Carlton ✔

49| The Bewildering Embrace

I could see myself as a child in all those places — playing in the mud and getting yelled at by my maids, climbing onto those trees and hiding from the guards to waste their time, threatening to jump off if they didn't feed me candy.

But those were the good memories. The bad one's couldn't even be talked about.

There was a shed behind the gardens where all the gardening supplies were stacked. Father kicked it open with fury. When I saw the man tied in the centre of the shed, my feet stopped moving. Father tossed his shotgun at me and I caught it with one hand. He smirked, gripping the prisoner's hair and making him look up at me.

Albrecht Bancroft, Augustus and Alexandra's father's bloodied face stared back at me, making me grip the shotgun in my hand with anticipation.

"While you were busy going after Augustus," Father twisted Albrecht's hair mercilessly, "This son of a bitch was behind all his operations."

I was freaking out. Did Father know what he was doing?! That man screaming with pain, was one of the most influential businessmen of the decade! Well, so was my Father-

"You thought you could torment my sons and get away with it?" He scowled at Albrecht.

He said "sons". My hands became sweaty.

"Let me send you back to your dead family, fucking Bancroft scums!" His face twisted with thrill as he gaped hungrily at his prey with a thirst for revenge. He jerked Albrecht's head away with force, pointing at me. "Go ahead son, put a bullet in his head."

I looked down at the deteriorated weapon in my hands and felt the sheer power of it consume my senses. I knew someone was backing up Augustus. Why didn't I figure out that it was his own father? Was it because I looked up to Albrecht as a role model and couldn't imagine him hurting anyone?

If Albrecht was always behind it, it would mean that he was the one who killed Aunt Vivian. He was the one who let Augustus harass Breanna, and attempt to assassinate each and every one of my friends. He was also the one who tried to settle everything through a "fair fight" between me and Augustus, to look like the good guy and make the Hargraves the bad guys.

I had wondered why Augustus was giving himself away for a fight so easily. Now I realised — it was because his father, Albrecht, had ordered him to do so. Maybe Augustus was trying to impress his father by listening to everything he commanded, just like I wanted to impress mine.

My eyes widened when the last piece of the puzzle slid into place — Albrecht framed his own son and used him to carry out all his dirty schemes, so all the blame would fall on Augustus and not him. Father's eyes searched mine and I realised I was taking too long to think. I lifted to the shotgun upto to Albrecht's face, my hands shivering from all the things I was figuring out.

Albrecht didn't adopt Augustus because he wanted to give him all the fortune, but because he wanted to use someone who was not his own son to do his dirty work for him. And then he tried to kill Alexandra, maybe because she was too smart and was too close to figuring everything out and exposing him?

He was an asshole of a father.

"Son?"

I snapped out of it, aligning my shotgun at his face. I could end his brutality with one click.

My breath was stuck in my throat, millions of thoughts rushing through my mind in a vortex of ambiguity. I inhaled and aligned the shotgun again, pressing on the trigger slightly. Just one little push, and I would end all this madness.

A drop of sweat trickled down from my wet hair, travelling down the side of my face, slithering down my neck and soaking away in my T-shirt.

I gulped, pain exploding painfully in my scorched throat.

And I put the shotgun down. "I can't."

"What?" My father raised an eyebrow.

"I can't do this!" I huffed, glaring at him through my tired eyes. "Violence is not the answer."

My father's face lifted in awe, his scowl fading away slowly.

It was true. All those people I had killed just to get here, never made me happy. The satisfaction was temporary, and then I was filled only with anguish. In the end, I tried my best not to stack up bodies behind me, and I had promised myself — Augustus was the last one. But in the end, I left him alive too.

I walked up close to my father, handing him the weapon, my eyes pleading with determination. "Please, Father. I know what this man did was fucking horrible. And he deserves to die for it. But not now, not like this."

For the first time in my life my Father listened to me silently, pursing his lips sternly without protesting or slapping me right across my face.

"This is not something that people like us are meant to do," I pleaded, gripping the shotgun in his hand, "We should leave this to the authorities to take care of."

I was shaking with fear. What if my Father just shoots me in the head right now for what I just said? But I said what needed to be said for a long time, and I didn't want to take anything back.

Surprisingly, my father put down the shotgun, his stare digging into mine with intent. I couldn't figure out the expression on his face, so I flinched with fright when he suddenly leaned towards me. I could feel my heart stop for a fraction of a second when he pulled me into a tight embrace, placing one of his hands on my head, caressing it with love I did not know he was capable of showing.

My arms automatically wrapped around him, tears bursting forth as feelings of bewilderment exploded in my heart.

"I'm so proud of you," I heard him say.

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