Life after my father’s death, and our wedding, became quite chaotic. All of a sudden I had to learn how to run a horse farm. That was no easy task. I had spent the last few years on the ranch, playing with the horses and such, never really needing to know how any of it was done. Well, that all just changed.
Ethan and I dug in with the intention of learning it all. If we were going to be in charge of the place, and in charge of all those millions I now had, we needed to know what we were doing. My mother wanted to be involved too. She was actually pretty good with bookkeeping, which was great. She said she had taken some online courses and had worked as a bookkeeper here and there over the years. So, she took over that part of the business, which was a huge help. It left us to focus on other things.
Luckily, Jackson was a big help too. He had spent a lot of time with Adam learning the business and was generous enough to teach it to us. Ethan already knew some of it, because Adam had spent some time teaching him. I knew pretty much nothing. I was kind of ashamed to admit that, since I was the heir to the estate. But, I figured I was still young and pretty smart, so it shouldn’t be that difficult of a task.
Boy, was I ever wrong. There was so much to learn. I had to start by learning the very basics of caring for horses. I hadn’t even realized that I didn’t know the first thing. Yes, I raked the stalls from time to time, but the actual care of the horses was left up to the stable hands. I really hadn’t learned anything in the time I was there.
I also had to learn about breeding horses, buying and selling them, etc. Not to mention just the daily tasks of running a large property, daily accounting, dealing with employees, you name it. It was daunting.
And, in the middle of all of it, we had Sarah to deal with. I had decided to let her stay, because that was what Adam wanted. Even though I thought for a while that she was my mother, I had absolutely no feelings toward her. Not love, not hatred, nothing. She was no one to me. Just a person that I saw from time to time on the ranch. She didn’t eat meals with us and didn’t come to our weekly BBQ get-togethers that we threw for all the workers on the ranch. She was like a ghost floating through the house that no one ever saw, but felt her presence nonetheless.
Sarah had enough money to leave. She could buy a small house and still have plenty left over for a while. I would have even been happy to send her some money every month to keep her from having to get a job. Yes, she was technically a doctor, but I don’t think she really ever practiced, and certainly not in many many years. I even offered the money to her. But, she said no. It was her home and she wasn’t leaving. Oh goody.
Thankfully, she wasn’t making any trouble for us. She just mostly stayed out of everyone’s way. I rarely saw her. I liked it that way. So much less drama.
Jackson started dating a really nice girl, named Natalie. She was cute and I liked her. I didn’t know if we would ever be good friends, but she was nice enough. It was kind of weird, because I had kids with Jackson. But, he and I got along fine. No resentment that I knew of. They hadn’t been dating all that long, when they showed up one day and told us that they had gotten married. I was a little surprised, but I really was happy for them. I loved Ethan will all my heart, but still felt a bit like Jackson was mine too. So it was strange that he was married to someone else. I would just have to get used to that part, because Natalie was now part of the family. Good thing I liked her.
Everything went well for several months on the ranch. Oh, we had some trouble with Sarah, but overall she was manageable.
Whenever we had the chance, Ethan and I went riding. It wasn’t often though. Sometimes we even took the twins. Each one of us put one of the twins in the saddle in front of us. They loved it. After the first time we did that, we never heard the end of it. They wanted to do nothing else but ride the horses.
It didn’t seem like Ethan and I got a lot of time alone. So, one morning after breakfast he told me we were not working that day and we were going on a ride and having a picnic. Just the two of us. He had already set it up with the nanny, and everyone else on the ranch knew their jobs. We didn’t need to be there hovering over them. They would survive a few hours without us.
“That sounds like fun. Let me go make some sandwiches,” I told him, and turned toward the kitchen.
“Nope.” He took my hand. “Already taken care of. Let’s go.” He started leading me out the door.
“Wait, what about the girls?”
“Madison, would you just come on? Everything is fine. The girls are with the nanny, lunch is packed and in the stable, everything is done. You don’t need to do a thing. Now can we go?” He looked at me expectantly.
“Oh, okay fine, let’s go.” It was nice that I didn’t have to take care of anything at all for a change.
When we got about half way to the stables, we saw Walter heading our way. He looked like he needed to talk to us.
“Hi Walter, what’s up?” I asked him as he reached us.
“Well, I have bad news.” He looked down at his feet, then back up at me. He didn’t look at Ethan. It seemed this ‘bad news’ was directed right at me.
“What? What is it Walter?” I was starting to get worried.
“It’s Jett. I’m afraid he’s dead.” He looked at his feet again.
I gasped. “Oh no! What happened?” I started to tear up. Jett had been with me since right after I arrived on the ranch. He was the best horse ever and was my best friend for a long time. My only friend really. Ethan put his arms around me.
“I’m sorry, I don’t know what happened. I already called the vet. He’ll be here as soon as he can,” Walter told me.
I resumed my walk toward the stables without saying another word. Ethan ran to catch up with me after speaking for another minute with Walter.
“Madison, wait up,” he called. I didn’t slow down.
He reached me just as I got to Jett’s stable. Then I saw him. He was laying down on his side, so peaceful. He looked like he was asleep. I sat down beside him and stroked his head gently.
