Princess (The American Princess Series)

by Courtney Cole

“Didn’t you?”

  “Um, no. And yes, mom most certainly did close my bank accounts. I left with $85 dollars in my pocket and that was all I had. She told me that if I took my car with me, she would report it as stolen. And I didn’t hear a word from either one of you until mom came to see me at the cafe and told me to come home. You know… after the text incident.”

  Sydney realized that her voice had gradually crept up a couple of octaves and made a conscious effort to calm down.

  “What text incident?” Randall’s brow was wrinkled and he seemed as confused as Sydney felt.

  “The text that you accidentally sent to me instead of to Paul Hayes. Surely you remember.”

  “Sydney, I have no idea what you are talking about.” Her father’s voice was firm. “I haven’t texted you in months. Accidentally or otherwise. Your mother felt that we should respect your wishes and not contact you until you had gotten all of your resentment out of your system. She thought that would be for the best.”

  “My mother. Okay, things aren’t making sense here.”

  The wheels were spinning in Sydney’s head and she couldn’t quite put the puzzle pieces together.

  “It seems to me that mom has been lying to you. Nothing she told you was true.”

  “It appears that you are right, but to what end? Why would she want to drive a wedge between us?” Her father was genuinely puzzled, that much was apparent.

  “Daddy, this is really embarrassing and I don’t want to ask… but..are you gay?”

  Sydney forced the uncomfortable words out, trying not to blush. It didn’t work. Her cheeks were flaming.

  Randall Ross went completely still, his face impassive as he stared at the floor in front of him. After a minute, he asked stiffly, “Why would you ask that?”

  “That was the text. It was a text that appeared to be from you to Paul Hayes, only you sent it to me instead. If you didn’t send it, someone with access to your Blackberry must have. That leaves your assistant or… mom. But why would she do that?” Sydney was beyond confused.

  “Sydney, I’m not gay.”

  Her dad squared his shoulders and looked her in the eye.

  “This is not a conversation that I ever thought I would have with you. But it appears to be necessary now.”

  He took a deep breath and started talking, gazing into space as if he was seeing his memories unfold in front of him. He twisted his thick gold wedding band absently all the while.

  “Another Senator came onto me, a very good friend, months and months ago. We were spending quite a lot of time together trying to draft up a bill that we both felt strongly about.

  “One night, after we had worked too late into the night and had one too many drinks, he tried to kiss me after we walked out of a restaurant. I rebuffed him, of course, but a picture was taken. The photographer has been blackmailing me ever since. I wasn’t a willing participant in that… embrace, but the picture sure makes it look like I was.”

  “Was the senator Paul Hayes?” Sydney asked softly.

  “Yes, it was Paul. And even though I’ve been very angry with him for crossing the line and wreaking so much havoc on me with the blackmailing photographer, the Paul that I know would never victimize a child in the way that you described. I just can’t bring myself to believe it. It doesn’t make any sense.”

  The utter look of bewilderment and betrayal on her father’s face broke Sydney’s heart. So she changed the subject.

  “How does mom fit into all of this? Why has she lied about me? Why do you think she let me think that you were gay?”

  “I don’t know,” Randall admitted, his eyes stark. “Your mother and I haven’t been very happy together for a long time, as you probably know. Even though parents try to hide things from their children, children are usually smart enough to see through it. Your mother and I have grown apart. Although, she stood with me on paying the photographer who was blackmailing me. It would have ruined my career.”

  “And it still will.”

  Jillian’s ice-cold voice came from the doorway. “Well, that and the fact that you are going to murder your own daughter today.”

  Both Randall and Sydney whipped around to stare at her. Jillian stood with one hand on her hip and the other holding a gleaming black handgun. Sydney gasped as her mother’s stormy blue eyes rained hatred at both of them. Sydney instinctively recoiled from it.

  “Murder my own daughter? What the hell are you talking about, Jillian?”

  Randall lurched to his feet and challenged his wife without fear, regardless of the gun in her hand. But Jillian ignored his question.

