Dancing With The Devil

Chapter 45

"What are you doing here?" I demanded, already feeling so apprehensive.

"What do you mean?" my mother gasped, placing her hand over her heart in an act of pain. Her already leaking eyes began to water more. "We flew out as soon as we heard." The words sounded so earnest coming out of her mouth.

Her arms were around in a second later. I could feel her tears soaking into my clothing and her chest heaving as she sucked in uneven breaths. Her hug was tight and completely motherly, something that I used to crave so deeply.

I stood perfectly still with my arms locked by my sides and my eyes were looking beyond her, meeting my father's heavily.

"I'm so glad you're okay." My mother sniffed, pulling away. Her hands tenderly cupped my face in an effort to get me to focus on her. "We've been so worried about you. We thought you were dead, Cami."

Cami. My mother had never called me that in her life, she always deemed nicknames informal and useless. And it certainly didn't pull at my heart strings now. In addition to this, my father had always been the one who couldn't contain his emotions. By now he should've been threatening to rip someone's throat out if they didn't find someone loosely accountable for what Josh had done. I kept my eyes on him, trying to see if those unfeeling eyes would glimmer with tears or blaze with rage. He remained perfectly still and so emotionless it was almost comical when considering my nearly hysterical mother. Then again, she had always been a fantastic liar.

"Jasper." I said evenly, turning my head away from my parents. My mother's hands fell away instantly. "Take me to Alistair, please."

I couldn't bear to be around these imposters for a second longer, knowing so well why they were actually here. Having my parents near me right now made my skin crawl.

"Yes, we need to thank the man who saved your life." My father agreed, finally speaking up. "And that girl."

And that was the comment that broke me.

"You will go nowhere near them." I hissed, narrowing my eyes, "That girl did everything she could to protect me from Josh and from you. If you were reasonable, moderately acceptable parents you would know exactly who Sophie was and you would never let me marry Josh."

"Camila, we had no idea." My mother said, the soft sobs slipping from her voice rather quickly. Though she was trying to hold her composure it was fading.

"Bullshit." I hissed, "You knew what kind of man you were working with. You spent years in business with him, how could you not know? You just wanted to me to marry him to increase your less than legal business deals and I was too young and too ignorant to see it. Now, you're here claiming you are so grateful that I'm okay far before any of this information has been released to the public and you certainly aren't my emergency contacts. I know that this is just a failed attempt at damage control."

"Camila." My father snapped, losing his temper so quickly. He snapped back into the man I had always known. "You know nothing about what we have done for you."

"You're right, I don't." I agreed, "But I do know that you never looked for me after I fled to Canada and you never confronted Josh about why I had suddenly disappeared. Even if I had been kidnapped and it hadn't been Josh's fault you never fought for me. You never looked for me. All you ever did was make public appearances and ask for my safe return even though you knew I was never coming back."

"That is absurd!" my father protested.

"Hey Paul." Jasper said, stopping one of his coworkers, "Can you please take this two back to headquarters. I'm going to have to ask them a few questions later on."