“Jett, get up please. It’s okay boy, you can get up now,” I said tearfully.
“Maddie, what are you doing?” Ethan asked me. I ignored him.
I tried lifting Jett’s head, but it was really heavy. “Jett, Jett, I love you. You’re okay, just get up. I know they lied to me. Wake up now!” I was getting hysterical.
“Madison, stop it.” He tried to pull me away. “He’s dead, Madison. You need to let him go.”
“No! He’s not. Look, he’s just sleeping.” I rubbed his beautiful black mane. I then laid my face against his. He couldn’t be dead. I loved him. I had lost so much in my life, I couldn’t lose him too.
Just then Walter walked in. He saw me laying there with Jett. He saw that Ethan was getting nowhere with me.
“Come on, Ethan, let’s give them some space.” Walter motioned for Ethan to go with him. He seemed reluctant, but he went.
I lay there with Jett for about an hour, petting him and talking to him. I didn’t want him to be alone. I really wasn’t losing my mind. I knew he was dead. I was just having a hard time accepting it.
Finally the vet arrived and I got up to let him work. I told him I would be in the house and to please come let me know what he determined the cause of death to be.
I went inside and straight to my room. I didn’t want to see or talk to anyone. I just wanted to curl up inside my blankets forever. Ethan came in and I told him I wanted to be alone. He respected my wishes and left.
I woke up a few hours later and realized that the vet had not come in to see me. So, I went downstairs to find out what was going on. I found Ethan outside playing with the twins.
“Ethan, is the vet gone?” I was sure he was, it had been hours.
“Yes, how are you feeling?” he asked me. He seemed very concerned.
“I’m fine. Why didn’t someone come and get me?” I was a little angry at that.
“You were asleep. You seemed like you really needed it. I figured that w
e could just talk when you got up.”
“Mommy!” Rosie ran over to me and put her arms up to be picked up. She made me smile. My mood was instantly improved.
“So what happened to Jett?” I asked Ethan.
“It looks like he was poisoned.”
“What! Who would do that?” I was shocked.
“I don’t know. I don’t know anyone that would do that,” he responded.
“I can’t believe this.” Then it popped into my head. “Sarah. Do you think it was Sarah?” I asked him.
“No, I doubt it. Why would she do that? I mean, yes she’s a hateful person, but I can’t see her doing that.” He seemed like he really didn’t think it was her.
“Because she hates me, that’s why. She would do anything to get back at me for coming back into her life. She even blames me for Adam’s death. It has to be her. No one else around here would do that.” I knew it was her.
“I want to go see Jett.” I started toward the stables.
“Wait Madison. He’s not there,” Ethan said.
I stopped short and turned toward him. “What? Where is he? Why wouldn’t he be there?” I was confused.
“The vet took him.”
“Where did he take him? He had no right to take him without my permission.”
“I asked him to.”
“Why?”
“Because he’s dead, Madison. Why wouldn’t you want him to take him?”
“I wanted to say good-bye. I can’t believe you did that!” I screamed. My precious Jett was gone forever.
“You already said good-bye. It was just a horse, you need to calm down.”
“Don’t tell me to calm down! I’ll calm down when I’m ready to!” I was still screaming. I just couldn’t help it. I was hysterical.
I then ran to the stables. When I got there, Jett was gone, as I expected. I sat down in the corner of his stable with my knees bent up to my chin. I wrapped my arms around my knees and started crying. A couple of the ranch hands looked in on me, but then kept walking when they saw me glare at them. Ethan didn’t even try to follow me. I can’t blame him for that. I would apologize to him later. I just needed to be as close to Jett as I could get, and that was the place.
Then it started getting dark and I decided it was time to go in. I couldn’t sit out there all night. I think all of the ranch hands had gone home because it was so quiet. Then I saw a shadow pass by the stable door. At least I thought so. I wasn’t really looking in that direction when it happened. I just saw it out of the corner of my eye.
“Hello?” I asked.
Nothing. No response back. It was eerily quiet.
“Hellooo?” I called back out again, slowly this time.
Still nothing. I was starting to get nervous, because I was out there all alone in the dark and seeing things. I needed to get out of there.
Well, it was just my imagination, I figured. So, I got up, brushed the hay off of me, and walked back to the house.
Chapter 34
I didn’t see any point in confronting Sarah about Jett. She would just deny it and I had no proof. But, I was keeping an eye on her. I didn’t trust her at all. And if I ever found out she had anything to do with his death, or anything else suspicious around there, then she was going to be out, permanently. It didn’t matter what Adam’s wishes were at that point. And she wouldn’t get a dime from me.
I know it was kind of silly, but we had a service for Jett. He was such a great friend that I couldn’t just let him be gone, with no more mention of him. Besides, I wanted to teach the twins about death, in the way that only small children can understand, of course. Ethan couldn’t attend because he wasn’t feeling well.
I did feel better afterward. I didn’t want another horse though, at least not yet. There would be time for that later.
Ethan was sick with the flu. He was in bed with weakness, nausea and headaches. I didn’t feel great either, but I wasn’t as bad as Ethan.
