Chapter 76

The Unwanted Bride Of Atticus Fawn Chapter 76 ~ATTICUS~

“Is this the correct place?” I ask Damon. It looks too calm.

I was hoping that Autumn finally listened to me. After almost losing her, I didn’t want to put her in danger again. This time, I wanted to keep her safe. For once, I wanted to be able to protect my mate.

“It has to be.” He answers me. “We didn’t make any mistakes.”

“I still think we should have left Clarissa with Autumn.” He adds. “We don’t know who or what we are up against. They were powerful enough to kill all of our guards.”

“They may not be my biological parents, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love them.” Clarissa hissed. “No one was stopping me from being here tonight. I can take care of myself. I don’t need anyone to worry about me.”

“This is not the time for ridiculous arguments,” Dante growls. “We’re all here, and we’re the ones that they asked for. Let’s get our parents back and get out of here.”

“At least we know it can’t be worse than our earlier battle.” I try to be positive.

“To be fair, we aren’t exactly sure of this.” Griffin reminds us. “We aren’t sure if the overlords or the council is behind this.”

“They wouldn’t have had enough time to prepare all this.” Damon points out. “I agree with Atticus; someone else chose the perfect time to attack our home while we were not in it.”

I can only hope that this was an easy battle to win. We were all exhausted from the earlier fight. f**k. I should be sleeping next to my mate right now. I shouldn’t have to be away from her. We should be telling our parents about our victory; instead, we were doing the opposite of this.

“Do you think mom and dad are okay?” Griffin asks. His voice did not hide the pain we all felt at that question. We were hoping that they were alive and not harmed in any way. When I found the person responsible, I would rip their bodies into pieces.

“I’m sure they are,” I respond, even though I couldn’t be sure about this. I wanted to give him hope; I wanted to give us all hope.

“I can see a house.” Damon points to the far right.

I could see it too.

“I’m guessing that’s where we need to go, then,” I say.

We creep up to it, trying our best not to make noise.

We didn’t want them to know that we had arrived. However, I knew the chances of that happening were very low, considering they would be expecting us.

We didn’t say another word as we walked to the front door. We considered breaking through the window but didn’t want to do anything that could bring harm to our parents. Before we can barge in, we hear footsteps.

My siblings all look at me. We knew nothing good was coming to greet us but at least the suspense of not knowing who had kidnapped our parents would all be over soon.

As soon as the door opens, there’s a loud ringing in my ear. I groan and drop to the ground in pain. I’m not the only one; my siblings are experiencing the same pain.

“f**k!” Damon hissed.

“Witches!” I shouted, but the warning was too late.

We were already surrounded, and they were dragging us into the house, one after the next.

What the hell do witches want with us? Did we piss some off recently? I doubt this had anything to do with Autumn, or they would have also asked for her unless this was a setup to get her alone with her parents.

My heart sank at that thought. I had to hope this had nothing to do with her, or I’ll lose my damn mind. I didn’t leave her behind to put her life in danger. I left her to keep her safe.

The pain stops suddenly, but we’re all on the ground, bound by chains by the time that happens. They’d messed with our heads long enough so they could trap us.

Did they think these things could hold us?

“Where are my parents?” I demand while thrashing against the chains.

The light in the room is suddenly switched on, and it takes my eyes a second to adjust to the change in lighting.

The first thing I notice is a middle-aged woman, possibly close to my parents’ age looking at me.

“Who the f**k are you?” Damon growls.

“Let my children go!” My mother shouts.

Her voice was behind me. That meant that she was alive. My heart skipped a beat at the joy I felt at that fact.

I craned my neck to turn and look at her. Both my mother and father were tied to chairs with blood on their heads. A low growl tore from me, followed by growls from each of my siblings when they saw what I already did. They’d hurt them. They’d put their filthy hands on our parents.

“I’m an old friend of your parents.” She says. “We went to the same academy, just like all of you. The only difference is that your parents betrayed me. That’s why we’re here today. To get my revenge.”

What the hell was she blabbering about? Why would my parents be friends with someone as crazy as she was? How could she hold a grudge for so long?

“What could my parents have possibly done to hurt you?” I demand.

“They fell in love.” She says bitterly. “Your father pretended to be kind to me; he pretended to have feelings for me. He made me look like a fool in front of everyone for loving him. I loved him with all of my heart, and in return, he destroyed my life. I thought we had something special; he would protect me from the other students who bullied me because I was a witch, and he made me feel like we had a chance to be together. And then, one day, he dumped me like I was a piece of garbage he couldn’t wait to get rid of. But your lovely father didn’t stop there; he wanted to hurt me even more than that. He married your mother right after. He treated me like a stranger, like someone he despised. He took everything from me when he broke my heart. Now it’s my time for revenge.”

