Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 103620 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103620 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
What’s strange is that for all the things that have been said and all the intensity swirling around us at the moment, that’s the statement that causes Alec, Christine, and Eliza to react most visibly. As though for all the wounding and damage done by all of us, each to the other, that’s the thing that stings the most. I don’t really give a shit. I wasn’t there and only just learned about it all. But for them, hearing the sneering tone Zander uses when he says it triggers something.
No matter how strong someone’s will or how resolved their constitution, emotions are still emotions and deep hurts are still deep and hurtful, I suppose.
Whatever the reason, the temperature in here just rose a couple degrees.
“What a fokken mess the three of you have been, man! Heilig fokken kak! In any case, I had resolved to simply handle the matter in what would have been an inelegant but effective manner and just torture Danny until he handed this diamond back over to me, but I realized that wouldn’t solve my greater concern—putting my family back together. That, it seemed to me, would truly, truly settle accounts.
“Because, you see, it’s not the diamond unto itself that was the source of my, shall we say, consternation. It was this.” Again, he points at Alec, Christine, and me, sweeping his finger back and forth. “This… relationship of yours. This… thing you have. I fear it is the thing that poisoned my son against me. Ever since Alec met you, Christine, and you, Danny, it’s been one great drama after another. For ten years, it’s been nothing but stress and strife and conflict. And, honestly, my brush with the great unknown that is death caused me to realize something. The most important thing in the world… is family.”
Oh, go fuck yourself. This concerned father act does not wear well and I wonder how much of it Alec is buying.
“I knew, however, that until this thing of yours was dissolved, there would never be any hope of bringing you home. Of restoring what remained of the van den Berg legacy. So, I first reached out to Lars. Because… poor Lars. I knew he felt the same way. I knew all he wanted was to have you back. To be a part of your world again, Alec.”
Jesus Christ, the attempt at emotional manipulation is so fucking transparent it’s easier to see through than the perfect diamond sitting beside him.
“So, I reached out to him, carefully, slowly bringing him into the reality that I was still alive. And, as luck would have it, the easiest way to do that was through Mr. Fortnight here.”
The fuck? What does that mean?
“When Danny’s former—and now late—partner, Mr. Lynch, started trafficking women—specifically Russian women—without making proper arrangements with those who are responsible for such things, Mr. Gorny was asked if he could intercede in order to clean up the mess that was being made. In other words: Brasil Lynch was cutting into various bottom lines into which he need not have been cutting, and Alexei Gorny was called upon to restore order. What a happy coincidence, eh?
“At the start, I had assumed that the path of least resistance would simply be striking a deal with Mr. Lynch. He wanted to continue doing business. And living. So, the suggestion was made that if he would deal with Mr. Fortnight and retrieve this diamond, there might be an agreement to be reached that would allow him to continue his affairs unperturbed.
“But Lars, smitten as he had become by Ms. Keene, and eager to assume some autonomy apart from Alec’s doings, suggested an alternative solution.”
Here we are. Here it all comes.
“Lars asked me if I would kill Danny,” Christine cuts in abruptly, interrupting the monologue, “is what he’s saying.”
Zander doesn’t speak. He sits, waving for her to continue.
“He told me that he had something to tell me. Something big. That he had a, as he put it, ‘a way to get Alec back for all the things he’s done.’ And I was still so angry over… well, everything… that I told him I’d do whatever he wanted to make Alec… pay. I suppose.”
She looks at Alec with an apologetic glint in her eye. He shakes his head slightly, letting her know no apology is necessary. We’re well beyond ‘sorry’ at this point.
“But I didn’t know when he brought me here, to meet this mysterious Alexei Gorny, that the plan involved Danny.”
She looks at me and I wink at her. It’s an odd reaction, maybe. But it’s the right one. Because the idea that Christine would ever do anything to hurt me or that I would do anything to hurt her is fucking stupid. Or, at least, stupid to think we’d ever do anything intentional. And murder, in the way she’s capable of, is only ever deliberate.