Exposed Ménage (Ménage Series Book 6 of 6)

Chapter 20: The Letter - Ed

Dear Calvin,

I've come to the realization that family is everything. Please hear me out, dear nephew, and give ours a chance. You deserve an apology from me, also answers as to what went on within our family and why certain things happened to you and yours. I'm sure, right now you would rather throw this letter in the trash, but please, hear me out. There is information within this letter that will hopefully heal some wounds and possibly mend some fences.

When I was 18 years old, I watched Mark, my twin, murder our father and another man that I did not even know. Seeing this, I was horrified by this act and felt I'd be next unless I left my home for the military. Mark made sure I witnessed this happen so that I would run away and he could be in control of our family's empire.

Later I found out that Mark had killed Amelia's grandfather, Walter Whitney, that day. It was all covered up by the clan members in the FBI who wanted Walter gone. You see, he was getting too close to the truth.

Walters' previous partner and friend, Bobby Ryan, was also high up in the Society's hierarchy. When he got the call from his son explaining their recent case, Bob told Robert Ryan that he needed to stay away. That once the Society found out about Walter's role in this, the clan would kill him and anyone associated with the FBI. Needless to say, Robert ended up telling Mark who he really was and what Walt had been up to, just to save his ass.

Before I had left to join the marines, we both knew your mother might be pregnant. Not Eve and I, but me and my brother. Mark had been sneaking in to see Eve's room late at night and was pretending to be me regularly. I'd witnessed this and knew the child growing within her womb was probably not mine. I loved your mother. Eve was my world, but it was impossible to compete with Mark's depravity. He did not love her; she was a prize to be won, to show everyone he could take whatever he wanted from me.

Your mother was very young and innocent. Her father and my own had made a marriage arrangement for us once we were of age, but Mark decided this was a challenge. Everything he did in life was out of greed and lust, whether it be money, social status, or a beautiful woman. Mark felt he was owed these things in life, but he did not deserve any of them.

Leaving for Vietnam was hard, but I knew my life here was at its end. If Mark did not kill me, he would destroy my reputation, drag my name through the mud, just to have what I was given, along with the woman I loved.

I will not bore you with all the details, but once I joined the Marines, we were sent to the front, and I was captured by the Viet-Con, or so I had thought. Turns out, these men knew Mark, and he paid for this to happen. Not knowing our past, they tried to blackmail him for my safe return. Except my brother did not want me back. He refused to pay and assumed they would kill me as they had stated, but these men did not.

After several years of being their captive, I was saved, and our boys brought me to a makeshift hospital. I was very sick, and they did not think I would survive, but I did. Waking up in a hospital bed, several unopened letters were sitting on my table. You see when you are missing in action; they keep all of your mail, just in case you are ever found. Each one was written in your mother's handwriting. They were apology letters from Eve, and she used this as a way of confessing her true thoughts. Even after she was told I had died, Eve kept writing these sad, disturbing letters to me for years.

After reading the first few, I felt the old rage build up inside of me. Mark had destroyed everything I'd ever loved in my life. He had turned my Eve into a whore; she was used by men and he kept her locked in a cage, just like me and also our mother.

Reading her words, I had to recover. My body must heal so that I could rain down vengeance upon my evil twin. He had turned into a monster. Worse than I thought humanly possible, and Mark had to be stopped. Not long after, I overheard some medical staff talking outside of my room. They were so excited to have found the millionaire Edward Roth and could not wait to contact my family. After reading all Eve had written, I played the crazy card. If I returned home, not as a threat to Mark, he might just allow me to live. At that moment, I planned my revenge on the man I once called brother.