There’s no way my father would do something like that. Unless he realized how psycho she was and decided to get out of the relationship with her because of it, that’s the only thing I could think of.

And even if he did do it, it still doesn’t make up for what she was doing now.

“You have everything wrong!” My father shouts behind me. “Everything I did was to protect you.”

“Ha!” She hissed. “Protect me? Are these more of your lies to protect your children from me? What could you have possibly needed to protect me from?”

“My feelings for you were real.” My father tells her, surprising all of us. I couldn’t believe he would admit that when our mother was right next to him. Maybe she already knew all of this, and that’s why she didn’t seem to mind. “I didn’t lie to you in the past about my feelings. I did truly care for you. Letting you go was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do, but it had to be done.

I received threats from my in-laws; they told me that if the marriage didn’t happen, they would have killed you. They had the power to do something like that. I wanted to protect you, and the only way for me to do it was to let you go. You may not believe me now, but I don’t regret my decision. If I knew you were this kind of person, I would have never had any feelings for you. I made the right decision by listening to them. I have a wonderful wife who I love more than anything else in this world, and I have the most beautiful children anyone can ever wish for. You have convinced me that I’ve made the right decision. It’s time that you move on from me, Debra. What we had is long gone. You know now that I never wanted to hurt you. Just let us go, please.”

She looks shocked by his words, but she surprises us when she begins to laugh uncontrollably, like a psychopath. She really was insane, wasn’t she? I’m sure my father regretted ever liking someone like this. He must hate himself for putting us in this situation.

“You expect me to believe this?” She asks. “I’ve come too far to let this go. None of you know the many things I’ve done to get my revenge. Do you think this is all I’ve done? You’re all delusional if you believe that.”

What the hell did she mean by this?

“What did you do?” I growl, already pissed.

“I’ve been messing with your family for a while now, Atticus.” She tells me with a smile.

“What are you speaking about now?” I demand from her.

“The accident. Don’t you remember a woman who came in front of your jeep that day? Can’t you recall what that woman looked like?” She asks. “I know you’ve regained your memory by now. Surely you know who that woman was.”

My eyes widen as her words sunk in. Now that she’s brought it up, I remember what that woman looked like.

I couldn’t believe this. Why did it take me this long to notice her?

It was definitely her. The hair, the eyes, everything. This was insane.

She was responsible for the accident that caused me to lose my memory.

I slam the chains onto the ground in anger, “why the f**k did you do that? You’re the reason I lost my memory. You’re why I couldn’t remember who Autumn was to me!”

“Are you not listening to me?” She asks. “I’m sure I explained to you and your parents why I did all those horrible things. This is my revenge. All of it. I’m not leaving until I see your parents cry and beg me to stop.”

“What other horrible things have you done in our lives?” I demand. It seemed as though she was responsible for many things that I didn’t know about until now. What else could she have been doing behind our backs?

She smiles. She was waiting for me to ask this question. She got pleasure in telling us all the horrible things she’s done.

Damn it.

My parents have never once mentioned her to us. There’s no way that we would have ever suspected her of being responsible for everything we’ve been through recently.

“I’m happy that you’ve finally asked this question Atticus. This one is actually one of my favorites. While it may not have done exactly what I wanted, it did bring me great joy.”

“Just say it,” I growl. I didn’t need to hear all of this nonsense.

“I was the lovely anonymous person that told the council about your lovely wife. I let them know the full truth about her. I sent the video of Azai’s men k********g her as proof. You see, Azai’s men were not the only ones prepared to kidnap her that day, I had my people ready to take her, but they beat them to it. The tattoos on them were proof of who Autumn was. The council believed me the instant I showed it to them. They knew that those men wouldn’t kidnap any random woman. They knew she had to be important to them.” She confesses. “It’s because of me the overlords kidnapped Autumn. I’m responsible for all of it. It’s one of my best works.”

My jaw clenches.

I don’t think I ever hated someone as much as I hate her right now.

She was the person who’d done it. All this time, we never even knew that she was responsible for all the mess in our lives. All this time, we knew someone had to be accountable but never once would we have thought it was her. Judging by my father’s expression, he also wouldn’t have considered that she was responsible.

“And that is not even all.” She says with a mischievous glint in her eyes. “There is someone I sent personally to destroy all of you.”

Who was she speaking about? Who could she have possibly sent to destroy us? What else did we not know about? I thought that thing with the council would have been the worst thing she’s done but clearly, she didn’t think so.

“Why don’t you come out now and introduce yourselves to our guests?” She asks to someone inside with us.

