FULL NOVELXO Chapter 23 ~ No Lie!!
Delilah’s POV ~
I retrieved the box.. and Daddy shifted a thin little panel at the bottom.. beneath the false bottom. And there was a thin packet of papers. He handed it to Gizmo.. “This is everything about the Dubois family.. I had had every intention of translating it from french.. after Calypso was murdered.. but I didn’t have enough time before I was abducted. I had begun suspecting Elizabeth of everything.. so I was careful not to let them find the documents.”
Gizmo said “Give me a couple days.. I will have all this translated and we will have a better grasp of why they are chasing you both.” I asked “Why didn’t Momma tell me? Or even tell you? I am so confused right now.”
Daddy smiled at me “Your Momma was french.. raised in the quadroon quarters.. taught the ways of voo-doo… She was always very superstitious and believed sharing her family history before she felt was the right time.. would bring about tragedy.” I shook my head “Okay. That explained exactly nothing. I guess we wait until it’s translated.”
Venom laughed.. “In the meantime.. why don’t we go to the cells and see what reactions we get from the Garrison family? That should be fun!”
Elizabeth and Emily had been placed in an interrogation room.. and were waiting, as we entered.. Emily saw my dad and started crying “You’re dead. Mom told me you died of a broken heart.”
Daddy grinned “Your mom said a great many things that were untrue. No. I’m not dead.. and my heart is perfectly fine. Amadeus healed us.. knowing our daughter needed us. Your mom tried changing that fact.”
Emily looked at Elizabeth “Why? Why would you do that? After my dad died.. why would you make Delilah think hers did too!?” I told Emily “That’s not all your mother lied to you about, Emily.. There is much more.”
At that.. Eric was brought in and chained to a chair. Emily screamed “You’re dead! You died years ago. How is this possible? What the fuck is going on? How could you do this?”
Delaney leans over and asks me “Is it wrong I’m feeling a little sorry for Emily at this point? She’s being truthful.. She thought both men were actually dead.” I shrugged .. admitting I felt a little bad for her, too.
Maddox asked “Emily.. if you were as unaware as you seem to be.. why did you treat Delilah as badly as you do?” She started crying “Mom told me to. Told me Delilah caused her own dad’s death and was probably the reason her mom was killed.. I figured if she did that.. what was to stop her from trying to kill us?”
Venom scoffed “You aren’t that stupid.. There has to be another reason.. Something isn’t adding up..” Emily said “Look at her! Just look! When she looks like that.. and I look like this.. why would anyone choose to be friends with me when she’s around?”
I looked at everyone “What? What does that even mean? I don’t want to be friends with the people you want to be friends with. I’m not the pageant queen.. cheerleader type person! Your friends are superficial, plastic barbie types that couldn’t fill a shot glass with all their brains combined.”
Maddox laughed and whispered “I love how you have no clue that you are absolutely beautiful. That’s what she means. She’s jealous because you’re pretty.” I huffed and glowered at Emily “That is just ignorant! I was actually happy to have a sister.. I had fantasized we would be best friends.. do everything together. I thought we would have so much in common. You ruined all that.”
Emily cried harder “She made me! She said I couldn’t be your friend because you were hiding money from us.. and you were going to kick us out on the street when you turned eighteen.. Then she said we had to make sure you never find your mate.. That you will become dangerous.. and that some man from the government had plans that would make us rich.. as long as you didn’t find out.”
Again, I looked at everyone in the room.. “How the fuck does every Goddess damned person in the world know more about me than I do? Huh? Answer me that!”
I looked at Elizabeth.. then at Eric.. “I still don’t know what your aim is.. I know you won’t live to fulfill it. So.. it doesn’t fucking matter to me whether you tell the Alphas what you know. I simply don’t care. You are both complicit in my mother’s murder.. and the near death of my father. And that’s all I need to know. Emily.. whatever Maddox and Venom decide is your punishment.. has nothing to do with me. Now.. if you all will excuse me.. Blue wants to run.”
Blue ran to the waterfall.. We played in the lake.. and lounged in the early autumn sun.. My birthday was edging closer.. and I pray to the Goddess I find my mate.. I am developing such deep feelings for Maddox.. I am terrified I won’t want to be with my mate because of them.
Blue tells me fifteen days.. and we will know.. She wants me to stop worrying and know that we will love our mate.. regardless of who he is. Then she giggled.. unless it’s Brock.. then we will have to kick his ass!
I laughed “I thought we had forgiven Brock? After all.. he said he won’t do it anymore.” She reminded me that he had promised before and did it anyway.
We arrived back at the clubhouse and one of the Sweet Butts told me I was wanted in the conference room.. Which I wasn’t looking forward to. I was somehow embroiled in bullshit I have nothing to do with.. and to top it off.. I seem like the main attraction in this fucking circus!
I knocked on the door and Maddox bade entry… as I sat down, Delaney said “Emily is going to start working at the diner.. as a dishwasher.. if you see she has potential.. train her to do other things.”
I rolled my eyes “And the golden child is rewarded once more” My dad spoke my name sternly.. and I apologized “I’m sorry. It’s just too much. Every fucking bit of it. I’m walking around with a big red bullseye on my back.. all because what? I’m the last surviving Dubois? The family fortune is supposed to be my inheritance? I am tired, Daddy. Tired of all of it.. the not knowing.. the being treated like shit.. the being strong when I don’t even know why I have to be strong.”
Gizmo cleared his throat and tells us “I have translated about half of the documents.. They are actually a family history.. and explain quite a bit. Delilah.. the Dubois family comes from a long line of Alphas.. their wolves were once originally from a great pack in France.. At the beginning of our species.. the Goddess had been allowed sacred ground to build a temple.. She had the temple erected on that ground.. which happened to be in the center of the Dubois pack. The entire pack was tasked in protecting that temple.. It was the only place on earth the Goddess could visit.. for any length of time.. before she had to return to her realm to regenerate her energy.
A millennium ago.. the pack was attacked.. the temple destroyed.. and all the Dubois wolves were thought to be killed.. All but the Alpha’s infant son.. a plan was in place to smuggle him out to the Americas. He is your great great grandfather. Delilah.. the Dubois wolves are gifted.. and when they are marked and mated.. their gifts manifest.. in themselves and in their mates.”
I looked at my father and cocked an eyebrow at him.. He, at least, had the decency to look ashamed. “I had to take a pledge to tell no one. There has always been rumors.. but, as long as your mother and I didn’t acknowledge our gift.. no one could prove anything. Now that you know.. Know this.. we had no way of knowing what your gift will be.. and the only reason I can think someone would want you.. is because they are not aware of your gift being null.. unless you are marked by your true mate.”
Maddox said “So.. you think they want her to force a mating to harness her gift.. whatever it may be?” Dad nodded.. “That.. and she can turn a human with only one bite.. not three.”
I looked at Daddy.. “What is yours and Momma’s gifts?” He made a fist.. clenching his fingers tight.. and when he opened his hand.. a ball of fire bounced happily off his fingers. I grinned “That’s the one I want!”
I asked “Why all the secrecy, though? So what I am a Dubois.. So what I may be gifted.. ‘Cause I gotta tell ya.. if I was my mate.. and all this shit was dumped on me? I would run the other way! No lie!”