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Chapter 8
I suppose I should have expected his return. Hell, I should have been on guard the entire time-- I should have learned by now never to under estimate
Hunter.
Hindsight and all that.
Looking back at it now, it seems unbelievably foolish that I didn't make extra sure that no one would ever find him. Why didn't I lock him in a vault somewhere hidden behind three brick walls and a steel slab? Put laser bars around his box? Swallow the key to his door and have him take his meals through a slot?
Of course, even that wouldn't have stopped her.
Angel was made for greatness--something I made sure of before turning down the option of aborting her and replacing her with Lyle. Fantastic stock; even I have to admit this as much as I hate Hunter. She couldn't be more perfect if we had engineered her to be. As it was, our attempts at altering her appearance failed miserably; we tried to block the blue eyes from her genes, knowing that no one in Catherine's family had them, and that Lyle's pair of hazel would leave questions in both of their minds. We avoided the inevitable clash of features by eliminating Lyle for a time, but Angel's loss of faith and belief in me required the introduction of her "brother."
It was genius, if I do say so myself--bring in someone for her to compete with, someone she felt like she had to better in everything, including my affections.
But even that didn't do much.
Deep down inside, Angel has always know she wasn't a Parker. Oh, she had all the traits that our blood line values, but she was ruled by a Jamison heart and a Hunter soul. Try as I might, I couldn't seem to quash either trait in her.
They're standing in front of me now--proud and tall, the both of them. His hand is gently touching the back of hers, and the place where they meet is blurry with the pure untainted energy they radiate. God, she's always been this power; this force that knocks everything out of her way. I used to hope she got it from being raised by and learning from me. I was wrong.
She was born with it.
Hunter is looking at me with an air of "so this is what its come to," and I ache to wipe that expression out of his eyes. I know I don't look like much in this position. Our little encounter with Alex left me weakened, and no amount of care seems to inspire my bones to get out of this bed.
He looks down at me for a long moment, his eyes calm and his jaw clenching. She refuses to look me in the eyes, simply examines her manicured fingernails. He swallows before speaking.
"Why hellooooo James!"
His voice was jovial, yet exhausted, and he sounded as if he met with his arch rivals on a daily basis. Angel scrutinizes her cuticles. I clear my throat and offer a smile.
"Jack. You're looking well." He smiles softly.
"I have my daughter to thank for that. You know my daughter, don't you James? I do believe you've met."
"I...I can explain-"
"There's nothing to explain, James. You stole my life, took my wife, and raised my child as your own. It all seems rather clean cut to me."
I swallow thickly, the bile rising in the back of my throat.
Angel flicks a piece of lint off her cuff with a nail, before glancing at her watch and at Jack.
"We have about 10 more minutes before the override goes off," she informs him in a low voice, and he nods.
"That's all we'll need."
They turn back to me, and she meets my eyes for the first time. The ice blue rakes over me calmly, and my last hope is gone. I had prayed that I might find pity with her--that she might hold some speck of love for me--might be the voice of pity that would reach his ears...but no.
She hates me even more than he does.
"How... how could you do such a thing?"
Her voice is breathy and soft, like a child whose beloved godmother has just shot her in the chest. Pretty fitting simile. I swallow and offer her a smile, begging that she'll accept my pleas of remorse.
"Angel, sweetheart, I-"
"Every time I hugged you; every kiss I gave you... a little part of me died, because I felt nothing for you. I've lived with the sin of apathy towards my 'father' since I was three...
"You've done such horrible things, Daddy: you manipulated momma's womb, you let Raines hit her, you let Bridgett die, you took Jarod from his family, you stole Bobby from me, you've covered up Lyle's crimes, you had Thomas taken away, you let Angelo be created..."
She sniffles and rubs her eyes, smearing her mascara slightly, and then looks up again and speaks in a voice that's full of confusion at her own words and the truth in them, revealing the secrets that no one else has known.
"You let Raines turn me into his personal assassin--God, do you have any idea how much acid I dropped to try and erase those ten years? When most children were opening up lemonade stands, I was learning how to shoot a . 22. When my friends were going out to try out for the volleyball team and getting fitted for softball gloves, you had him showing me the proper way to clean up from a decapitation. You took away my partner--remember Richard? You saw how close we were getting and you took him away from me; held him over me in order to keep me obedient to Raines.
"You kept me here, holding my hand and holding me down so I could never rise above your level. Every time I threatened to become something more, you squashed my hopes and dreams under the power you held over me. I gave you my life, my future, my love...and you gave me nothing but excuses and missed dates and pain."
She sniffles again, and he offers her a handkerchief. She takes it and wipes her eyes, calming herself before speaking one last time.
"But before compounding all those horrors on me, you did the one thing that decided the course of my life and yours; you sealed your own fate with the first of many grievances against me..."
She and Jack share a look, and he squeezes her shoulder. She looks up at him, tears running down her cheeks.
"You took away my father, Daddy. And for that, you're not going to live past this meeting."
She pulls her trench coat aside, and I feel my heartbeat stop for a long moment, then speed ahead. She looks down at the gun in her hand, then raises it up, unlatching the safety. Jack looks at her, voicing his thoughts gently.
"Are you sure you want to do this?"
She looks at him, her eyes filled with tears and disbelief, taking his hand, before looking back at me.
"You see this? This is my father. This is what you could never be."
And then her finger pulls back the slender hook of metal, and my whole body goes still.
My life flashes before my eyes-- cliche but true.
Catie, and her lovely legs and soft green eyes.
Angel and Lyle as they lay together in my wife's belly.
Jarod and Angel on the DSA filmed on the day of his 15th birthday, splitting a box of Cracker Jacks and professing their love for each other.
The tears in Angel's eyes as I sent her to boarding school, away from the pretender.
The letters my girl wrote back to the labrat, lying in my fireplace as the brandy ran across my tongue
Angel as she appeared to me for the first time after Raines's training, powerful and all in black and answering only to Miss Parker.
Jack glaring up at me through his blood...
Morganna and Jack, hands barely touching, power dripping off them in waves of immense strength.
Darkness.
Darkness.
Darkn...
