“I wanted my baby girl to have her dreams. I love you.”
I gaped at him. I hadn’t earned that part. Never in my wildest imagination had I suspected him of manipulating my life to this extent. My entire life was a lie.
I turned to Colt. “I can’t do this.”
His eyes looked glassy as he nodded.
I turned to leave, putting my hand on the doorknob, then stopped. If I left before I got answers, I was letting him manipulate me. Again.
I took a deep breath and turned to face him. “Congrats. You’re an excellent puppet master, but that’s not love. Love is holding your wife’s hand as she’s dying. Love would have been comforting me after I was kidnapped and terrorized at knifepoint. Love is being there, you fucking asshole.”
“Held at knifepoint?” He looked furious as he turned to Colt. “When did this happen?”
“You ask me, not him,” I said. “I’m standing right here.”
My father turned back to me, fury contorting his face. “When did this happen?”
“You lost the right to know. You should have been here.”
“I’m here now. When did this happen?”
I gave him a defiant look. “You can ask from now until the end of time, and I’ll never answer you. You lost the right to know the day you abandoned me.”
Then understanding widened his eyes. “The night of your graduation. What happened?”
I pointed at him. “Shut your mouth.” I took a breath to try to regain control. “Your job is to answer my questions, not make observations.”
He sat back on the sofa and waited, but the look on his face suggested he was humoring me.
“Did you kill Tiffany Kessler?”
He did a double take. “Why would you ask me that?”
“Obviously because I want to know if you killed her.”
Disbelief washed over his face. “No. Of course not. They arrested the man who killed her.”
“Tiffany’s body was found outside of Jackson. Tripp was suing you over the Jackson Project.” I quirked an eyebrow. “Sense a trend? Think someone might have been trying to send a message?”
He stared at me in disbelief. I’d managed the impossible—my father appeared visibly shaken.
“Never put it together before?” I asked. “I thought Brian Steele was smarter than that.”
He didn’t answer.
“What do you know about Melanie Seaborn?” I was proud of myself for asking him that without breaking down.
He shook his head. “What is this game?”
“Did you know her or not?” I demanded.
“No. I don’t know her.”
“What about Stella Hargrove?”
“Are these women you think I had affairs with?”
“Did you know her?”
“No!”
“Margarie Turnwell?”
He pushed out a frustrated breath. “I don’t know any of these women, Magnolia. Why are you asking?”
“But you knew Tiffany,” I said with a sneer. “You knew her very well.”
My father looked defeated. “I won’t discuss Tiffany with you. You’re my daughter. I don’t expect you to understand.”
“Try me.”
He pushed out a breath of frustration. “I loved your mother, but it was a different kind of love. I needed passion and fireworks, something I never had with Lila.”
“Then you should have divorced her.”
“I couldn’t because I would have lost you.”
“So instead you just threw me away a few years later. If you’d divorced her, at least I would have seen you on the weekends.” I shook my head. “Don’t lie to me. You never cared about me, not really. You were quick enough to trade me for money, and let’s be honest, you were counting on me to help cover up your escape by telling everyone you’d been killed. Rowena told me as much. You made me look like a fool.”
He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his thighs. “I cheated on your mother.
I made mistakes. I admit that. But that had nothing to do with me leaving, Maggie.”
“Then why did you leave?” Rowena had told me her version, but I wanted to hear it from him.
“You’ve clearly looked into the Jackson Project. Bill and the others never forgave me after it fell apart. They all blamed me when the smaller investors came to them, demanding their money back. I realized they were plotting against me.”
“Because you were stealing money from your investment firm.”
Frustration wrinkled his brow. “I was a co-owner until the Jackson Project failed. Then I signed away my rights as partner to Bill to help save the firm—no one wanted to invest their money with the man who had lost millions. But Bill and I had an agreement that even though I wasn’t a legal partner, he would still treat me as a partner in every way, and that included money. But he started hiding money from me. Bill was cheating me. I decided I was tired of playing his scapegoat. I was going to get what was mine.”
“So you started stealing money, got caught, and then ran off. Money was more important than your family.”
“Maggie, I know you don’t want to hear this, but your mother was glad to be rid of me. And as for Roy . . . that boy never liked me.”
“He still felt abandoned.”
He was quiet for a moment. “I’m sorry for that. Mistakes were made.”
I released a bitter laugh. “Mistakes were made. That erases all the bad things you did.”
“No, Maggie. It’s me admitting to some fault in this.”
“Some fault in this?”
“I was going to bring you with me.”
The blood rushed from my head. “What?”
He sat forward on the sofa. “I loved you so much I couldn’t imagine leaving you behind. I even paid to get you a fake identity. Bought you a plane ticket. I had packed a bag of your clothes.”
I was stunned at his revelation. “So why didn’t you take me?”
“It would have been too dangerous for you. And I realized I’d be taking you away from your mother and your brother and Maddie and everything you loved about your life.”
