Madness: A Dark Revenge Romance

It’s been a week since my brothers saved me. Things seem to be getting back to normal around here if that’s even possible. Nothing about our lives is ever normal. But I have my girl here with me and in our bed every night. Nothing could be better than that.

“Where are we going, Haidyn?” Charlotte asks as we walk through the hospital at Carnage.

Staying quiet, I open a door for her and usher her in with my hand on the small of her back.

“Finally. What the fuck is going on, Haidyn?” Ryat demands, jumping to his feet. His wife remains sitting in the seat beside him.

I look over at Devin and Gavin and nod my head to them. Devin begins to pass out a paper to Blakely, Charlotte, and then Ryat. I don’t need one. I already know. Found out this morning while Charlotte was sleeping next to me and immediately messaged Ryat that I needed him and his wife to meet us here.

“What is this?” Blakely asks, reading over the paper in her hand.

Ryat’s body goes stiff while reading his before wadding it up in his hand.

“While we were running the blood tests on all the wives, Haidyn thought it would be a good idea to run another test.” Gavin addresses everyone. “And as you can see looking at the results, there’s a match.”

“I don’t understand.” Charlotte’s brows pull together as she looks up at me. “What does it mean by fifty percent match?”

“Goddammit.” Ryat sighs, hanging his head.

“What?” Blakely gets to her feet, her paper falling to the floor. “Ryat, talk to me.”

“Your mom…” He pauses, looking up at her and the color drains from her face.

“What about LeAnne?” she asks slowly. I know enough about their relationship to know that they’re not close. And if Ryat had his way, her mother would be dead.

He cups her face and lets out a long breath. “She’s a twin.”

“What?” Blakely steps back, and his hands fall to his sides. “No. I would have—” She cuts herself off because she realized she doesn’t know jack shit about her mother. “What does that mean?”

“It means that you and Charlotte are related,” I answer. Charlotte and Blakely both spin around to face me. “LeAnne has a twin…and it’s Isabella, Charlotte’s mother.”

Ryat and I leave our wives to speak while we step out into the hallway. He begins to pace, and I shove my hands into my pockets. “I thought they deserved to know.”

I had Adam do some digging, which led to him finding out that both Isabella and LeAnne legally changed their last names while attending Barrington. My question is why? What happened that they needed to sever any connection that could prove they’re related?

Ryat nods more to himself than me. “I just…I don’t understand.” He turns to face me. “You told us that Charlotte had an initiation…she was branded, and you were her assignment.” He runs a hand down his face, feeling the past week. It’s weighing on all of us. I’m going to crawl into bed with my wife and pass the fuck out after I fuck her. “The Ladies are all from founders, but the Lords didn’t make Blake finish her second initiation and Elli had one, but no assignment. Of course, Lake didn’t have to do anything because of what Ty had negotiated. But it still doesn’t answer why the Lords didn’t require more from the other Ladies like they did Charlotte.”

I filled them all in the other day on everything that Charlotte went through, and they were all as confused as me. “I can’t answer that question,” I say honestly, hating that I don’t know everything.

“I can.”

We both turn to see Bill walking toward us with Tyson, Sin, and Saint. We haven’t kicked him out yet due to how much help he’s been. Without him, I’d still be locked in a cage, and my wife would be getting raped and beaten on a daily basis.

They come to a stop in front of us.

Ryat nods his head. “I’m listening.” He sighs, tired of the bullshit games.

“Blake’s mom was never part of her life. Her stepmom set up that deal with Matt and his mother. If you hadn’t intervened with Blake, who knows what would have happened.”

Ryat fists his hands, imagining the possibilities of the life his wife could have had.

“Then of course, Elli…” He turns to face a pissed-off Sin. “They wanted to prove she was mentally unstable. They didn’t want to give her any initiations to prove she could pass. But you marrying her changed the game. Once the Lords realized she was your wife, they had to give her something to at least prove her loyalty to you.”

Sin runs a hand through his hair, dropping his eyes to the floor.

“And Laikyn—her father didn’t want her to be part of the Lords because he was going to sell her.”

Tyson’s jaw sharpens at his words.

Bill goes on. “Anything can change the course the Lords want you on. Nothing is set in stone,” he goes on. “And Ashtyn. Nothing went as planned with her. When you denied her, things changed.”

Fuck! I close my eyes. Not this…

“Wait. What do you mean when he denied Ashtyn?” Saint asks.

Opening my eyes, they land on Bill, and he mouths, “Sorry.”

“It’s nothing,” I tell Saint.

He shoves Bill out of the way and steps into me. “Don’t give me that shit, Haidyn!” he snaps. “I’m not in the fucking mood.” His voice rises. “Tell me the fucking truth.”

“Saint?” Ryat barks, grabbing his arms and trying to pull him back, but he doesn’t budge.

“No,” Saint shouts in my face. “You fucking owe me that!” His finger pokes my chest.

“He doesn’t owe you anything,” Adam’s voice calls out as he comes down the hallway.

“Adam—” I raise my hand to tell him it’s okay and look at Saint. “Ash was supposed to be my chosen.” The moment the words leave my mouth, I feel lighter. I’ve been carrying around a secret for so long I didn’t know how much it weighed until now.

“Fuck you, Haidyn!” He goes to swing, but this time, Sin steps in as well, and they’re both able to pull him back.

A part of me is disappointed. A fist to the face sounds good right now. So I step forward, closing the space. “I didn’t want her,” I shout, getting pissy but not sure why. Maybe because it’s like them thinking I’ve been suicidal all this time—no one fucking believes me. “I knew how much you loved her, and I’d never take her from you,” I add.

