Two Years Later

CASTLE

It's been a long time since my half-brother and sister died, and since then I've recollected most of my memories.

Saying that it was a wild ride would be an understatement of the century.

Right now, I have everything that I worked hard for, wealth, the family name, including my beautiful wife and a one-year-old son, James who was now sitting in my lap, staring at me with his golden-brown eyes, identical to my own. He gave me a mischievous smile.

To achieve all of this, I've made some sacrifices in life, gotten my hands dirty, but I guess that's part of it. If you wanted something badly, you couldn't let values, the right, and the wrong, come in the way.

You needed to own that shit, and that's what I fucking did.

We all have skeletons in our closets. Some keep them hidden under their beds. I have mine too. I kept them locked in a chest, and the chest was buried somewhere deep where no one else can find them.

My son and I were sitting in our private theater, watching one of my old tapes. Didn't understand what was going on much, but he pointed a finger at my father who was young in the tape.

"Daddy!" He said, pointing at the screen.

I laughed, "that's your late grandfather, buddy." I showed him the thirteen-year-old me. "And that's me."

Millie hadn't seen these tapes, and I hadn't shown them to her for good reason. They weren't meant to be shown to my wife.

You'll find out the reason pretty soon.

The birthday song played on the videotape on the wide screen. Devin stood in the center cutting the cake wearing some fancy designer outfit shipped from Venice. Dayana was on the side. They were laughing, their friends clapping for them.

I stood on the other side looking gangly with some loose clothes on. I was a little skinny then, and Theo was in my arms, staring glazed-eyed at the towering cake and the lavish birthday party.

That was the first time Aster Montgomery noticed us and took pity on us. Theo and I. We were born to Lorna and Christopher Gates, but of course, Aster didn't know that. She thought we were kids to a single mother at first. Devin and Dayana were heirs to this billion-dollar conglomerate.

I wasn't born a Montgomery. I stole the name.

Which was only possible because of years of patience, planning, and perseverance.

Father loved both the women. Was that his crime? I think so. He chose the rich woman over my mother, even though he was married to my mom first.

Aster fed Theo and me, she clothed us, gave us a roof over our heads, and finally we were adopted.

The journals were fake. There were no journals written by Aster or Lorna.

Theo wrote them in a similar hand to get Millie on our side, and I guess he'd succeeded. He'd woven a new story, where he and I were born into the Montgomery family. The facts were the same, only some things were different.

Aster was a home-wrecker. She destroyed my family, so I took everything from her, including her house and wealth.

Chris and Lorna were only working on this property when the entitled Aster Montgomery seduced my father on purpose and stole him from us. He remarried her with the condition that Theo and I were included in the family. Aster accepted us with open arms despite the dislike Daya and Devin showed to us at first.

And then she got jealous of my mother because Dad would always find a way to go to Lorna.

The contents in the diary weren't exactly all lies, but everything was written and presented in a way that wasn't real. My mother left us at a very tender age like exactly what was written in the diary, only it wasn't Aster, it was Lorna, and I refused to believe she had just left.

I could hear some strange sounds at night when I passed the cellar. I wanted to find out the source of the sound.

I knew something fishy was going on down there.

One night when everyone was in bed, thinking it was a burglar sneaking into the house, I snagged my baseball bat and went downstairs to investigate.

I flicked the keys from my father's room and went downstairs. The cellar was quiet that night. A small trap-door could be seen at the foot of the stairs. I had to use all my strength to open it.

A foul odor entered my nostrils. It was nasty. I remembered flicking the light on and seeing a small skeleton of a person. The woman was so frail, I couldn't recognize her to be my mother.

"Mom?" I'd called out to her.

She looked up, but she barely recognized me.

She'd spent years in this cellar with no one's knowledge.

Her teeth gone, and the place stank of urine.

"Mom?"

She blabbered something coherent, stared at me, and then raged, banging her head against the wall and causing herself harm. The blood seeped from her head wound.

It's when I knew she thought I was my father.

"Stop! Please stop!" She shrieked at the top of her lungs.

She was far gone. My mother didn't exist.

I'd gone back to my room and returned a few minutes later. I hugged her as she cried in frustration, telling me something that I didn't understand. I kissed her head. I loved her so much.

"It's okay; mom. It's okay. I'll protect you. It's over now." I sobbed.

I wanted to make them pay for this.

I pulled away from her, and although she was still trying to hurt me; I gave her a small smile. I gave her the satisfaction that she'd hurt my father. I don't think she remembered anything else. I pushed the pillow over her face and pressed hard. Her small body flailed, trying to come up for air, and I cried.

"I'm sorry, Mom. I'm so sorry." I'd told her as I'd smothered my mother, ending her sufferings.

It was quick.

Part of me had wanted to steal the gun from Chris's room and shoot him and Aster. I'd stood at the entrance of their bedroom and almost done it, but then I remembered Theo. I'd go to prison and then what would happen to him?

I'd gone to bed and pretended I hadn't done what I'd done. Killed my mother, that is.

I'd been a good kid. I'd pretended to respect Aster and father, keeping the hate and the hunger for vengeance at bay. I let them trust me enough to hand over the company. I treated them better than Devin did. I did everything my father asked of me. I covered up Devin's and Daya's fuck ups for them. I was the epitome of a dutiful son, so much that Aster nearly wished I was hers.

I waited.

For the right time.

