The NSC Boxset: Heart of Stone

by D H Sidebottom

  “Jesus Christ Mother, we . . . Will, Marcus and I were your bloody reward.”

  She reared back and laughed loudly and heartily, “You tell yourself that when you have children, Grace.”

  She narrowed her eyes on me when I flinched and cocked her head but then the cruellest of smile twisted her lips. “Oh my poor Grace. You’ll never experience motherhood, will you?”

  My mouth dried as an intense hatred for this woman started to simmer deep in the pit of my stomach but she seemed unaware as she smirked at me. “What are you now Grace, thirty one? I bet that clock is ticking loudly isn’t it?”

  She laughed again as the hatred now started to seep into my veins and poison my bloodstream, its heat starting the boil of rage that I knew would soon turn into the wrath that always haunted me since the reason for my barren body.

  “Well,” she shrugged casually. “Just think yourself lucky. I’m not too keen on being a grandma anyway.”

  “Oh, you don’t need to worry about that.”

  She blinked at the sinister tone to my voice but then shook herself off and smiled. “I brought you up single-handedly. Both of you were little buggers but I did it and did I get any thanks? Did I hell!”

  She took a deep breath and stared into her glass again, “Will received a letter from his Mother when he reached eighteen. God, he was furious with Robert for keeping it secret. I’d never seen him so . . . strong. It was quite the turn on, I’ll tell you Grace. Your Father was a timid man, could never take control of any situation.”

  She shook her head and grimaced as if remembering her sex life with my Father was something of great disgust. “Will was amazing in bed, he showed me what it felt like to be desired, Grace. I hope you get to experience that at least once in your life, because every woman deserves that, even you.”

  I scoffed at the ‘even you’ part. Little did she know Kade made me feel that way every time I caught him watching me, every time he would just touch me or each time his mischievousness shone through in his eyes.

  “And?” I encouraged when she seemed lost to her past.

  “And . . . I got bloody pregnant! I didn’t have a clue whose it was but somehow Robert found out. He kicked Will out and removed me from the will. How—fucking—dare—he? After everything I had done for him.”

  “I know! It must have been terrible for you.” I mocked as I lit up a cigarette and blew the smoke across the space between us, directly at her. She pouted but slipped an ashtray across the table towards me then glared when I flicked the ash onto the floor and smiled sweetly.

  Another cruel smile marred her face, “I was entitled to that money, Grace. But he just left it to you, Will and Marcus. Luckily, I hadn’t given birth at this point but as soon as I had Marcus, I sent for a DNA test and he actually turned out to be Roberts, of all things crazy.”

  I frowned as her story seemed to get more and more surreal but she carried on regardless. “Well I wasn’t having that! I needed him to be Will’s to exclude him from the will so I put Will down as the Father. That was one less thing to worry about.”

  I nodded in amazement. Was all this about money? It seemed too farfetched to be real but there was more.

  “I managed to struggle through another few years with him but I hadn’t stopped seeing Will. He loved me Grace and after years of being unwanted, I needed that. Anyway, one day Will came up with an idea of how to get our hands on Roberts money.”

  “Kill him and stage your death so Will would be in line to the fortune.” I answered for her and she smiled proudly at me.

  “Yes! Will hated his Mother and we decided to use her as she was roughly the same in looks and size as me, she even had the same hair.” She laughed at this as though it had all been put in place just for her plan. “And of course it would have worked until we discovered Robert had written Will out of the bloody will as well.”

  She turned to me and regarded me deeply. “We of course had to wait before bringing you down. It would have looked too coincidental if we did it right away.”

  I nodded in agreement then frowned at myself. What the hell! I shook my head to clear my thoughts. “Why if you named Will as Marcus’s Father, didn’t you tell Will that Marcus was his?”

