Chapter 1009
“I’m sorry,” Liam whispered, pressing her hand to his forehead. “I had to stop Alistair. Preston had a sniper on the ridge. If Alistair had drawn his gun, his head would have been pink mist. And I couldn’t fight them on the chopper without getting you killed.”
Skye looked at the top of his head, at the dark hair that was so like his father’s.
“You knew,” she said. “You knew Bastian was behind this.”
Liam looked up. His eyes were red-rimmed. “I suspected. When the dossier came… it had his signature. Not a name, but a style. The cruelty.”
“So what now?” Skye asked. “Are we prisoners?”
“You are,” Liam said. “I’m… I’m the prodigal son trying to keep his father from committing murder.”
“And failing,” she noted.
“Not yet.” Liam squeezed her hand. “Rest, Skye. I’m not leaving this chair.”
The night stretched on, endless and suffocating. The pain in Skye’s shoulder had dulled to a constant, throbbing ache, but the fever was starting to set in. She drifted in and out of sleep, her dreams filled with falling rocks and burning eyes.
Rеa𝘥 𝗐𝘪t𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘪n𝘁𝘦𝗋𝗿𝘶𝗽𝗍𝘪o𝗻𝘴 𝗼ո 𝗀𝘢𝗹n𝘰v𝗲𝗹ѕ.со𝘮
Every time she woke, Liam was there. He hadn’t moved. He sat staring at the door, as if willing it to stay closed by sheer force of mind.
“Water,” Skye croaked around 3 AM.
Liam was on his feet instantly. He poured a glass from a pitcher on the desk and supported her head so she could drink. The water was cool—a small mercy in this hell.
“Why is he doing this?” Skye asked, her voice slightly stronger. “Bastian was a tycoon. He had everything. Why play mad scientist?”
Liam set the glass down. He looked tired, aged ten years in a single day.
“It started decades ago,” Liam said quietly. “But it escalated recently. Mom… Beatrice. You saw her ambition, her cruelty. That wasn’t just her personality. That was a side effect of the treatments. The experimental compounds Bastian fed her to keep her young, to keep her sharp.”
Skye listened, stunned. Beatrice Kensington had been a dragon lady, a socialite who had terrorized her for not wearing the right pearls. To think she had been chemically enhanced all along.
“The crash was sudden,” Liam continued. “Without the Administrator’s supply, her body couldn’t sustain the artificial vitality. She collapsed three days ago. Multi-system organ failure. Bastian is desperate.”
“He abandoned you,” Skye said. “He left you to deal with the company, the scandal, everything—five years ago.”
“He abandoned everything for the research,” Liam corrected. “It’s twisted, Skye. It’s not love anymore. It’s possession. He can’t let her go.”
“And you?” She looked at him. “Why are you helping him?”
“I’m not helping him,” Liam said sharply. “I’m managing him. If I walk away, he burns the world down to find a cure. If I stay… maybe I can minimize the damage.”
“Or maybe you’re just as trapped as she is,” Skye said.
Before Liam could answer, the lock clicked. The door creaked open.
It wasn’t Bastian. It was a nurse pushing a wheelchair.
And in the wheelchair sat Beatrice Kensington.
.
.