For years I waited, and then the boating accident happened. Theo knew the accident was going to happen, and he'd helped me with it.

The Montgomery's maintained a low profile, and that meant no pictures in the tabloids, no personal information. Grandpa Hugh liked it that way, and no one had questioned his choice, and that had helped Theo and me to build up the story over the years. The lies we had weaved together to get everything that was never ours.

I'd been a good grandson to Hugh and earned his respect when he'd remembered things. Later on, he was far too affected with Alzheimer's realizing that I was his step-grandson or I'd killed his daughter, my step-mom.

"Momma..." James said, pointing at the screen again and bringing me out of memory lane.

There was another clip playing, the one with Millie and my wedding. I switched off the screen and picked him up into my arms.

"Let's go for a walk, son."

I walked out of the room and met with my gorgeous wife, who was dressed in a sea-green velvet cocktail dress. Her dark eyes were shining with adoration.

"My boys," she said lovingly, touching her cheek, "I've been looking all over for you. What were you doing here?"

"Mama..." James said, pointing at his mother.

"Just watching our old movies."

She picked James into her arms and kissed his cheek, and then quickly wiped the lipstick stain from there.

"Can I convince you to go to the charity ball with me, Castle?"

I pulled her towards me. "you know how much I hate attending those. I think James wants to sleep and guess I'll raincheck this time."

She pouted, "is it important for me to go?"

"Have a little fun, Millie," I claimed her lips with mine and I was good at drawing the kiss until she was weak in the knees. When I pulled away, she was dizzy. "You need a bit of a break from taking care of the baby. Go."

"I think I'm the luckiest woman in this world." She said, "I have to keep pinching myself to remind that this is all real."

I laughed.

"You know what? I'm the luckiest man to have you."

And I wasn't lying. She was amazing and if it weren't for Millie, Theo and I wouldn't have succeeded in what we'd started out to do. This woman, the love of my life, had helped a great deal unknowingly.

"Castle..." she said sweetly, overwhelmed.

She and I. We were similar. She wasn't aware of it, but we were born in poor conditions and we'd worked for all of this.

We deserved it!

"I'll make it up to you tonight." She said, running a finger over my jawline.

I gave her a heated look. "Go baby, or I'm tearing that pretty dress to shreds."

"Gaga...Goo-goo." James said.

"Jamie approves," I said.

Millie rolled her eyes.

I accompanied her downstairs, and then she kissed both James and me before sitting inside the car. I waited until I saw it disappear through the gates.

"Where do you think your uncle Theo is, Jamie?"

James spoke again in his baby language.

"Let's put you to bed and then I'll go look for him."

I read James his favorite book, and the kid dozed off as soon as I was done reading one page. I tried to call Theo's number, but he wasn't answering, so I looked for him.

Twenty minutes later, I'd checked mostly every place that I thought I would find him. I couldn't find him anywhere.

The door of the connecting wing was wide open, and I followed the path down to the tunnel. I went deeper using the flashlight of my phone. I'd been here countless times as a kid, but never bothered in the years that followed.

There was light emanating from a source a little farther down. I took the stairs down the spiral staircase down.

Ten people were in a circle, holding hands. Candles illuminating the place. The dark-cloaked man in the middle was chanting as the others followed him. His voice was authoritative and his actions fluid and practiced. Their faces were covered in masks, body in cloaks.

I waited until the ceremony ended.

The members kneeled, bowing to the cult leader, hanging onto his every word. When the ceremony was over, the leader walked towards me. The large pendent glinted in the dark.

He slid off the cloak's hoodie, and Theo had a grin on his face. "Didn't think you would be joining me tonight."

"Just came to check on you."

The ring in his hand glimmered. "Millie's not home?"

"Nope."

Devin thought he was running a cult, when the cult members had secretly rejected him. According to them, he did not have what it took to continue what the Montgomery ancestors had started so they let him be deluded that he was running things then, but in reality, they'd helped Theo take the position and they also played a part when I was admitted in the hospital. They were everywhere, looking out for us and protecting us.

Theo had also been the one to kill Barbara because that woman knew too much, and she'd seen Theo write the journals and would have exposed everything. The members had seen the potential in Theo, and when he'd turned eighteen, they convinced him to take the position of the new leader to continue Grandpa's legacy.

Hugh was secretly proud.

I don't know what "rituals" Theo was doing, and truthfully, I didn't care as long as he kept it on the hidden side of the mansion.

Chandler was thirteen now. I wondered what would happen if he found out the truth about Aster, his mother, and blame us for it. He might even come after us for revenge, or my James.

It would be a cycle of revenge, but I wouldn't let him find out. When he was an adult, he would realize what a loving brother I am and never let the thought of revenge cross his mind.

Maybe I'd write another story. Just for Chandler.

And he'll eat it up.

"I'm going to bed," I told him.

"Goodnight, Cas," He nodded, turning around to face the members.

Millie would never find out the truth.

I was taking all these secrets to the grave.

I started making my way back upstairs when my phone buzzed.

Millie

"Hey, darling."

"I'm so bored here. I just gobbled up dinner. I'm coming home. What were you doing?"

Oh, nothing much. Just checking out a cult ceremony hosted by your loving brother-in-law.

"I put James to sleep, Chandler's in bed too, and Theo and I were watching a movie now."

"Do not move. I'm coming home and we're watching something together."

"Sure, darling. Anything you want." 

* * *

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