  This was the part I was struggling with. To live a lie you have to carry it through in all areas. Her eyebrows rose and she tutted loudly, “Because Will was a fool where children were concerned. Look how he was with you. If he thought for one second that Marcus was his then all our plans would have changed to include him. I couldn’t have that; it took us bloody years to get closer to the chip. Speaking of which, you can hand it over now.”

  I remained seated and stared in amazement at her. “You really are utterly insane.”

  She shrugged and pursed her lips, “Insane or clever, take your pick.”

  I barked out a laugh and shook my head in exasperation, “Bloody hell!”

  She smirked at me, “I was clever where Marcus was concerned though. The stupid little boy really thought it was his Mummy getting beaten to death outside the closet door. His story to the police helped no end, even though we had already bribed the coroner to falsify the records. But Marcus, he was more useful than I could have ever imagined.”

  The wrath that had been smouldering now erupted into a fire of the greatest degree and I flung for her, pinning her back in the chair as I brought the tip of my knife to her neck just below her right ear.

  “Do you even realise what you did to him you heartless bitch? He suffered more than any of us.”

  She didn’t relent, the stupid cow just wouldn’t back down and my heart clenched when she smirked at me. “Something you don’t know Grace, is that I have followed you and Marcus through your entire lives. I know what you did for him. I know he didn’t need me. Why would he when you were there for him, spreading your legs like a little whore just to save your brother’s sorry ass.”

  I closed my eyes and relished in the calm that enveloped me as she continued. “You would do anything to save him wouldn’t you, Grace? Including sleeping with his dealer to pay off his drug debt, a debt that was chasing his tail and threatening his life. And you look at me like I am a whore because I slept with Will. You slept with someone to pay a debt, Grace. I’d say that makes you a first class whore.”

  The rhythm of the pulsing in my veins took control and settled my turmoil as the tranquil aura descended around me and soothed all the anarchy my mind was struggling with. My stomach warmed, feeding me with a sense of inner solace as my breathing levelled out and my heartbeat slowed.

  She had a death wish and I knew she was awaiting death as she kept goading me.

  “And just like me, you got pregnant, didn’t you. I knew you terminated but really Grace, a backstreet baby bin? Even I wouldn’t stoop that low.”

  “You bitch!” I hissed at her and pressed the blade deeper against her throat.

  “Do it! End it Grace.”

  My hand shook violently as I compressed the knife deeper, her eyes widening slightly but then she laughed at me. “You are pathetic, you can’t do it can you!”

  I stared at her, willing my hand to push that bit extra and finish the nightmare I had lived in.

  “Do it,” she goaded further as her eyes glinted manically. “You need to spend your days in a cell, rotting and festering. END IT!”

  My chest was heaving as my whole body strummed with the need to kill her but my heart beat savagely against it, arguing and wrangling against the hatred that ran through my soul. It was too intense and the clash was bringing me to my knees, swallowing me whole as I fought against each conflicting emotion and demand.

  “No” I whispered finally but as I started to move away the knife she wrapped her hand around mine and smirked at me forcing me to close my eyes so I didn’t witness the corruption and depravity inside her.

  “Oh, and one more thing before I join Will, Grace.” She laughed with an evil malevolence and cocked her head. “Robert wasn’t your Father.”

&n
bsp; I opened my eyes and fixed them on hers as she uttered the statement that became her final words and my whole world collapsed.

  “Grant Baxter is.”

  She tipped her head, smiled and then plunged the knife so far into her own neck there was no coming back from it.

  “Noooo. . . .” I cried as my heart stuttered and I fell back, my eyes just staring at her lifeless ones as the shock took me and strangled my windpipe.

  My head was still shaking from side to side as my life dimmed and petered out before me.

  Why couldn’t she have died and remained dead eighteen years ago? Where had all the cruelty in her stemmed from? Were people born that way, was I born that way?

  Her last words swam through my daze as Mason’s face blurred before me and I felt arms surround me.

  Grant Baxter is your Father.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Kade

  GRACE WAS QUIET when they returned and I pulled Mason to one side. “What happened?”