“Bullshit…”

“It’s true.”

Sin and Ryat let him go and he turns around to see a very sleepy-looking Ashtyn standing in the hallway. Her watery eyes go from mine to her husband’s.

“You knew this?” he asks her in disbelief.

“I’ve always loved you, Ashtyn,” I tell her while on our way to dinner.

“Haidyn—”

I feel I need to explain. I didn’t take her out to dinner to make her uncomfortable. “Not in the sisterly love sort of way because that would be gross. Considering I’ve fucked you.” My eyes drop to her crossed legs, and she shifts in her seat. “Also, not enough to want to spend the rest of my life with you.” She frowns, and I chuckle. “Romantic, right? You were supposed to be my chosen.”

Ashtyn nods, answering her husband. “I did.”

I never had the chance to finish that conversation we started in the SUV before we were hit and both kidnapped. But I know she believed me. I’d never lie to her about something like that.

“Why didn’t you tell me this?”

She gives Saint a soft smile. “Because it wouldn’t have changed anything.” Her hands go to her growing belly, and she’s telling him the same thing he said to her. If one of the babies isn’t his, it won’t change their future—their family.

He turns to look at me and then back at her. “That doesn’t excuse Haidyn⁠—”

“Goddammit, Saint!” Adam interrupts him.

“Adam.” I shake my head. Enough has been said.

“No.” He looks at me. “I’m so fucking tired of this shit.” Adam turns to face Saint. “If you need to blame someone, blame me.”

“I already do, Adam. But while we’re on the subject, how the fuck did you know so much?” he demands, stepping toward Adam, but Ashtyn wraps her arm around his waist to keep him back. “You sure know a lot of shit for someone who has been MIA for so long.”

“Because I was here when all of our fathers told him that he would take Ashtyn as his Lady, and he denied her. He refused. Over and over.” Adam’s voice rises. “And they gave him no choice. Told him they’d force them to marry if need be.”

“Lady?” Ashtyn looks at me wide-eyed.

Well, this is just getting better and better. I was never going to tell her that.

“He wanted to tell you, and I told him I’d take care of it.”

“No.” Saint runs his hand over the back of his neck, confused. “That doesn’t make sense…your father let me take her as a chosen…why would he allow that if he was going to make Haidyn marry her?”

Saint always had plans to marry her. We all knew he’d spend the rest of his life with her.

“He set you up, Saint,” Adam growls. “Quit being pissed off for two fucking seconds and think about it.” Saint narrows his eyes on his brother-in-law. “My mother had her raped, and my father told you…he wanted you to cheat on the vow ceremony.” Saint swallows, starting to see the situation for what it was meant to be. “I think it was a way to get you out of the picture. I don’t know if they were going to kill you or make you their prisoner but definitely deny you as an option at her being your Lady. I’m telling you, they all wanted Ashtyn to marry Haidyn. All four of them were in on it.”

“It’s true,” Bill speaks, jumping in.

“How the fuck would you know?” Saint barks.

“LeAnne.”

“Bullshit—”

Adam interrupts Saint. “LeAnne knew because she was here in our father’s office that day Haidyn and I met with our fathers.” He sighs and adds, “At the time, we didn’t know that Ashtyn had been raped and that you cheated. Then I was forced into hiding, and you ended up marrying her in secret before our fathers could force Haidyn to do it. It wasn’t long after that Haidyn messaged me that Ash was pregnant, and she was freaking out because Laura had told her she was raped, and you cheated at the vow ceremony. She said the baby wasn’t yours. If Laura knew she was pregnant, then my father knew, which meant all the fathers knew. I had to do something. To save her…to save you…” He trails off. “It was just another reason I had to kill them.”

Saint turns his attention on me, and his green eyes look tired, but I can still see the hurt in them. It may always be there. We may never be the brothers we once were, and I take all the responsibility.

“Saint?” Ashtyn tugs on his arm.

“Yeah, sweetheart?” He looks down at her.

“I love all of you.” She reaches up, cupping his face. “But you’re my husband. The only one I want to spend the rest of my life with. I just want all this fighting to stop.” The first tear slides down her cheek, and he leans forward to kiss her forehead. “I just want it all to end so we can move on. Please, Saint.”

“Of course, sweetheart,” he assures her.

The door opens to my right, and my wife walks out of the room with Blakely. I reach my arm out moving over to her, and she immediately cuddles up to my side as I hold her tightly to me. Leaning down, I kiss her hair and catch sight of the smile that she and Blakely exchange as Ryat goes to his wife. At least one good thing came out of that bitch other than my wife.

“How do we find out how many founder families there are?” Tyson asks, and I couldn’t be more thankful for a change of subject.

“We don’t,” Bill answers. “The only advice I can give is to test everyone the Spade brothers currently have here at Carnage and everyone in the future that the Lords send them. Keep a record.” He looks at me.

Kashton crosses his arms over his chest. “There could be five or there could be thousands. All the bitch does is lie. I don’t trust anything she says.”

“Did women even start the Lords?” Saint asks Bill, letting out a long breath.

He’s over this fucking day, and truthfully, so am I. I’m over this past week. I think we all are. Ashtyn’s idea of letting it all go and moving on sounds pretty damn good.

“Yes and no,” Bill answers.

“It’s one or the other.” Saint snaps, and Ashtyn reaches out to take his hand in hers, giving him a soft smile to calm his nerves.

“I believe that she believes that’s how it started,” Bill says.