by Jill Sanders
The next bit they had learned from the police interview with Sean Clayton.
The day after Isaac’s death, Sean had caught on to Ian instantly when Ian had tried to fill in for Isaac during a business meeting. Ian had always filled in for Isaac’s personal life but had never tried to fill in for his work life. After all those years of school, Isaac had been a great lawyer. Ian knew nothing about law.
Sean had known almost instantly what had happened and had convinced Ian to meet him after work to discuss his other son’s new role in the family business. Instead, Sean had had Ian committed to a private institute upstate, the same one where Ian had been committed during his youth.
Sean hoped everything would go back to normal. He’d flown Isaac’s plane over the ocean, jumping out and meeting a friend in a boat, then returning to work the next day like nothing had happened, playing the role of a distraught father who had just lost his only son.
Ian had been released from the institute a month after Isaac’s body had been discovered in the basement wall. He’d taken up residence in the house next door, so he could stay close to Rose once more.
He’d murdered Willis when the man had asked for more money after a botched attempt to kill Sawyer.
Ian had drugged Kristy after Kristy’s mother, the legal guardian of their son, Ash, had called Kristy that day after Kristy had confronted Rose at the mall. She told her that she had just seen Isaac watching his son play at the park. The entire time Kristy and Ian were together, she’d believed him to be Isaac, a married lawyer and heir to his father’s fortune.
Kristy had rushed home and Ian was in their apartment. There, he’d drugged her and left her to slowly die of an overdose, locked in the apartment that they had shared together.
“So, Isaac never cheated on you?” Hunter asked.
Her brother, her sister, her mother, and her mother’s husband, Bill, Hunter’s father, all sat around the living room, along with Sawyer’s mother, Gloria, who had made the trip from California to check up on him after hearing about the entire mess. Jenny’s kids were back home with her husband since they couldn’t take any more time off school until the winter break.
“No,” she sighed. “He really was on work trips. Apparently, he was going behind his father’s back and taking other clients of his own. He was trying to start his own law firm, one away from his father’s powerful influence and criminal activities.” Rose took Sawyer’s hand in her own. “We may have had issues in our marriage, but disloyalty wasn’t one of them.” She smiled at Sawyer.
He knew she was happy to hear it, and he was happy for her.
“Still.” Her smile fell away, and she turned back to her family. “Ian had filled in for Isaac a few times in this house.” She looked around. “Which now, in hindsight, makes so much sense. There were times Isaac would question some of the work we’d done together around here. Like, he didn’t remember helping me clean the fireplace.” She turned her head towards the fireplace, where a fire was heating the room. “Ian is the one you went to the beach with you that day, the one who went skydiving with you,” she told Hunter.
Her brother shook his head and sighed.
“He had me fooled.” He sighed. “I’d always wondered why Isaac never wanted to talk about skydiving and a few other things with me. We did, eventually, go later, I’m sure it was him.” Hunter frowned, then looked up, his eyes searching. “Wasn’t it?” He shook his head.
“He filled Isaac’s shoes a lot over the years,” Rose added.
Jenny set down her cup of tea. “He filled in… filled in.”
Sawyer felt Rose shiver. “Yes,” she said softly. “Still…” Her chin came up and she glanced at him. “It helps me to think about the good times I had with the man I loved, Isaac. No matter who he was when we were together, he was Isaac, my husband. He loved me, and I loved him.” He smiled and squeezed her hand. “I will remember nothing but kindness and love from him.” She shook her head. “Them, both of them. Even though Ian and Isaac were different, to me they were just… Isaac.” She sighed, and he took her hand to his lips and kissed it.
“From now on, you’re a one-man woman.” Sawyer smiled over at her.
“So,” Rose frowned, “if it was Ian killing everyone, who sent Isaac the images and the notes?”
“What notes?” Jenny leaned forward.
“I did.” Everyone gasped and turned towards Hunter.
“You sent Isaac the threatening notes?” Rose asked. “You promised me you didn’t know about the affair.”
“Threatening?” He frowned. “If you mean I was going to expose him and tell you, yes. I’d gone to the city to see Melanie a few times. We’ve had this on and off kind of relationship since college.” He ran his hands through his hair. “Anyway, I saw Isaac with Kristy. Well, who I thought was Isaac, anyway. I asked Melanie to take a few pictures of them. She sent me those pictures and I… well, I confronted Isaac. He promised me that he wasn’t having an affair, convinced me that he would get to the bottom of it and that it would stop. I believed him.” Hunter turned to Rose. “I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you. I should have… after New York. But I forgot about them. It was almost two years ago.” He shrugged. “I’ve had a crazy schedule and… I forgot. I’m so sorry.”
“You’re going to owe me,” Rose scolded. But then she reached for his hand. “You were just looking out for me.” She smiled at her brother.
“Isaac must have known, looking at the pictures, that it was Ian. Maybe he thought his brother had moved on, had his own family. Why didn’t he just tell you it was his twin?” Jenny asked.