Over the next few weeks, several more of our horses, prize winning breeding horses, died. All of them poisoned. We couldn’t figure out who was doing it. I finally came to the conclusion that it wasn’t Sarah, because I had one of the house staff members watch her like a hawk. She stalked Sarah everywhere she went. It’s funny, but Sarah didn’t even seem to notice.
The problem with having someone guard the horses is that there are so many of them. And, there are a lot of people that work around the ranch. We couldn’t possibly watch everyone. I did hire security to stand guard at the stables at night. I figured that was the most likely time someone was sneaking in to do the poisoning. Once I did that, the deaths stopped.
A few days after the problem with the horses stopped, I heard a strange noise at about 2 a.m. Ethan was still feeling weak from the flu, so I got up and walked out to the stair landing outside our bedroom.
It was very dark and I couldn’t see much. I was afraid that one of the twins had escaped her crib and was wandering around. It wouldn’t be the first time. I looked down the stairs and called out quietly. I didn’t want to wake everyone up. “Jackie, Rosie, are you out here? It’s Mommy. Can you hear me?” I listened, but got no response.
I figured it was my imagination, but I would go check the nursery anyway. Just as I started to turn around and head that way, I felt a hard shove between my shoulder blades. I was at the top of the stairs and didn’t have time to grab onto anything. I went tumbling down the entire flight. It happened so fast, but at the same time it felt like I was falling in slow motion, kind of like the cake fiasco at my 16th birthday party. Somehow, during my fall, I saw someone at the top of the stairs, but had no idea who it was.
I landed hard at the bottom. When I looked back up, the person was gone. Then, everyone in the house seemed to show up all at once. I guess I had made a lot of noise during my fall and it woke everyone up. Even Ethan, who was pretty weak, came running out.
“Oh my god, Madison! Are you okay, baby?” he said as he ran down the stairs to where I was laying on my back, in horrible pain.
I started crying. “Ethan, my leg. I think I broke it.”
He looked over at my legs. “Yeah, it’s broken.”
I could hear Sarah, my grandmother and some of the staff talking at the top of the stairs.
“Someone call 911!” Ethan yelled to them. I then saw my mom walk away hurriedly to make the call.
My grandmother brought me a blanket to keep me warm. Ethan held me while my mother went outside to wait for the ambulance. I guess someone called Jackson, because he showed up a few minutes later.
“Maddie, my god. What happened?” he asked.
No one else had asked me what had happened. Maybe they all assumed I just tripped and fell in the dark.
“I was standing at the top of the stairs because I thought I heard a noise. Then someone pushed me from behind.” I kind of gasped out. I was in terrible pain.
“What the hell? Who would do that?” Ethan asked.
“I know who did it. I know exactly who did it. Annabelle,” Jackson responded.
“Annabelle hasn’t been here in years,” Ethan said.
“Yeah, I know. But this is something she would do. She did it before to Madison at her birthday party.”
Ethan knew about the party. I had told him all about it. “Has anyone seen her?” he asked.
Everyone said no. If it wasn’t her, who else would it be? It had to be her.
Just then, the ambulance arrived and took me to the hospital. My left leg was broken in three places. I had to have surgery and pins put in. I spent a week in the hospital.
Ethan came to see me when he could, but he was still not feeling great. He was getting better though.
A few days after I arrived at the hospital, very early one morning, she walked into my room. The nurses were taking a break, I guessed, and I was all alone.
“Good morning,” she said quietly, waking me.
I looked up through sleepy, medicated eyes. “Annabelle, what are you doing here?�
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“I just came to see you.” She was smiling. I was afraid.
I reached for the nurse call button, but Annabelle held it up to show that she had it and I couldn’t get to it.
“I wanted us to be able to talk without any interference,” she said. It was kind of creepy.
“What do you want?” I was a little afraid, because I was completely helpless in there with her. I thought about screaming, but decided to hold out to see what she wanted first.
“I heard you fell down the stairs and I wanted to see how you were.”
“Yeah right, I fell down the stairs. You mean you pushed me down the stairs,” I shot back.
“Prove it.” She just stood there looking at me.
“You know I can’t prove it. But I know it was you,” I told her. “I also know it was you that poisoned all of my horses too.” I was getting angry with her.
“Think what you want. You can’t prove any of it.”
“We’ll see,” was all I could think to say. She was right, I couldn’t prove it and she knew it.
“So, I heard Ethan is really sick. Pity.” She showed me a tiny little smile that said to me that she was satisfied about something.
It took me just a few seconds to realize where she was going with that comment. She poisoned Ethan, just like she had poisoned Jackson a couple of years before. I must be really slow, because for the first time I realized his symptoms were really similar to Jackson’s, back when Annabelle poisoned him with arsenic. He wasn’t as bad as Jackson had been, but still sick nevertheless.
I had been sick too. Not as bad as Ethan though. All of my symptoms disappeared while I was in the hospital. I figured that I had just gotten over the flu. I didn’t know that it was because I was no longer being poisoned.
Without even thinking, I started screaming. Annabelle took off running as the nurses ran toward my room. They didn’t even notice her.
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