Symphony by Bea Paige

Author:Bea Paige [Paige, Bea]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-06-17T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

Rose

Three things happen simultaneously. Erik lets go of me, stumbling backwards with a pained cry. Anton stands, reaching for the letter on the table, snatching it up and Ivan swears loudly striding towards Emmie who is cowering a little now. She looks between each of us, her hand rushing to cover her mouth, then bursts into tears realising the gravity of her confession and its effect on us all.

“I’m so sorry,” she mouths, her words lost between Erik’s cries and Anton’s rage as he rips the letter out of the envelope.

“Where the fuck is it!” he screams, his eyes scanning over the letter as he looks for the birth certificate and photograph. Anton steps towards Emmie, Ivan holds him back. Both of them are shaking.

Emmie reaches for her bag with trembling hands and pulls out another envelope. Anton grabs it from her, pulling out two items. I watch as his eyes scan both.

“Bastard,” he whispers, then stumbles backwards onto the sofa clasping his head in his hands, the birth certificate and photo falling to the floor.

For long seconds I stand unable to move, not sure who to go to first. I’m torn between the two. Both Erik and Anton are falling apart, and I’m helpless to do anything about it.

Ivan is the first to act. He wraps an arm around Anton’s shoulders, pulling him into his side.

“Rose, deal with Erik,” he says to me, shock widening his eyes. But beneath the shock I see a layer of rage that’s apoplectic. I know that because I feel it too. God, how I feel it. I want to rip the world to shreds for all the pain these men have had to suffer.

There’s a sick kind of all-consuming anguish opening up within me. It burns me from the inside out. How fucking could they? How could they keep this secret for so fucking long?

Viktor Stefan Sachov. ‘S’ from the letters. He’s Erik’s father and he and Ms Hadley killed Isabelle.

Motherfuckers.

All this time and they never revealed the truth of Erik’s heritage, and of course now we know why. He only ever wanted to feel loved, to know he wasn’t alone. Ms Hadley had let him believe he was abandoned like he was a worthless piece of trash. All his life he searched for love, only ever feeling betrayed by everyone he dared care about.

“He fucking never loved me and I always wondered why… now I know,” Anton wails, curling his fingers into his hair, pulling at it.

“Shh, Ant,” Ivan cajoles, trying to comfort him.

My god, Anton. How must this feel for him? Finding out from a stranger that not only is Erik his brother, but that his father thinks so little of him, reaffirming his poor sense of self-worth. Anton has been ridiculed and loathed his whole life, not realising that he lived in the shadow of Erik, never good enough for his father. One way or another, they’ve both been punished for existing, neither knowing the truth about each other or the real monster in their father’s heart and Ms Hadley’s.

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