  He shrugged and exhaled deeply, “I dunno. She went in; we followed when I heard a funny noise. Grace was on the floor and her knife was in the side of her Mother’s neck and she hasn’t uttered a word since.”

  I nodded when he patted my shoulder and left me alone with her.

  “Grace.” I whispered as I crouched before her, “What happened, sweetheart?”

  She lifted her eyes to mine and the devastation in them bore through my soul and twisted my heart unbearably.

  “She made fun of me.” Her voice was blunt and level and I cocked my head in confusion.

  “Why?” I asked softly, urging her onwards with the tenderness I knew she needed right now.

  “Because I slept with Marcus’s drug dealer to save his life, and then I got pregnant and I terminated it and they made a mess and now I can never have a baby.”

  It all came out as a jumbled mass and I stared at her. Of all the things I expected her to be upset over, including killing her own mother, it was this she decided to indulge me with.

  “Okay,” I sighed heavily and took hold of her hand. “Well at the moment I’m not sure how to feel about it or even how to help you deal with it because it’s obviously something you need to take in hand and deal with but Grace, after everything that has happened tonight, I think you should be taking care of how you feel about . . .”

  “The death of my own Mother?” she asked as she tipped her head and narrowed her eyes on me. “You can say it Kade. Both she and I knew that’s where it would end tonight. We had both accepted it and she got what she wanted in the end.”

  “And what was that?”

  “To hurt me” she answered frankly.

  I nodded and grasped her chin in my finger and thumb so I could tilt her face towards me and look in her eyes directly, “How did she hurt you, Grace.”

  Her eyes narrowed slightly as they flicked rapidly over my face and she leaned closer to me. “She . . . she told me something,” she whispered as though it was a secret.

  I nodded in encouragement for her to carry on but I released a faint growl when I heard the door open behind me.

  I watched in shock as Grace slowly lifted her eyes to view our intruder then launched from the sofa, knocking me over in her mission to get to whoever had entered.

  “YOU FUCKING BASTARD” She screamed as she leapt at Grant and took them both down.

  I couldn’t move as I watched with a shocked reverence as she began to beat him to a pulp. Her fist crashed into his face over and over and my eyes traced the splatters of blood spray across the room.

  “Whoa!” Mason shouted as he burst in and yanked her back. She kicked and screamed as she struggled to get back to her object of infuriation. “Grace!” Mason snarled as he struggled to hold her.

  Grant scrambled to his feet and looked at her sadly, “I am so sorry, Grace. You have no idea how sorry I am.”

  “Tell that to my Father when you meet him!” she spat, emphasising on the Father part.

  Grant gave her a pained expression and I watched him as he swallowed heavily. “It was a mistake Grace, a drunken stupid mistake. It was once, a moment of weakness that has haunted me ever since.”

  “Did she tell you?” she asked him and I grew dizzy with all the cryptic words between them.

  “Yes, but she swore me to secrecy. She said it would kill Robert and we never spoke of it again but I demanded that I would be your Godparent. I was actually surprised when she agreed. I wanted so much to be a Father to you Grace, but she wouldn’t allow it.”

  My jaw dropped when the latest revelation hit my brain and frazzled it even more. Where the hell would all this end? When would it end for Grace?

  She seemed to calm in Mason’s hold but her face was still full of both anger and hurt. “You should have told me, Grant.”

  He nodded briskly, “I know, I know but when your parents died, I was in prison and then it seemed to get harder and harder as time went on. I’m already a terrible Father to Elizabeth, I’m sure she hates me and who would want a Father like me, Grace? Who’d want a fucking villain and a murderer as a Dad?”

  “Someone who needed one,” Grace said quietly. “A daughter who just wants to be loved.”

  Grant screwed his eyes shut and opened his arms. We all waited with bated breath until Grace took a timid step closer then another until she fell into him and he enclosed her tightly in his arms, holding her so close I thought he was going to break more of her ribs.