I looked around the room, there were other witches present, but I don’t think she was referring to them. She wasn’t looking at anyone in the room with us.

I waited; we were all waiting to find out who else was helping her. It’s understandable that she couldn’t have done all of this on her own. She needed to have help from someone. And it had to be someone that knew us well, someone that could give her inside information.

Who would betray us like this?

The door in front of us opens, and my eyes are drawn to the person’s feet before I look up at their face. It took a few seconds before everything could sink in.

My eyes had to be deceiving me. This could not be the face of the person that was helping her. If it was true, it wasn’t something I could ever accept. I can barely form words, but when I finally get the strength, only one name can come to my mouth.

“Anya?” I ask in disbelief. I can barely recognize my voice.

“Anya?” Damon asks. “What are you doing here? Don’t you dare try and hurt my f*****g mate!”

Damon doesn’t seem to understand what she is trying to tell us. Or maybe I’m the one that’s misunderstanding this entire situation. I wasn’t sure what the hell was happening right now.

The woman laughs, and it’s one of the creepiest laughs I’ve ever heard on a lady.

“Have you taken the time to realize the change in Anya recently?” She asks. “She’s been different. Hasn’t she?”

I frown. Different? I’m not sure what’s her definition of different. But recently, she surely hasn’t been the woman I was once in love with.

“What are you talking about?” Dante growls. “What did you do to our mate?”

She smiles, “nothing that serious.”

“Tell us.” Damon growls. “What have you done to Anya?”

“She was under my spell this entire time.” She finally confessed. “She was doing everything that I wanted her to do. The moment I learned that she was connected to all three of you, all Fawns, I knew I had to use her. She was perfect in all of this. I commanded her to come between Atticus and Autumn. I commanded her to do many questionable things. She was under my control, and none of you knew it.”

“You’re lying!” I growl. “There’s no way she’s been under a spell all along!”

“She has.” She smiles. “Hasn’t she been a great help to me all this time?”

“Take that spell out of her!” Damon shouts. “Break it right now!”

“I’m sorry, Damon, but if your love for her were strong enough, the spell would have been broken a long time ago. But I guess none of your love for this poor girl could have been true. Maybe I should try killing her right now. Would that hurt any of you present here today?”

Anya looks at the woman in surprise. Was that the only thing that had shocked her from everything she’s just said?

“If you lay a hand on her, I will kill you!” Dante and Damon threaten her.

Something didn’t seem right about this entire thing. How could Anya have been under her control all this time? She didn’t look surprised until the woman mentioned killing her to hurt the rest of us.

“Oh, relax.” She hissed. “This isn’t about the girl. This is about your parents. I want them to see each of their children die before them today. We should start with Clarissa since she’s adopted and may mean the least to them.”

“Don’t you dare f*****g touch my sister!” I growl.

Damon can barely form words when the witch grabs Clarissa by her hair and pulls her forward onto the ground.

We tried to pull apart from the chains, but it wasn’t the typical kind; these were under her spells. Not just her spells, the spells of the other witches as well.

“Clarissa!” Damon shouts when the witch whips her back. I wince at the loud sound it makes. I couldn’t watch this. I couldn’t watch her hurting Clarissa.

“Stop it!” He roared when she did it again. “Take me instead! f*****g take me instead of her! Please!”

“Let our daughter go!” My mother begged. “Please don’t hurt her. Please leave her alone. She hasn’t done anything to you. We are the ones you’re upset with. Why must you hurt her?”

“Harm us!” My father shouts. “Harm us but leave our children out of this! They are innocent! If you want us to beg, we will, but please, leave our daughter. I’m begging you. She’s just a child. Let her go.”

“No!” The witch hissed. “I’ve waited a very long time for this very moment. I will get my revenge today. Your cries are like music to my ears. It reminds me of the cries I made every night since you both destroyed my life. Because of you, I never got the life that I deserved. I’ve already destroyed your home. When I kill your children, you will have nothing else to live for. You’ll be so alone that even you would want to end your pathetic lives.”

“Damon!” Clarissa cries when she whips her again.

For the first time in my life, I see a tear roll down Damon’s cheek. He’s crying because he can feel her pain, just like the rest of us.

“Ahhhhh!” He roars as he tries even harder to break free.

Why the hell couldn’t we break free from these spells? If Autumn had been here, she would have been able to free us from this mess in seconds because of how powerful she was. Maybe that’s why they asked for her not to come; they knew what she could do, and they knew that she could quickly put all of their powers combined to shame. They were prepared for us; Autumn was the only one who could throw their plans away.

“LET HER GO!” Damon roars at the top of his lungs.

