by J. S. Cooper
“Steve, I don’t know what they’ve been telling you. You know I’m on your side.”
“No, you’re not.” His eyes glazed over, and he looked angry. “I know what you and your father did. I know. I know. I know.”
“Steve . . . ,” she said again, but this time her voice trailed off. She ran to the door and tried to open it, but it was locked. “Let me out, Steve. Let me go get David. Please let me out.”
“I won’t let you go.” He shook his head and turned back to me. I stood there not knowing if his last words had been to me or to Rosie.
“Steve, let Bianca and Rosie go,” Jakob said as he moved to stand next to me.
“Don’t move another inch.” Steve pointed the gun at Jakob. “Or I’ll shoot.” He started laughing again then, and my stomach dropped. “Bianca, I tried to tell you, didn’t I?”
“Tell me what?”
“I tried to warn you that I was the good guy. I am the good guy. I’m working with your dad. I helped your dad. I did this. I did this all.”
“Did what?” I turned to my dad. “What’s going on, Dad?”
“Steve worked for the company.” His voice sounded sad, and he looked at me with a pleading expression. “He was very close with Jeremiah Bradley.”
“I was his intern. His trusted intern,” Steve said. “I was special.”
“Yes,” my dad said carefully, and slowly moved toward me. His dark hair had grayed completely, and he looked like a much older version of himself. It was so weird standing here, staring at him. Watching him talk. Staring into his eyes. My dad. My dead dad. It was surreal, and as much as I loved him, I also hated him. I hated him for making me think he was dead. I hated him for lying to me.
“I don’t understand.” I rubbed my forehead.
“I thought I was special.” Steve’s voice dropped, and he banged his fist against the wall. “I grew up moving from foster home to foster home. Then one day, I get this opportunity out of the blue. I didn’t even know why at first. I didn’t even know. I had parents. I had a brother. I could have had a real life. A real shot.”
“I didn’t know that Steve was Oliver’s son. None of us did,” my father continued, rubbing his temples. “I should have known, of course. I should have known, but I was so caught up in my pain at losing your mother. Everything was so confusing to me.” He looked at Jakob. “And I’d been living with guilt for a long time over your mother.”
“You loved her?” I asked him, my heart stopping.
“As a friend,” he said softly. “Only as a friend. I knew she liked me. I knew that I was walking a fine line between the two women.” He sighed. “I wasn’t perfect.” He hung his head for a few seconds before continuing. “I didn’t really realize how deep things had been, not just for me, but for everyone.” He looked at Steve. “I’m sorry that it came to this.”
“Penny tried to look out for me,” Steve said. “Aunty Penny knew about me. She knew that I’d been given up, but one day she saw me and she just knew I was her nephew. She used to come to Bradley Inc. to speak to Jeremiah. Harass him, you could say.” He laughed. “And one day she recognized me. I used to work a lot with Larry. She recognized me. I looked like my dad, you see. She realized it was me. She took me to the side. She made me promise not to say anything.” He looked young and confused in that moment. “I didn’t really understand. She didn’t tell me much. Just that my dad had worked for the company and that he’d died. She found out I used to work a lot with Larry and that was when she started to get to know him, flirt with him, play him. She did that for me. And she told me that Dad’s best friend had been a guy called Nick London. So I got to know him.”
“I didn’t realize at first.” My dad sighed. “It should have been clear as day, because Steve looked so much like a young Oliver, but all I could think about was Angelina. I didn’t really know the web I was in. I didn’t know.” He looked at me. “I failed you and your mom, Bianca, and I’m sorry.”
“I thought Nick could tell me about my dad, so I asked him about the women Oliver had dated. I wanted to know who my mom was,” Steve continued, almost sounding rational, almost making me feel more compassion toward him than hate.
“I didn’t know why he was asking. Oliver was gay,” my dad said softly. “He had no girlfriends that I knew of.” He shook his head. “Jeremiah had been sleeping with him, leading him on. Trying to use him to ruin me. I knew that, but I didn’t want to tell Steve that. I didn’t want to spread rumors. That wasn’t my place.”
“Why was Jeremiah trying to ruin you, Dad?” I said softly. “Because of you and Mom?”
“I don’t really know why he wanted to ruin my life. I didn’t know he was so depraved. At least at the time I never would have believed he would have been capable of doing the things that he did.” My dad looked sad. “I don’t know that there was a real reason. I mean, yes, superficially Jeremiah wanted to ruin me because he felt slighted that your darling mother chose me. But the thing is, he only started dating your mother once he realized I was interested in her. So it wasn’t as if I took someone he loved. He always wanted to have something over me. I just didn’t realize it until it was too late.”
