Capturing a Colton

by C. J. Miller

  Jade set her sandwich on the wrapper. “Do you think I could visit?”

  “The house?” he asked. It was being taken apart by Rafferty Construction. Given Jade’s connection to Allison, she had to know that. Having anyone walk around in the middle of the teardown was dangerous.

  “Yes. This might sound strange to you because my mother did bad things in that house, but I’ve had nightmares about that place for years. I’ve never visited, even when the state owned it, because it holds terrible memories and I wasn’t ready to confront them. But I’m ready now.” She lifted her chin.

  He admired her courage. He knew all about the ghosts of the past and how they seemed to howl when they were needed the least. “Are you sure you want to see it? You could wait until it’s torn down.” Might give her a sense of peace to know that it was gone.

  “No, I need to see it. As it is. I remember the house being huge and grand and I remember my mother moving through hallways like a queen. I want to watch it burn.”

  Chapter 3

  Like still photographs in her mind, Jade pictured La Bonne Vie. It meant “the good life,” in French, but for her, it was anything but.

  Her father being struck in the head by Livia. His body unmoving on the ground. Hurt and pain. Livia flirting with men, touching their chests with her fingertips, leaning close, rubbing against them. Confusion and anger. Livia flying into a rage because something had happened or she’d perceived a slight. Fear. Livia calling to her children, asking them to line up along the grand staircase, looking them over for imperfections, like a hair out of place or not wearing the complete outfit she had purchased for them. As if wearing the wrong-colored socks would distort the image of the Coltons as the perfect family. Resentment and more confusion why they only mattered when other people were watching.

  Livia striking her so hard across the face, she had fallen down the stairs. Sadness and hurt. When her father had asked her what had happened, she had lied and said she had slipped. Fear and desperation.

  Memories that Jade had never made sense of until after her mother had been arrested: men coming to the house late at night with packages and people. Those packages and people being nowhere in the house the next day.

  When Jade was older and bolder, she had found some of her mother’s secret rooms, hidden behind wainscoting and panels and some leading to a complex serious of tunnels under the property around La Bonne Vie. She had also found a book of passwords.

  “Are you doing okay? If you’ve changed your mind, I can drive you back to the farm,” Declan said.

  Jade had been wringing her hands and she stilled them on her lap. It wasn’t a long drive to La Bonne Vie, but the memories hammered at her so viciously, she wished she could scream out loud. The tension in her chest was nearly unbearable. By confronting the past, she could put it behind her. After La Bonne Vie was torn down, she wouldn’t have the opportunity to gain that closure.

  “I’m fine. This is hard for me. There’s a lot about my childhood that still haunts me,” she said.

  Declan reached across the car and set his hand over hers. “I’ll be with you. I called and Allison is on-site too. Is there anyone else you’d like to be with you?”

  His compassion and warmth struck her and she felt a kinship with him. “I can do this. Maybe I can even help.”

  “Help?” he asked.

  “I’m sure you’ve found some of the secret passageways tucked around the main house and the other buildings,” Jade said.

  “Edith and River found some. The construction team has since done a thorough search. They’ve found and closed a number of them,” Declan said.

  “I can show you ones they may have missed,” Jade said.

  “Only if you want to,” Declan said.

  As he turned his sporty car into the driveway leading to La Bonne Vie, Jade’s breath caught in her throat. The house was different than she remembered. It wasn’t as big as it was in her childhood memories. It looked broken, like she and her siblings were, like anyone who was involved with Livia Colton eventually became.

  Construction noises rose around her. Her mother wouldn’t have allowed banging and sawing on the premises when she was in residence. Renovations and additions to the house had been completed when her mother was traveling.

  Declan parked his car a good distance away from the house.

  Jade stepped out. Taking several deep breaths, she reminded herself she was an adult. Livia had no hold over her. Livia didn’t have power over Jade and her siblings the way she had when they were children.

  “She can’t hurt me,” Jade said.