And just like that, something strange happens. It takes place in a few seconds, making me wonder if it had ever happened to begin with. Something glows on Clarissa’s arm, but it disappears before I can get a good look at it. As soon as that happened, we were all freed. Our chains were broken, and no spell was holding us back from attacking anymore.

Damon uses that opportunity to lunge for the witch’s throat.

I won’t waste another second thinking about what just happened. I tackle one of the other witches, and my brothers do the same.

We each get our witch to kill, and we do it quite quickly now that we have the advantage. I grab my witch’s neck and rip it from her body. I use the fire from nearby to burn it to the ground.

I joined Dante and helped him do the same.

Griffin had already killed his witch by the time we finished this one.

Damon had the mastermind behind all of this by her throat. He was taking his slow time in killing her. Her screams were like music to our ears, just like my parents’ cries made her happy.

“Noo!” She tries to say as he continues to choke her.

Clarissa surprises us when she rips the witch’s head from her body and throws it into the fire without any warning.

Where the hell did that behavior come out from?

“What?” She asks, looking at our puzzled looks.

Damon hugs her tightly to him before we can ask her any questions. She happily melts into his arms.

“I swear, sometimes they act like they don’t care about the rest of us.” Griffin sighs. “We survived also. Where are our hugs?”

Our parents rush forward and hug us then. I hold them tightly against me.

“I’m so happy you’re alive,” I tell them. “Don’t ever scare us like this again.”

~ANYA~

I had to watch my mother bleeding on the ground; dead, she was dead. Her head was torn from her body. Blood was everywhere, and Clarissa had just thrown her head into the fire. I couldn’t do a single thing about it. I couldn’t attack on my own, and I couldn’t cry without them realizing she was someone close to me. They didn’t know she was my mother, and it was a good thing I had asked my mother to keep it a secret when revealing everything else to them.

If they knew, I would have been dead along with her today.

I had to swallow my pain and pretend I was happy for the Fawns when I wanted to kill them all.

I was over my stupid crush on Atticus. He was partly the reason my mother was dead. They all had a part to play in it, but Clarissa was the one that pushed the knife through her heart. Clarissa was the one I wanted to punish the most.

She’d killed my mother. And she wanted Damon. I would do everything in my power to ensure she never had him.

I would be smarter this time. I would be the person my mother wanted me to be since the beginning. I would pretend to love them; I would pretend that the lie my mother told them was the truth. I’d be the woman they all fell in love with through the spell the first time. I’ll be more loving and kind; at least, I’ll pretend to be that way until they all fully trust me.

“She placed me under a spell. She made me act all obsessed and crazy.” I whisper to Damon as I wrap my arms around his neck, knowing how much it would hurt Clarissa. I’d pushed her out of the way to get to him. I was going to do much more than hug him in front of her from now on. She wouldn’t be ready for what I had planned. All this time, I’ve been focused on Atticus, and I never got the chance to focus on Damon. Now I realize that I was losing him to Clarissa. I couldn’t make the same mistake I made with Atticus.

I would ensure that my last name was Fawn by the end of this year. One way or the other, I would marry Damon and kill Clarissa from heartbreak.

My mother’s spell would be gone now, but mine was still there and strong as ever. I had a firm hold on Damon and Dante, and I would use it to my advantage.

“It’s okay.” He tries to soothe me. “Everything will be okay from now on, Anya. I’m so sorry you had to go through this. I’m here for you. I’ll always be by your side, keeping you safe. No one is going to hurt you like this again.”

I wanted to get the remainder of my mother’s body out of here. I didn’t want them to burn everything to the ground.

“I want to take her body,” I tell him. “I want to get rid of it myself. I know she not only messed with me but with your family as well, but I was under her spell for so long. I want to be the one to burn her body to ashes.”

He stiffens, “are you sure that’s what you want?”

Of course, it was, not because of the reason he was thinking of but because she was my mother, and I wanted to give her a proper funeral. I didn’t want them to get rid of her body like she was just a b****y object.

I had to do this the right way for both my sister and me. She wasn’t even aware that our mother was now gone. I still had to break the news to her. She would be just as devastated as I am now.

“Please,” I beg. “Let me do this.”

His parents look at each other before nodding. Pretending to be kind may work out well for me.

They’re all happy. They’re hugging, rejoicing that no one in their family was killed. They have each other. I have no one except my sister. She’s all I have to live for now, excluding getting my revenge on the Fawns for taking my mother away from me.

I wouldn’t make the same mistakes I’d done in the past; I’d finally learned from them. I knew exactly what I had to do to gain their sympathy and trust.

I would do everything in my power to finish what my mother had started. They would never see it coming.