The irony was that I’d lost them all anyway. I wasn’t sure how I felt about his admission. What would I have done if he’d spirited me away fourteen years ago? As much as I hated to admit it, I probably would have gleefully followed him.
I’d been an utter fool.
“That’s not the only reason,” Colt said with a sneer. “It would have been harder to hide with a fourteen-year-old girl. Maggie would have missed her mother, and she might have given you away by calling her. Don’t make it out to be something noble. That decision was selfish too.”
My father turned a hateful glare at Colt. “This is none of your business, Austin. Stay out of it.”
But Colt was right. My father was still lying to me. It was what he did, plain and simple.
“So you’re back for the annuity?” I asked in a snotty tone. “I heard you on the phone telling someone to be patient. That you were getting the money tomorrow. You don’t have enough money?”
He scowled.
“You must have plenty of funds if you could afford to pay Griff to make me the lead in Fireflies at Dawn.”
“Magnolia . . .” He sounded frustrated.
“But I guess there’s never enough money for greedy men.”
“That’s enough,” he said in a harsh tone.
“Is it?” I asked in defiance. “I don’t really think it is.” Something came back to me. “You said it was time for me to come home. Why?”
“Your mother. She needed you, and you needed her.”
I felt like I’d been punched in the gut. “You knew she was dying?”
“Of course I knew.”
“How?” Then it hit me. Colt. I shot him a glance, but he refused to look at me.
“Why did you pick Colt?” I asked. “I know you had him arrested on bogus charges so you could force him to work for you. You must have bribed someone to make that happen
. Why go to all that trouble? There are plenty of people who would have taken the job willingly.”
“I had my reasons.”
“Colt quit answering to you last week. Are you going to punish him for it?”
My father looked at him. “I haven’t decided yet. His work is done, but he can’t seem to let part of it go.”
“You had no problem with Griff sleeping with me,” I sneered.
My father turned to look at me. “Griff didn’t deserve you either, but he didn’t love you. He never expected to keep you.”
I shifted my gaze to Colt, but he still refused to look at me.
“Why are you here now?” I asked. “Is it really the annuity?”
“I have my reasons.”
“How does Gordon Frasier play into this?”
He looked confused. “Gordon Frasier?”
“The cop who was investigating your disappearance.”
He shook his head. “I was already gone, Maggie. I didn’t pay any attention to what happened back here for nearly a year. Every day I woke up wanting to come back. Wanting to tell you I was sorry. If I’d seen something upsetting, I might have come back and ruined everything. I couldn’t let that happen.”
“Am I supposed to feel sorry for you?”
He looked taken aback. “No. Of course not.”
“Where did the gold come from?”
He smiled. “I knew you’d find it. That ceramic dog was the key.”
“When did you put it in Christopher Merritt’s apartment?”
“I didn’t. I put it in the garage about a year ago.” A wry smile spread across his face. “I knew about your mother. I was already making plans for you to come home.”
I jerked my head to face Colt. “Did you know that?”
He shook his head, his eyes wide. “No, Maggie. I swear I didn’t.”
I turned back to my father. “You still didn’t answer about the gold. Where did it come from, and why did you hide it for me to find?”
“The gold was Bill’s. He’d become obsessed with hoarding gold. So I took it to taunt him. I knew the others were conspiring against me, so I told Geraldo Lopez I’d give him one million in gold if he’d tell me what he knew. He told me, but he still conspired against me.”
“He told me it was his.”
He grinned. “Technically, he was right. Stupid me only asked for information in exchange for the gold, not loyalty. When I found out he’d betrayed me, I moved it. It wasn’t where I told him to look. But he still wanted it.”
“So you had two reasons to send me back,” I said. “Momma and your desire to stir up trouble with the people who were left.”
“I knew they’d all freak out once you came back. And that Lopez would think you knew something. Especially since you were there in his office when we negotiated the exchange of the gold. He told me the details of their betrayal while you sat in the chair.”
“You risked my life—both then and now—to piss off your old partners?”
“Magnolia,” he said in a patronizing tone. “I knew you were safe then. None of them would hurt a child, and Colt was watching you after you came back.”
“Geraldo Lopez almost killed me. And then Rowena Rogers.”
He frowned. “I admit I didn’t expect it to go that far. I knew they’d all get paranoid after Max Goodwin was murdered, but—”
“Wait. You knew Dr. Lopez would kill Max Goodwin?”
“Magnolia, I killed Max Goodwin.”
I took a step backward. “What?” Did that mean . . .
I’d asked Lopez if he’d killed Steve Morrissey, and he’d said he wasn’t going to confess to anything. He hadn’t confessed because he hadn’t done it. My father had been at the fundraiser that night; he’d pulled the trigger.
My father got to his feet, anger making his face hard. “He disrespected you in New York. He dared to proposition you, knowing you were my daughter. He did it to spit in my face. That was why he was the one who had to die first.”
I stared at him in disbelief and then turned to Colt to gauge his reaction. I took some comfort from seeing the horror in his eyes. He hadn’t known either.