  “How does it feel, Rand?” Jillian almost sang as she sauntered gracefully forward. Sydney couldn’t stop staring as her mother drew to a stop in front of Randall. She suddenly found it very difficult to breathe.

  Randall glared at Jillian. “How does what feel?”

  “How does it feel to have everything crash down around you?” Jillian smiled a sadistic smile, giving Sydney goose bumps. She had always known that her mother was unfeeling… even cold. But Sydney had not ever been aware that her mother was such an evil, calculating bitch.

  “What is your plan, Jillian?” Randall’s voice was just as cold as his wife’s. “You know that if anything happens to me, life as you know it is over. Is that really what you want?”

  “Oh, Randall. Don’t worry about little ‘ol me. I’ll land on my feet. I’ve been investing money of my own for a long time and so I’m quite wealthy now, if I do say so myself. Even without your money.”

  “Then you also know that when we divorce, I’ll get half of your investments.” Randall smiled a tired smile. “Maybe you’re not as smart as you think you are.”

  “That would only be true if you were alive to divorce me. But unfortunately, Randall, that won’t be the case. Didn’t you notice my little friend here?”

  She made a circle in the air with her gun.

  “I’ll be collecting your life insurance, instead. Much more lucrative. Of course, that will only be after you kill Sydney. I’m a greedy bitch, I admit it.”

  Randall’s face went slack as he realized what she was saying.

  “This is about money? Jillian, think about this. There is no way that you will get away with anything. I’ve already called the FBI. They’re on the way.”

  She laughed a casual, tinkling laugh.

  “Oh, sweet, naïve Randall. Don’t worry. We have a plan. Well, I guess I should say we have a new plan. When Sydney arrived here today with her little entourage, it threw a wrench in our original plan. But we think our new one will turn out nicely. You and Paul are going to turn on us all and we’re going to have to defend ourselves.”

  “We have a plan? Who is we, mother?”

  Sydney tried to keep her voice from shaking, but the shock of everything was bearing down on her quickly.

  “Now, Sydney, I thought you were smarter than that—that you had it all figured out. You were smart enough to escape Harrison, weren’t you? Come on- put the pieces together. I want to watch your face when you figure it out.”

  Jillian’s taunting voice didn’t hold even a shred of maternal love for her daughter. It turned Sydney’s stomach. Realization dumped on her like cold water and she sucked her breath in.

  “You’re with Harrison. You’ve been in on it from the beginning. You wanted me dead. Why?”

  “Well, Sydney. That whole kidnapping thing was your own fault. If you had only decided to release a video to the press as Harrison had suggested, then I wouldn’t have had to draw you into this. But once we had to kidnap you to get it, you sealed your own fate. It’s a good thing I doubled your life insurance when I doubled your father’s years ago.”

  She glanced sideways at Sydney.

  “That was good foresight, I will admit.” Her crimson tipped talon-like fingers gripped her gun tighter as she faced them.

  “Mom,” Sydney interrupted frantically. “You really intend to kill your own family?”

  “I�
��ve never been much of a mother, have I, Sydney? This shouldn’t surprise you too much. My marriage was a lie from the very beginning. Your father only wanted me as a decoration for his arm. And then to find out that he has been gay this entire time? That was a slap in the face that was just too much for me to bear. But lucky for me, as far as anyone else knows, we’re still a perfect, All-American family. Watch this!”

  She quickly contorted her face into sobbing, as real tears streamed down her face.

  “Oh my God…What will I do now? My family was my life. I wish it had been me instead! If only I had known that Randall was involved with such a monster… Maybe I could have helped. But now… it’s too late. They’re gone…my precious baby Sydney…”

  Her voice trailed off as she began wailing heaving sobs. Then she abruptly stopped and grinned at her daughter and husband with wet lashes and a devious smile.

  “Convincing, right?”

  Sydney stared at her mother in disbelief. She was just as crazy as Harrison.

