Play Me | ✓

Epilogue

"Summer?"

"Yeah?" I turn around.

"You wanna go on the balcony? There's a great view of the city."

"Sure," I bob my head displaying a small smile. Jayce holds the balcony door open for me as I step out into the cold air of fall. Leaning on the edge of the railing, I watch as the cars rush through the streets below.

The lights more luminous in the gloomy sky, make the city even more beautiful during the night.

"You can ask, you know?" I acknowledge when I find Jayce eyeing the scars on my hands. Even though I spent most of my time getting rid of the scars sculpted into my skin, I left a few. Removing them felt more painful than keeping them as a reminder of what I've been through.

"I have a feeling I don't have to," he says.

"Jayce, I keep asking myself why I came here. To be honest, I don't know, but I know that I need something and you're the only one I trust. I need you to listen to the truth, not half-truths, but the whole truth. Because I'm twenty today, and I don't think there has ever been a day in the last twenty years, where I haven't lied."

"You can trust me, Summer."

I take in a minute of silence before I start.

"After you left, lots happened and Kai realized I wasn't who I claimed to be. He hated me, but I needed to go home and I bribed him to come with me by saying that if he did, my family would help him kill his brother Nicholas Black. You already know about the feud and everything, so I won't waste time explaining it."

"Things weren't the same when I got home. There was a lot of tension and unspoken words, but the one thing that didn't seem right was the fact that my father was so easily persuaded into believing it was me. It took a lot longer for my brothers to believe it, but it took nearly no convincing for my father to believe who I was. Once I told my family what happened in the three years I was gone, my father asked me to meet with him in his office alone. I didn't know what to expect, so I went in there with a blank mind ready for anything."

"But I was wrong, I wasn't ready for what he had to say and what he had to offer. He told me something I knew for a long time, but I decided to never believe it until the words came out of his mouth. He told me that Vincent White, my oldest brother, sold me to Nick. Xavier, my father, never really knew the reason, but it was assumed that Vincent always loathed me because our mother died giving birth to me. That wasn't really a surprise to me. I always knew someone worked with Nick and in the back of my mind, I always had a feeling it was Vince."

"Though, the things that he said after, took me by complete surprise."

I take a few seconds to breathe and close my eyes. I imagine the day in his office that he told me everything. Calm, I stood in front of him not giving him a single reaction, but today, I let myself feel it all.

My eyes open.

"He said he knew I was alive the whole three years I stayed away from them. Said that he... he followed and kept track of everything I did and made sure that I was safe. He did it all through the FBI. My father gave up the whole business to save my life, but Nick went back on their deal and that day, my father not only lost his only daughter and the business that he shed blood for, but he had also lost his oldest son. Devastated by the betrayal, my father decided that he was going to end it all once and for all, and went to work for the FBI."

"He laid out a plan for me. Live a normal life, he said: go to school, go on missions and train. Live as if the last three years never existed. Clearly, that was too vague and went on with an offer he knew I wouldn't refuse. We both wanted Nick dead and the best way to do that was to lure him in by planning a fake wedding. I didn't want to put more lives in risk and refused, but he still had more to offer."