into her mind and reinstalled all the memories I had erased, a too-easy action. Something had snapped in me after Harry had given me the drug to counteract the suppressant my father had administered, and I could do things I never could before. I was in complete control of every single one of my abilities, even the ability to alter moods. But I never used that one on myself. I was stuck in my crippling misery, exactly where I wanted to be. I needed to feel everything. Otherwise, I would never truly understand what I had lost and why I had to stop my father—at all costs.

When all of Chelsea’s memories returned, she sat on the bed next to me and put her hand on my upper arm. “That’s so weird when you do that to me.” Although she didn’t feel me in her mind, I always made sure she knew what I had done to her. And she was okay with that—without my making changes to her psyche. That was one of the many things that made her my best friend.

She sighed. “I know you don’t want to hear it, but you really do need to talk with Aiden. This is killing him just as much as it’s killing you. Don’t you think he deserves to know? At least that way, he’ll know why you’re staying away from him. I know you’re always saying you can’t tell him because his best friend is Nathan’s son, but don’t you think that’s for him to decide? Besides, I think it’s all just an excuse anyway.”

I threw the sheet off my face and glared at her.

She wagged a finger at me. “Don’t look at me like that. You know I’m right. You’re avoiding him because you can’t handle the possibility that he won’t love you of his own accord.”

“No, Chelsea.” I sat up. “I’m not worried that he won’t, because as far as he is concerned, he does. What I’m worried about is that his love isn’t
real
. He doesn’t love me. He never really did.”

Chelsea’s face softened. “Jade—”

“My father has taken something from me that I can never get back. He took my trust. I can never trust Aiden when he says he loves me. He’s only saying it because that’s what my father made him believe.” I looked down at my closed fists. “How can I ever know for sure?”

“I don’t know,” Chelsea said, her heart breaking for me. “But I do know you can’t keep being like this. You need to face Aiden.” She reached out and put her hand over mine. “And you need to do it soon.”

I swallowed hard. “I know. I know.”

“Well then, will you come out with me to get something to eat?” She hoped but didn’t think I would agree. She hated seeing me like that, and I hated making her feel that way.

So I said, “Okay.”

“Seriously?” she asked, hoping I’d turned a corner in my emotional crap-hole.

I forced a smile. “Just let me have a shower first, okay?” I headed for the bathroom.

She called, “Good, ’cause you stink like shit. I didn’t want to tell you before ’cause you were so depressed and all, but I was really starting to worry that the hotel staff might think someone had died in here.”

I chuckled and closed the door.

When I was showered, dressed and my looks once again belied what I felt inside, Chelsea and I headed to the lifts then took them up to the Sky Point Café. We were back on the Gold Coast because I didn’t know enough places to transport to. I figured as long as our hotel room was on an upper floor, Aiden wouldn’t be able to feel our presence from down on the street.

We took a seat overlooking the beach. A waitress came over and took our order.

Chelsea asked, “Do you know what you’re going to say to Aiden?”

I bit my lip. “Not a clue.”

She put her elbow on the table and rested her chin on her hand. “Are you going to tell him that Nathan’s your father, and he’s the reason why you guys got together in the first place?”

“I can’t tell him about Nathan because Nathan might find out, and that could put everyone in danger. But on the other hand, I have to tell Aiden about it because how else am I supposed to explain why I can no longer be with him?” Saying those words out loud made me feel as if a knife had been driven through my heart. “I don’t know what to do.” I sank back in my chair and stared absently at the table. “And then there’s the whole Nathan issue. He’s going to wonder why I disappeared, and he’ll probably find some sick, twisted way to punish me.”

“Forget about Nathan for now. You’re never going to be able to concentrate on beating his arse when you can’t stop thinking about Aiden. So my advice is: Go sort this mess out with Aiden, however you have to do it, and then go after Nathan.”

The plan sounded so simple when she said it, but we both knew the execution was as far from simple as one could get. First, I had to find a way to tell Aiden without Nathan finding out, and even though Nathan didn’t have access to Aiden’s mind, he would still know because of the close relationship he had with the Scotts.

The waitress brought our meals, and I watched Chelsea devour her pizza as I moved my pasta around without actually taking a bite. I still felt too sick to eat anything, and my stomach would probably stay on strike until I faced Aiden.

“I’ll do it tomorrow,” I said, putting down my fork. “I’ll come to the hospital with you and talk with Aiden then.”