“Sean Clayton gave us the answer to that one,” Sawyer added. “Isaac didn’t know he had a twin.”
“What?” everyone in the room said at the same time.
“What do you mean?” Hunter asked.
“Well, it seems that when Sean had Ian committed, it was because he’d attacked Isaac. He’d knocked him over the head with his little league baseball bat. Isaac was in the hospital for almost two weeks,” Sawyer said.
“I remember him telling me how he’d got hit over the head playing little league.” Rose frowned. “I always thought…” She shook her head. “My god.”
“Sean said, after that day, he’d convinced his five-year-old son that his twin, Ian, had been an imaginary friend instead of a real brother. Sean believed it was best for Isaac growing up to not know about his crazy twin or his crazy mother. Since no one in town had seen the two boys together, he convinced everyone that Isaac was his only son.”
“But it was Sean who killed Glenn, my husband?” Joan asked.
“Yes, Sean shot his wife, Dianna, and then Glenn that night when your husband didn’t believe Dianna had committed suicide. Sean paid off the other officer, Rick Brown, to keep it all quiet. Brown is rotting in a jail cell, right next to Sean Clayton,” Sawyer explained. “Then, years later, when Isaac confronted his father about the images, Sean knew Ian was free from the mental institute and began looking for him. When Ian showed up at the law firm, pretending to be Isaac, he knew that Issac was dead. Ian had told him that he’d killed himself. So, he quickly and quietly had him committed again, making sure to cover his tracks by firing anyone who had seen him that day. Before taking care of Isaac’s plane. The sad part is, Sean Clayton must have known all this time that Ian had killed Isaac. Now Sean Clayton is being charged with murdering his wife all those years ago, as well as all the other charges, and Brown is being charged with accessory.”
“Where does this leave you?” Jenny asked Rose.
Rose leaned slightly on him and smiled. “Well, we’re planning our wedding for the spring.” Jenny and Rose’s smiles grew. “Which leaves us…”—Rose glanced over at him and he nodded— “about six months to come up with a wedding dress that will fit my large belly.”
“Large…” Jenny said, then her eyes grew big. “You’re…” Her hand went to her own growing belly. “We’re pregnant together?” Jenny jumped up from her spot and rushed over
to hug Rose.
After all the excitement died down, Rose snuggled against his chest. “We didn’t plan this, this early,” he told Rose’s mother.
“Some of the best surprises are like that.” She smiled. “Rose wasn’t planned either, but she was just as loved as Jenny.” Then she turned to Hunter. “You weren’t planned either. Bill and I… we didn’t mesh at first.” She smiled over at her husband and took his hand. “But, it was right, and you and Rose were like…”
“Two peas in a pod?” Jenny added, earning her a laugh. “What? That’s what we always called you.”
“Like twins,” Rose added, taking Hunter’s hand in hers.
“But not the kind of twins where one’s evil and the other is normal,” Hunter said. When everyone groaned, he smiled. “What? Too soon?”
Also by Jill Sanders
The Pride Series
Finding Pride
Discovering Pride
Returning Pride
Lasting Pride
Serving Pride
Red Hot Christmas
My Sweet Valentine
Return To Me
Rescue Me
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The Secret Series
Secret Seduction
Secret Pleasure
Secret Guardian
Secret Passions
Secret Identity
Secret Sauce
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The West Series
Loving Lauren
Taming Alex
Holding Haley
Missy’s Moment
Breaking Travis
Roping Ryan
Wild Bride
Corey’s Catch
Tessa’s Turn
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The Grayton Series
Last Resort
Someday Beach
Rip Current
In Too Deep
Swept Away
High Tide
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Lucky Series
Unlucky In Love
Sweet Resolve
Best of Luck
A Little Luck
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Silver Cove Series
Silver Lining
French Kiss
Happy Accident
Hidden Charm
A Silver Cove Christmas
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Entangled Series – Paranormal Romance
The Awakening
The Beckoning
The Ascension
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St. Helena Vineyard Kindle Worlds
Where I Belong
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Haven, Montana Series
Closer to You
Never Let Go
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Pride Oregon Series
A Dash of Love
My Kind of Love
Season of Love
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Stand Alone Books
Twisted Rock
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For a complete list of books: http://JillSanders.com
About the Author
Jill Sanders is The New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Pride Series, Secret Series, West Series, Grayton Series, Lucky Series, and Silver Cove romance novels. She continues to lure new readers with her sweet and sexy stories. Her books are available in every English-speaking country and in audiobooks and have been translated into several languages.
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Born as an identical twin to a large family, she was raised in the Pacific Northwest and later relocated to Colorado for college and a successful IT career before discovering her talent as a writer. She now makes her home along the Emerald Coast in Florida where she enjoys the beach, hiking, swimming, wine tasting and, of course, writing.