  “What?” Declan asked.

  Jade shook loose the thought of her mother. Thinking about Livia never brought anything positive. Getting sucked into a spiral of negative thoughts wasn’t something Jade could do anymore. She needed her energy to run Hill Country and she needed to overcome her fear of La Bonne Vie.

  “Is it safe to enter anywhere?” Jade asked.

  “Yes. Your choice,” Declan said.

  Jade walked to the front of the house. She didn’t want to enter from the back as if she were sneaking inside. Piles of broken bricks and debris were stacked outside the house. Large Dumpsters were filled with wood, drywall and trash.

  The front porch was crumbling, paint peeling from around the double-door frame. The window to the left was cracked and the window to the right was covered with cardboard. Jade stepped across the threshold.

  The grand staircase had once gleamed in the ornate chandelier fixture that had hung from the center of the two-story foyer. Now, the wood was scuffed, the bannister missing on one side and the chandelier gone, nothing hanging in its place. Livia had loved using the stairs to make a grand entrance to parties. She would gather her guests in the entryway, serve them champagne and cocktails and, when enough people had arrived and the band was playing one of her favorite songs, she would sweep out into the limelight in her couture gown, her hair arranged artfully, and she would descend the stairs as if she were royalty greeting her subjects.

  How the people in Shadow Creek had put up with that, Jade had no idea. It had struck her as odd then, and now she wondered if they didn’t fear Livia, the same way her children had. Jade didn’t realize she had walked up the stairs until she was halfway to the first floor. Her mother’s bedroom had been off-limits. Jade shuddered to think what had gone on in that room.

  Her mother had cheated on all her husbands. She hadn’t been faithful to another human being once in her life. Her words were cruel and her mouth spewed lies, deceit and hate.

  When the details had emerged of Livia’s crimes, Jade had been disgusted and horrified that she had lived in a house where organized crime, human trafficking and drug deals took place. Jade walked to her room first.

  She hated everything about it. For her ninth birthday, Livia had offered to remodel her bedroom and Jade had been excited at the prospect. Seeing her siblings’ rooms, she had thought about colors and curtains. An interior designer had met with her and had sketched a room perfectly suited to Jade. Her anticipation at seeing the final product had been immense; she had slept in Claudia’s room while the work was completed on hers. After three days, she had entered her room and had been met with disappointment.

  The colors and styles she had discussed with the designer were nowhere to be seen. She had turned to her mother, sight blurry through her disappointed tears, and her mother had looked at her through narrowed eyes. “Stop crying.”

  “This isn’t...”

  “This isn’t what? What you wanted? I made it better. What you picked was ridiculous. Horses in a room? Horses stink. They are dirty and they make the people around them filthy. Are you a common stable girl? What do you want to do with your life? To clean up horse crap? I thought you were smarter than that. This room is what I wanted.”

  Jad
e had felt utter defeat, as if Livia’s comments about horses were another insult to her father. She had wiped at her tears and had sat quietly in her bedroom alone until bedtime. When she had been called for dinner, she had pretended to be asleep in her new bed, underneath the purple-and-green bedspread that she’d hated.

  “I wish I could burn this room down,” she said.

  Declan was standing in the doorway. “Some dark things happened in this house.”

  Jade turned, surprised at how much being here was affecting her and bringing to mind memories she had thought were buried. “Everything my mother did or said or touched turned to pain.”

  Declan walked into the hallway and returned with a sledgehammer and a pair of goggles. “I can’t let you burn the place down. Too dangerous. But you can smash whatever you want.”

  Jade slid the goggles over her eyes and took the sledgehammer from his hand. “Really? You’ll let me smash holes in the wall?”

  He shrugged. “Sure. Go ahead. If it gives you an ounce of therapeutic value, then it’s worth it. Just be careful around the window. I don’t want you hit with flying glass.”