  “Our marriage wasn’t a lie, Jillian. You know that I’m not gay. I’m sorry that you didn’t feel appreciated in our marriage, but that is no reason to call it a lie. You and I were in love once.”

  Randall kept his voice calm as he tried to reason with his wife. Sydney didn’t miss the fact that he had subtly moved in front of her, as if shielding her from Jillian. She appreciated the gesture, but didn’t figure that it made much difference at this point.

  “Yes, once. We were in love and everything was perfect. But then you started dilly-dallying with your assistants and you never made time for me and I finally realized that you never really loved me at all.”

  Jillian sounded tortured for a brief moment before she steeled her tone again. Randall sighed, as if they’d had this same conversation a hundred times before.

  “I did love you, Jillian. I wouldn’t have married you if I didn’t. We simply grew apart, and that happens sometimes. You didn’t want to put the work in to get our relationship back—you just wanted to order me to love you again. And that doesn’t work.”

  “Save it Randall. Just save it. You know that we couldn’t have gone to counseling because that would have leaked to the press. I’ve wasted more tears on you than I should have. And trust me, I haven’t cried over you in a long, long time.”

  “Okay, Jillian. I hear you. You’re upset with me- you hate me. That’s fine. Maybe I deserve that. But our daughter… Jillian, she didn’t ask for any of this. You should let her go. Right now.”

  “I can’t, Randall. How in the world would I go about that? It’s too late. She shouldn’t have gotten pregnant and caused me a headache. If you think about it, she really brought all of this on herself. And so did you, Rand. If you had only loved me like you should have, I wouldn’t have been forced to turn to him.”

  Jillian’s voice turned to a whimper and Sydney’s heart felt as though it had stopped beating as she realized the extent of her mother’s delusion.

  Her mother’s glittering blue eyes had lost any semblance of logic or reason. Instead, they had the glazed-over gleam of a psychopath. Panic overwhelmed her as she glanced at the door. She kept expecting help to arrive at any minute, but so far the door frame had remained empty.

  “Are you expecting someone, Syd?” Her mother’s smile was malicious. “I wouldn’t. While you were taking your leisurely soak, I put a sedative in everyone’s tea. They’re peacefully sleeping while we wait for Harrison to arrive with Paul. Don’t worry, no one will feel a thing. They won’t even wake for their last breaths.”

  Jillian laughed a maniacal laugh as Sydney’s heart started furiously skipping beats.

  “Not Stephen. Right, mother? You haven’t hurt Stephen?”

  Jillian only laughed and Sydney’s shoulders slumped as all hope abandoned her. The love of her life was dead or very close to it. She had lived through a kidnapping only to be murdered by her own mother for which her father was going to be framed shortly before being murdered himself.

  This couldn’t be happening. But it was.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  “Drink it.” Jillian thrust a heavy glass at Sydney.

  They were standing in the cheerful, sunny kitchen, after Jillian had forced Sydney and her father downstairs at gunpoint. The atmosphere was anything but cheerful, however.

  Jillian’s expression was murderous and Sydney’s stomach was quivering now to the point that she thought she was going to vomit. Randall seemed as though he was on the verge of strangling his wife regardless of the gun in her hand. He wasn’t accustomed to being rendered powerless.

  “No.” Sydney shook her head.

  “Drink it.” Jillian repeated through gritted teeth. “You won’t like the consequences if you don’t.”

  “Or what, mother? Will you kidnap me? Too late. You’ve already done that. Will you kill me? Oh, wait- you’re going to do that anyway. You just want to do it when I can’t look you in the eyes. If you want to kill me, do it now. I want to be awake for my last breath.”

  Sydney couldn’t keep the sarcasm and bitterness out of her voice as she stared her mother right in the eyes. She was exhausted, her mother was going to kill her and she was terrified that Jillian had already killed Stephen. This was the mother of all bad days.

  “Jillian,” Randall began. “You don’t have to do this. You really don’t. So much has gone unsaid over the years that I think that it’s just gotten out of hand. How about… you and I go somewhere alone and discuss this?”