  “Oh my God, Grace” he breathed into her hair as they both began to cry. We all went to leave but as we approached the door, it opened and Liam walked in.

  He looked sadly over at Grace then nodded dolefully as he held out an envelope containing passports, fake ID’s and cash, “It’s time to go.”

  She drew in a breath and nodded as she turned to me, “Ready?”

  I nodded in return and smiled as I left her and Grant to say their goodbye’s as I said mine to someone who I knew I would never see again.

  I watched her as a tear trickled down her face but she smiled happily at me. I opened my arms and she walked into them and hugged me back hard. “You promise me that you’ll be happy, Kade.”

  “I promise, Ava.”

  “I know Grace can give you that. I know she can give you what I took away.”

  I smiled and shook my head, “You never took anything from me, Ava. You always gave so much of yourself and for that, I’ll always love you but Grace owns both my heart and my soul.”

  “I know and I’m so happy that you have found what Mason and I have. Don’t ever stop loving her, she needs you and you need her.”

  She drew back and blew out a determined breath as she glanced at Grace behind me. “Please . . .”

  “I promise to take care of him.” Grace finished for her as I held out my hand and she slipped hers into it. “Thank you for keeping him going until I got to him.”

  Ava flung her head back and laughed but then shook her head rapidly as her tears started to stream her face. “Goodbye” she choked out before Mason slipped his arm around her and led her out.

  Grace looked up at me and grinned, “Let’s get this show off the ground.”

  I winked but as she opened the door to leave, Liam shouted after her. “Beaumont!”

  She turned and gazed at him as he smiled tenderly at her, “Job well done. Thank you, Grace.”

  A sob erupted from her but she nodded and then saluted him, “Thank you, sir.”

  They gave each other a respectful nod, then we turned and left.

  Epilogue

  Grace

  2 years later

  THE PEACE WAS amazing, after a hectic day of chasing the damn bloody puppy round the yard, it was so nice to hang and be me.

  I reflected on the previous two years and smiled at what we had actually achieved in such a short period of time.

  We had settled in Italy, not too far for when I wanted to return and see Liam. My Father had retired and joined us, bringing along Nicola to finally make a
n honest woman of her. She had blessed us with a beautiful little boy whom I doted on and he filled my days with joy as Nicola helped Kade manage his IT Company whilst he studied to be a nurse.

  We had buried the chip and had never spoken of it again. It was cursed and it didn’t belong in my new family.

  I looked down and prised my eyes open as I savoured the sight of the wedding band on my finger. I was forever staring at it and it made my heart skip every time I read the words around the edge.

  ‘Fuck, I love you’

  I had laughed happily when he had presented it to me in the tiny chapel where Kade made me his. He had looked bloody hot in his suit and I had been desperate for the ceremony to be over so I could ‘fuck’ my husband. There weren’t many that could say ‘I fucked my husband last night’!

  “Are you ready?” Kade asked and I looked down from my hanging rope cage and sighed happily.

  “I am.”

  He grinned up at me as he took the rope from the bracket and lowered me down, “Good, you’ve been up there over two hours.” He tipped his head at me and his eyes softened as he smiled tenderly, “You are so fucking beautiful Grace Hamilton.”

  “I know!” I grinned back.

  He laughed as he undid my enclosure, then grabbed the hemp holding my body in a tight pose and pulled me towards him, “Any requests?”

  I nodded and he brushed a stray strand of hair from my face. “I want you to love me.”

  He closed his eyes, shivered then reopened them and gazed intently at me, “I’ll always love you Grace, always. Death won’t even cease the love I have for you. You’re my breath, the energy that courses my veins and the food that fuels my body.”

  “I love you back you cheesy bastard. Now make love to your wife.”

  He shook his head at my words but I knew he secretly loved my come backs. He growled playfully and wrapped me up in his arms before lifting me and carrying me out of the basement, or our playroom now it was converted, and straight into the bedroom where he lowered me on the bed gently and spread out above me.