  Jade walked to the corner of the room, lifted the tool over her shoulder and swung it at the wall. It was an intensely satisfying sensation and sound. Then she lifted the heavy hammer and swung again. The more that wall crumbled, the better she felt. Her mother flirting with other men and acting smug when her father asked her about it. Another bash to the wall. Fabrizio being hit in the head by Livia. Crashing and banging. Hiding in her bedroom beneath the covers, wishing she couldn’t hear her parents fighting. The sledgehammer tore apart the wall and every loud noise was utterly satisfying.

  When she was finished, she stood in the middle of the room, surveying the damage. “This place looks better.” She was panting and hot, but felt good.

  “Was there something about this room that offended you in particular or just the whole setup in general?” Declan asked.

  He didn’t seem fazed by her destruction of the room, his posture calm, his voice neutral.

  “My mother decorated this room against my wishes. It was another of the hundred ways that she disrespected me. Nothing I said mattered and nothing I did had any value.”

  Declan came closer and brushed debris off her shoulders. “I can’t imagine what it must have been like for you to grow up with Livia Colton as your mother. She hurt many people, and perhaps most appallingly, her children. You’re doing good work at Hill Country. Living in a way that contradicts everything she stood for. You care for your horses. You’re part of the community. I heard two mothers at the Cozy Diner talking about something they do there called Farm Fridays and they seemed excited. You’re doing great work. Whatever your mother did, it doesn’t shadow your life now.”

  Declan knew what a monster her mother was. Livia had tried to kidnap Edith, but the younger woman had been rescued before any real harm could be done. When River had told her the story, Jade had been, and still was, appalled, but not surprised by the attack. It was not beyond her imagination to picture her mother doing any manner of evil. If it suited some end goal, her mother would do it without a care in the world.

  Jade rested her head against Declan’s chest. The outpouring of emotion inside this room had whipped through her. The anger had been exhausted. Now what remained was sadness.

  Some of her friends had complained about their mothers growing up. A few were even jealous of Jade, with her big house and swimming pools and adoration of the town. No one had known her secret. Witnessing her mother kill her father had destroyed her. Money and fame didn’t cover up that deep hurt.

  Sliding her arms around his waist, she felt the stillness of the room settle around her. “My mother was an evil woman.”

  “I’m sorry she hurt you,” Declan said.

  “Me and everyone she came into contact with,” Jade said.

  Declan’s stronger arms banded around her. The heat in the room and smell of broken drywall had Jade’s nose itching. She took a step back from Declan, wondering if she had been inappropriate. He was watching her with that cool stare.

  “Hey, guys.” Allison was standing in the doorway, her smile bright. “What happened in here?”

  “This was my room,” Jade said.

  Allison held up her hands. “Say no more. I think given the opportunity, Knox would do the same thing to his. And if I ever see Livia, I’ll do the same thing to her.”

  Livia had kept Knox and Allison apart in high school by offering Allison a college scholarship. They had grown apart, but a visit to Shadow Creek and a one-night stand had left Allison pregnant with Cody. Allison had kept Cody a secret until Knox found out about him; then the boy had been kidnapped. Livia had been a prime suspect. Though it hadn’t been easy, Jade was glad her brother and Allison had worked things out and were now a family with Cody.

  “I had no idea this house could still affect me,” Jade said.

  “I didn’t even grow up here and the house affects me. I catch myself thinking about what went on here and I feel betrayed. Disgusted. Angry,” Allison said. “Pile on what she did to Cody and Knox. I hope the authorities find Livia first. Because if not, she’ll face me.”

  Guilt plucked at Jade. She’d had nothing to do with Cody’s disappearance, and she had been devastated that he had been taken and it was hard to distance herself from her mother. People lumped the Coltons together—as if, by being related to Livia, they were all tainted. Jade wished she could have done something to Livia, said something to her, to change the course of their family history. Maybe help her to see that riches weren’t the only end goal. Life had many other joyous prospects that were worth pursuing.

  Allison’s phone buzzed and she glanced at it. “We’re working on taking down the pool and filling it in. But the authorities have asked us to be careful.”