  Jillian looked at him as though he had lost his mind. Sydney had to wonder herself what in the world her dad had hoped to accomplish. Obviously, Jillian had come too far now. There was no way she could let either of them live. And she was beyond reasoning with. That much was clear.

  Before anyone could say another word, voices approached the kitchen and Sydney tensed in anticipation. Maybe Stephen was alright after all. Was he hunting for her?

  Her eyes were frozen on the doorway as her breath caught in her throat. But her hope died yet again as Harrison’s lean body entered the room, shoving a very frightened looking and rumpled Senator Paul Hayes in front of him. The senator had a large bruise forming on his left cheek and there was dried blood on the corner of his swollen lip as he nervously looked around the room.

  “Get over there, dad,” Harrison sneered as he shoved his step-dad toward Randall and Sydney. Paul stumbled over his own shoe and Randall reached out to steady his elbow.

  “Paul, are you alright? They’re saying horrible things about you. That you did… unspeakable things.”

  The uncertainty was obvious on Randall’s handsome face as he pulled his hand away from Paul’s arm and watched him for a response.

  “Randall, you have to believe me. These two are sick! I didn’t touch him. I’m not a pervert. I would never touch a child- it’s ludicrous. You know me, I wouldn’t. But they’re behind that picture… the one that you were so angry with me with? Harrison hired that photographer. And that’s my fault because I crossed the line that night. I’m sorry, Randall.”

  The anguished look on Paul’s battered face was so sincere, that Sydney believed him in an instant. His eyes were kind and tortured as he gazed at Randall. Sydney could tell that her father believed him, as well. The relief on his face was visible to anyone.

  “It doesn’t matter now, does it, lovebirds?” Harrison growled. “The truth, that is. The only thing that matters now is the truth that the public hears. My truth. And that truth is that you were having an illicit affair. We have pictures to prove it. My old man molested me for years and was quite sick. He even had a secret house on the edge of Gary to hold victims in. Such as the poor girl, Deidre.”

  “Yes, poor Deidre,” Jillian purred. “You’re a sick, sick man, Paul.”

  She stood on the edge of the group, her gun held loosely in her hand as she observed the scene in front of her. She almost seemed amused.

  “You make quite a team,” Randall stated, as though he were bestowing a compliment
. “You know, it is clear to me why my wife would be involved in this. But why you, Harrison? What have we done to you to deserve any of this?”

  “Why do you feel as though you deserve an explanation?” Harrison asked, as he leaned casually against the marble counter. “Although it should be obvious. Last year, when my dear step-father found out that he has cancer, he changed his will. And I’m not in it.”

  “You have cancer?” Randall turned to Paul in astonishment, who appeared resigned as he nodded tiredly.

  “I didn’t want to upset anyone yet. There was no sense in it, since there isn’t anything that anyone can do. It’s untreatable. The doctor gave me a year at the most.”

  “Yes, a year. And a year isn’t very long to stage this whole thing. But we managed to pull it off, didn’t we, Jillian?”

  She nodded at Harrison in satisfaction, not taking her gun off of the group as she beamed at her accomplice.

  “But I still don’t understand why.” Randall persisted. “Why did you want to stage all of this? He already took you out of the will. What will you accomplish by killing him? Revenge?”

  “How can a US senator be so stupid? I’m embarrassed by our elected officials, truly.” Harrison shook his head.

  “I needed to stage this in order to make my mother feel sorry for me—that her poor son was so traumatized by having his dear step-father molest him for years and then turn on him that she will leave everything to me with a little bit of gentle persuasion. It won’t take much. She’ll be overcome with guilt for allowing such abuse to happen under her nose. And then, of course, I’ll kill her, as well.”

  “I can’t believe that any one person can possibly be so heinous.” Randall glared at him.

  “You don’t know the half of it, daddy.” Sydney interjected. “He’s an evil person. He kept Deidre locked up for God knows how long, raping her every day, not feeding her. Mother, you really know how to pick them. How did you two find each other, anyway?”