dizzy. I stepped around him on shaky legs, my mouth hanging open, but eager to hear the answer to Arjen’s question.
She reached out, and I was too stunned to do anything about her placing a caressing palm against my cheek. Arjen went stalk still, his eyes rotating back and forth between us. “Holy shit,” he said as his neck continued to swivel between us.
“You grew into such a beautiful woman, despite your father’s recklessness. I should have killed him years ago when he allowed you to get hurt the first time.”
Her hand brushed down my shoulders, but I eased away from her touch. A mix of anger and confusion had my face clenched so tight, I was grinding my teeth.
“Did you just say I’m your daughter?” A hollow laugh escaped. “You’re my mother?” My head was shaking in the negative, more willing to believe her words had somehow gotten crossed up in my brain.
My eyes threatened to close, and my brain swam in my head, attempting to grasp onto the revelation. It would certainly explain why Arjen and I were still breathing. It also explained why Corvel was always so accommodating with me. He was my fucking uncle.
Wait. I couldn’t possibly believe this shit. My head started to shake and it wouldn’t stop, even when she resumed talking.
“I sent you to live with your father a few months before your fourth birthday because any child of mine would have been kidnapped, stalked, tortured, and marked for death their entire life. For the first four years of your life, we had to pass you off as one of the maid’s daughters, but I saw you every day, and tucked you in and sung to you every night. My decision to hand you over to your father was one of the worst mistakes I have ever made. I wanted to take you back when I realized you would always be surrounded by danger no matter who you were with.”
Unshed tears glistened in her eyes, the sight of them was as shocking as the wicked reveal she had unleashed.
“When I forced Raymond to send you away to boarding school, I thought it would stick because you were so smart. Yet, after one semester you refused to return, and I understood it better than anyone that the streets had gotten into your blood. There was nothing you wanted more than to learn how to conquer the streets.”
She reached out again, and I yanked away from her this time.
“I pray that you could someday forgive me, my sweet Mecca.”
The information had overloaded my brain and caused my eyes to fall close while I attempted to process the wicked reveal.
“I should have kept you near, protected you. I never wanted you in this life. You were my paradise in the hellish world I was born into. I told Raymond what you meant to me, forced him to send you to college. After seeing how well you were doing, I was certain you would leave the streets behind and go off and live a nice, normal life.”
The notion that I was someone’s daughter had so many thoughts fighting for dominance that they were bottled necked at the entryway of my brain. I wasn’t just anyone’s daughter either. My mother happened to be one of the most powerful women I knew. She was one I had attempted to emulate my whole life. I shook away the heat flowing off my overworked brain.
“You mentioned my father. He died and I ended up with my uncle, at least that is the story Raymond fed me. Is my father still alive?”
My ability to speak complete sentences was restored, which meant I was getting my luster back.
“It was his idea to present himself as your uncle, but Raymond Evans is your father, Mecca.”
“What!” Arjen and I yelled together as her words delivered another body-pounding blow. I didn’t know how many more of these truths I could take.
“He was much more reliable back then, made good decisions, and was dependable. He was already doing a good job of raising three kids on his own, so adding you to the group didn’t seem like a bad idea. His brother had died a few days before he took you, so to keep your identity hidden, I agreed to cast Raymond’s brother off as your father. Raymond doesn’t even know that you’re his daughter because I never told him. He went along with my plan because of his loyalty to me and the cartel. If anyone