  “Because of the electrical lines?” Jade asked.

  Allison paled slightly. “Because there could be bodies. Drugs. Anything out there.” She answered her phone and stepped into the hall. Her voice grew more distant.

  “I can show you a couple of the places where my mother used to hide things,” Jade said.

  Declan gestured ahead of him. “Lead the way.”

  With every step, Jade reassured herself she was strong now. She was not a child anymore. It was daylight and she was surrounded by dozens of people. Her mother wouldn’t come at her in this space. She entered Leonor’s bathroom. Leonor had been her mother’s favorite. They were closer than Jade had been to her mother, and that was something Jade had never understood. She chalked it up to Leonor’s inheritance from her biological father, CEO Richard Hartman, and Livia’s love of money.

  Many of the fixtures had been removed. She knelt in front of the cabinet beneath the white marble sink, dusty with age. Reaching behind the plumbing, she pulled a wood knob to the side. A door behind the cabinet swung open.

  She couldn’t get inside now, but as a child she and Claudia had discovered it. Peering inside, it looked empty. Dust and dirt and cobwebs.

  “What is that?” Declan asked.

  “A secret area of the house. I only found something once. My mother had placed nesting dolls inside. I thought they were cool and maybe she was hiding them for my birthday. When I didn’t get one, I asked her about them. She pretended not to know what I was talking about. I checked that night and they were gone. I didn’t know when she’d moved them or what they actually were, but I suspect she was smuggling something inside them.”

  Jade left the secret door open. She went into Thorne’s room. Thorne hadn’t cared about his bedroom. He had spent as much time as Livia would allow with Mac. Given that the Coltons had been raised by nannies and Livia rarely made an appearance outside public functions, that had meant that Thorne could be with his father often.

  Jade knelt on the floor and ran her hand over the
wood boards. When she found the small notch, she lifted up. Once the first board came free, she could lift the flap built into the floor. It was heavy with the floorboard on top of it.

  A ladder led down into a secret room on the main floor that could only be accessed from Thorne’s room. That then led to another room, which led beneath the house.

  The electricity might not be working down there. The darkness that awaited her at the bottom of the metal rung ladder scared her. This tunnel led out to Fabrizio’s barn, meaning people and items could be moved between the two buildings without the knowledge of anyone watching.

  Could Livia be waiting in those secret, underground tunnels? She had been chased off and it would be ridiculous for Livia to still be lurking around La Bonne Vie. The authorities were looking for her. While the manhunt for Livia Colton immediately following her prison escape from Red Peak Maximum Security Prison in Gatesville, Texas, had been intense, she was a dangerous woman with connections and contingency plans and the smarts to stay one step ahead of the authorities. Thousands of volunteers had combed the woods and hidden areas for Livia and had come up empty.

  “Do you want me to check it out?” Declan asked, pointing to the ladder.

  Jade shook her head. “It leads to the barn. Part of the tunnel could have collapsed. It could be unstable or dangerous, especially with the construction outside.”

  “I’ll get a hard hat and a flashlight and check it out,” Declan said.

  Jade didn’t like the idea, but it was his property. She couldn’t stop him. After grabbing the equipment, he handed her an orange hard hat. He put one on too and went down the ladder. She joined him on the main floor. The walls were drywall. Jade gave a small kick. If she could puncture it, it would be like unveiling another of Livia’s secrets, which felt like she was getting back at her mother.

  Declan set his hand on her shoulder. “Allow me.” He lifted his knee and kicked through the wall.

  Once the drywall had been pierced, it was easy to remove the rest, leaving the wood two-by-fours. They were standing in the secret area in the formal dining room. The dining room was empty; curtains and light fixtures had been removed. Jade had recalled the room being flooded with light during one of Livia’s soirees. Now it seemed dim and ugly, the gold floor tile brown with age and grime. The wallpaper was peeling off the walls, hanging in limp sections.