“But I was a person of interest!” I protested. “I was almost arrested!”
“I would never have let it get that far. That’s why I killed Neil. I made it look like someone in the industry killed them instead of you.”
I couldn’t believe he was being so matter-of-fact about this. “Why did you kill Amy Danvers? She was completely innocent. The police think she killed herself!” I’d believed Lopez had killed her too, but he’d never admitted to that either. Only that Amy’s suicide note had inspired faking his own kidnapping.
“I didn’t kill her.”
“Then who did?”
“I don’t know.”
“The serial killer,” Colt said.
My father turned stoic. “There is no serial killer. I’m not a serial killer.”
He thought we were talking about his partners’ deaths. How many had he killed? Maybe he was a serial killer too. “How can you be so sure about that?” I asked.
He continued to give me a blank look.
“You also killed Steve Morrissey,” I said flatly, stating it as fact.
“I was trying to flush out Lopez. I knew he’d faked his kidnapping.”
“How many people have you killed?” I asked in horror.
“Only the ones who were necessary.”
I took a step closer to Colt. “And who else is necessary?”
My father looked amused. “You’re worried about Colt.” His grin spread. “He’s safe. I have other ways to make sure he stays quiet.”
I wasn’t taking any chances. I slowly shifted, blocking as much of Colt from my father as I could. “Delilah?”
My father nodded.
“And what about me? Aren’t you afraid I’ll tell someone?”
“No. I’m your father. You won’t tell anyone.”
He shouldn’t be so sure about that.
“What’s your endgame?” I asked. “You’re here to get the annuity, exact some revenge, and then what?”
“I want you to come with me when I leave.”
“Where?”
“Somewhere far from here. We’ll have plenty of money to live on. You’ll never want for anything again.”
“And if I don’t want to go?” I asked.
He gave me a knowing look. “You will. You’ve missed me, Magnolia. You’ve spent the past month looking for me.” He took a step closer. “I’m so proud of you. You were determined to find me. Now that you’ve found me, you’re not going to let me walk away.” The crazed look in his eyes scared me.
Colt put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed. “I think you should go, Steele.”
“That’s not your decision, Austin. In fact, you’ve done your job, and now it’s time for you to leave Magnolia alone.”
I pointed my finger at my father. “You don’t get to decide that. Don’t you try to tell him to leave me alone.”
“Magnolia, you don’t know—”
“Stop. I’m not fourteen anymore. I’m a grown woman and capable of making my own decisions.” I clenched my fists at my sides. “Colt’s right. It’s time for you to leave—and not just this apartment. You need to leave Franklin and never come back.”
“I’m not done here, Magnolia, but when I am, you’ll come with me so we can rebuild our family.” With that, he headed to the front door and left.
Colt ran over to the door and threw the deadbolt. “As soon as he pulls out of the parking lot, we need to leave too.”
“Do you really think he’ll come back?”
“No. He’s not who we’re running from at the moment.”
“Then who?”
“Detective Martinez. She has a warrant out for your arrest.”
Chapter 20
“What?”
“She told Tilly she was there to arrest you, and Tilly told her off.”
“Why didn’t you
tell me at the dinner?”
“Because I didn’t want to tell you something like that and then shove you in a car.”
He was right. It was probably better this way.
My phone was still in my hand. I unlocked it and started to call Owen—his number was already pulled up and ready to call—but then I realized he was on leave. I doubted he would know anything. I pulled up Brady’s number and stared at it for several seconds before I placed the call. I didn’t trust Brady, but I would bet money that he didn’t want me to be arrested.
“Magnolia? Are you okay?” he asked as soon as he answered.
“Why is Detective Martinez going around telling people she has a warrant out for my arrest?”
“What? On what charges?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think she was forthcoming when she showed up at the dinner I was working.”
“She tried to arrest you in front of the guests?” he asked in horror.
“No. It never got that far. So I’m guessing you didn’t know . . .”
“I didn’t know, or I would have warned you. Where are you now?”
“Oh, no,” I scoffed. “I’m not telling you that.”
“Maggie, you have to trust me. I’m on your side.”
“Find out what she wants to arrest me for. Then call me back.” I hung up.
Colt hurried to his room, and I went back to the window, watching my father emerge from the front door of the building. He walked up to a dark sedan and stopped next to the driver’s door. He lifted his hand in a wave as he glanced up at the window, smiling at me.
I stepped back in horror, realizing I’d done exactly what he’d expected me to do.
“Has he left yet?” Colt asked.
“He just reached his car. He looked up and waved. He knew I’d be watching.”
Colt wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “Don’t let him mess with your head, Mags. It’s his specialty.”
After finding out that he’d been manipulating my life, it was hard not to let it mess with my head.
“Why does Martinez want to arrest you?” Colt asked, looking out the window.
“Brady said he didn’t know.”
“Do you believe him?”
“I don’t totally trust him, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Do you trust me?”
Curtain Call: Magnolia Steele Mystery #4 Page 19
