Chapter 235 The Benefactor [1]

[Music: The Fallen By Power Glove]

"As much as I wanna take credit for all the pain and misery..." Caleb murmured. "I can’t."

I snapped my broad gaze to him.

"Jacob is the Benefactor, not me."

I bounced my eyes back to Jacob as he pulled down the hood and then took off the baseball cap. I-It’s really him. It’s really Jacob. But how? He’s supposed to be dead, isn’t he?

"But I’ll take credit for exposing vital information about my big brother and his company," Caleb continued as he backed away. "So, in some way I’m responsible, while watching from the sidelines."

He said that like an afterthought.

"She’s all yours, Benefactor. I have done my part. Took care of my brother’s men lurking around, and now... she’s delivered to you on a silver platter. Does that suit you?"

Jacob came closer, and with every step he took toward me, I backed away, shaking my head as tears streamed down my cheek.

"Y-You are supposed to be dead."

"I’m sure you were thrilled to find out that I was..." he said, his voice cold as ice and not as I remembered. "My death was the only way I could have carried out my plan undisturbed, but you thwarted it. You and that husband of yours."

I sucked in breath when my back met the wall. He stood so close to me, and the murderous, crazed gaze in his eyes completely stole everything I had known about him.

I grew up with him. We grew up together, yet he was nothing but a stranger before my eyes.

"W-Why...?" I asked so quietly that I could barely hear myself.

"Why?" he replied to my question. "Do you really have to ask me that, Anastasia?"

"Y-You killed my father. You used Shane, Clara, Julius, and Gabriel."

"And the list keeps going on and on..." Caleb said, going back to sitting in his wheelchair. "Shocking, isn’t it? That the boy you grew up with turned out to be a criminal mastermind? Even I am impressed."

"Because of you!" Jacob snatched my neck, and I panicked, my crutches slipping from my grip as I clawed at his hand.

He hadn’t strangled me yet, but with the pressure, I knew he was so close to doing just that. Maybe he was holding back, or it was the rage he couldn’t preserve.

"Annabeth’s dead because of you. I was there..."

My eyes widened more.

His murderous stare switched slowly to despair. "I was worried when I hadn’t heard from her. So I headed toward the estate, then I saw you covered in blood and getting into your car and driving away."

I dug my nails into his skin when his grip tightened around my neck.

"When I got into the stable. I saw Annabeth, what was left of her."

I choked, beating against the hand that had my life on a knife’s edge.

"And then Zade Salvero came to clean up your mess." His grip loosened, and I could finally breathe, as difficult as it was, but the worst wasn’t over because the twitching sensation in his hand told me he wanted to break my neck.

"I couldn’t understand what was happening. I couldn’t understand why you’d kill your own sister in cold blood. Do something as cruel as pushing her into the wood chipper."

My frantic breathing slowed down into a more controlled pace. The shock and dread that clouded me liquefied, and I pinned him with a hard glare.

"She was never my sister."

He flung me, and I screamed in pain when my braced leg collided with the floor. I wailed, clenching my fist as I tremblingly reached for the braces, pristine pain splitting over me like shards.

"I saw her diary!"

I whipped my head to him.

"I read everything. I know everything."

"Then you know that you were nothing but a fucktoy to her! The only reason she ever wanted you was to make me feel less wanted! You were nothing to her!"

"Shut your fucking mouth!" He shook with rage.

I laughed, sounding unhinged. "You did all this for her. Your little mastermind plan, all for charming Annabeth, a fake. A mirage. One she created because she wanted everyone to love her!"

"I said—!"

At the cock of a gun, we turned toward Dante.

"What the fuck? I killed you..." Dante said, confused, but kept his grip firm.

Jacob slowly raised his hand as though to surrender. "You killed a body double."

"Then I’d enjoy killing you the second time."

I darted my eyes toward the empty wheelchair, and my blood ran cold.

"DANTE!" I shrieked.

BANG!

The gun slipped from Dante’s hand. His gaze dropped to the blood pooling across his chest. He threw a slow look over his shoulder to Caleb.

"You shouldn’t have come here, Dante."

"C-Caleb...?" Dante collapsed to the floor.

"NOOO!" I tried to crawl, but my hair was gripped by Jacob’s hand. Even so, I struggled, but it didn’t do me any good.

"You were my favorite brother and the only one who truly saw me," Caleb said with a faint smile as he curled his finger around the trigger. "I’m more destroyed by this than you are."

"Please, no!" I stretched my hand out.

Caleb pulled the trigger multiple times, and the loud gunshots buried the sounds of my cries until utter silence; only my wailing lingered.

"You better rethink your plan, Benefactor," Caleb said, stepping away from the pool of blood. "My big brother’s here, and he’s bringing in the heat."

"What the fuck? I thought you said you got him preoccupied by that wild goose chase!" Jacob snapped angrily. "That was meant to keep him away from here."

"Well, in case you haven’t noticed. My brother has kept you under constant pressure for months, never giving you a moment to breathe, let alone stop and think through your next move. It seems like in doing that he has figured it all out."

"It’s not too late!" Jacob hissed before I felt his gaze drop on me. "I still wanna take my time, and savor every bit of my revenge."

"Tick-tock."