Larissa Judson and Haskell Palmer novel Chapter 557

“Thatch, if you don’t start talking, you’ll never have the chance to speak again,” Haskell’s voice was as cold and detached as a judge from the underworld, utterly devoid of emotion.

Thatch had been so sure his son would never lay a hand on him. Now, terror consumed him. He suddenly realized that the son who had tolerated his betrayals time and again was gone, replaced by this stranger, this cold, ruthless executioner.

“I’ll talk! I’ll talk!” Thatch cried out, his voice choked with despair and pain. “Just promise me, if I tell you everything, you won’t hurt me anymore…”

Haskell’s expression remained unchanged, his gaze like chips of ice boring into Thatch.

“Do you really think you’re in a position to negotiate?” he asked, his words shattering Thatch’s last sliver of hope.

Thatch’s face was ashen. He knew he was trapped.

“I’m not negotiating,” he stammered. “I’m begging you, Haskell. For the simple fact that I am your father, I am begging you to spare my life!”

In that moment, Thatch saw his situation with perfect clarity. He no longer cared about his status or his wealth. All he wanted was to live.

Haskell was silent for a moment. “Speak.”

Not daring to delay any longer, Thatch grit his teeth against the pain. “I gave your brother to a woman, a child trafficker. I specifically told her to sell him as far away as possible, preferably to some remote village in the south. You know how desperate those poor villages are for male heirs. Your brother would have been treated well there.”

“‘Treated well’?” Haskell’s voice was dangerously low, his teeth clenched. “Thatch, how dare you. He should have had a life of luxury from the day he was born, and you say he would have been ‘treated well’?”

Haskell looked at his own father as if he were a mortal enemy, his heart filled not with a lack of feeling, but with a tidal wave of hatred.

“Give me the trafficker’s information.”

“All I know is that people called her Gertrude,” Thatch said, trembling. “She was a broker of human lives, and she had two large gold teeth. She never stayed in one place for long. She was already in her forties or fifties back then. After twenty years, I don’t know if she’s even still in the business.”

He began to plead again. “Haskell, I’ve told you everything I know. Please, can you let me out of here? I promise, I’ll never betray you again. I’ll be a good father to you.”

Haskell had what he needed. He doubted he could get any more useful information out of Thatch. He gave him one last cold look. “If I find my brother, and he is safe and unharmed, I will allow you to live out the rest of your days in this asylum with all your limbs intact. But if I can’t find him, you will be crippled, deaf, and mute, and I will send you to a place so horrific you will beg for death every day until it comes.”