“So he was jealous of you?” I asked, confused.
“No, it wasn’t even that. Jeremiah just liked to play games. With everyone. He had a sadistic side. He thought he was some sort of god.” My dad looked tired as he spoke, and I just wanted to run into his arms and hold him close.
“But what was his purpose in doing all of this?” I asked, my voice sounding like I was whining. “What did he want from it all?”
“He wanted to prove he was the most powerful man in the world.” My father’s eyes crinkled as he reached out and touched the top of my head. “My darling Bianca. You look so much like your mother. I was scared I’d never see you again.”
“I can’t believe you left me, Dad. I can’t believe you made me think you were dead.”
“It was the only way.” He sighed. “I didn’t want to leave, but once Jeremiah threatened you, I knew you were in danger.”
“He threatened me?”
“My father was going to harm Bianca?” Jakob looked confused. “Why?”
“I don’t know. Maybe he thought Steve and I were becoming too close. Maybe he thought I was going to reveal things he didn’t want revealed. Maybe he just wanted to make sure that I paid once again for going against him. At least that’s what I thought when Steve told me I should leave town.”
“Steve told you that?” I was surprised and looked at Steve. “Why?”
“He was my friend,” Steve said simply. “I trusted him. He told me things about my dad. He told me that my dad had invented the patents and that he wasn’t the one that had created the products. He told me he was trying to get the inventions out of his name. He said it wasn’t right. He said that there were people in the company who had tried to destroy his name.”
“I didn’t realize they were also trying to destroy my family,” Nick said. “I didn’t realize that Angelina’s death wasn’t an accident.”
“She didn’t cheat with Jeremiah, did she, Dad?” My breath caught. “She didn’t have an affair?”
“No.” He shook his head. “Your mother never liked Jeremiah. She loved me. She was always true to me. It was I who failed her.”
“What?” I looked at him in horror. “Please, Dad, tell me that’s not true.”
“I slept with Joanie.” He nodded and looked down in shame. “I slept with Jakob’s mother.” He looked at Jakob. “I’m sorry. I was so sorry. She loved me so much. I was her friend. And I kind of dropped her when Angelina and I got together.” He looked back at me. “Your mother was jealous of our friendship, but Joanie and I got each other. I never loved her, not in that way. I just needed someone to talk to. And one night, it happened.”
“Because these things just happen, right?” Rosie’s voice was sharp as she spoke up. I looked over at her and studied her face, wondering if she really was as cold and callou
s inside as she sounded.
“It shouldn’t have happened,” my dad answered her, rubbing his eyes. When he looked back at me I could see his pained expression. “It was only the one night. I told your mom right away. She was heartbroken. She went to see Joanie. They argued. It was bad—so bad. I hurt them both. And then your mother died”—his voice cracked—“in a car accident, and I was devastated. I blamed myself. She’d been crying that day. I thought she’d been crying so hard she was distracted. I withdrew into myself. Nothing was important anymore.” His voice trailed off. “Don’t hate me, Bianca.”
“So my father killed your wife?” Jakob’s voice was a monotone, and I turned to see how he was taking the news of what had happened. His eyes looked into mine, and all I saw was sympathy. My heart soared that he wasn’t blaming me.
“No, I don’t think it was your dad.” My dad chewed his lower lip. “At the time, I thought it was an accident. And then I did think it was your dad. But, it isn’t your dad that I’m worried about now.”
“Then who?” Jakob said with a frown. I knew he was as confused and overwhelmed as I.
“Larry,” my father said softly. “Larry was the one to worry about. It was always Larry.”
“What are you talking about?” Rosie said, her voice sharp. “My dad didn’t do anything. He’s an innocent victim here. He only got involved to right the wrongs that were done to him. He was always used and left behind.” Her face was twisted. “Stop trying to make yourself the victim. This is all because of you and Jeremiah and your games. You hurt people. You’re the ones responsible for what has gone on here. My dad is a good man.”
“No, he’s not.” My father shook his head. “I know it. And Steve knows it, don’t you, Steve?”
“I don’t know.” His eyes were blank. “I don’t know anymore. You lied to me.”
“Steve, I didn’t lie to you.”
“Then why isn’t she with me? Why doesn’t she love me?” He cocked his gun up in the air and started pacing back and forth. “You said she would love me.”
“I can’t help who my daughter falls in love with,” my father said softly as he moved closer to me. “There will be another woman for you, Steve.”
“I don’t want another woman. I want Bianca.”
“You don’t even know me, Steve. You don’t want me. You don’t love me,” I pleaded with him. “Please just let us go.”
“From the first time I saw your photograph on your father’s desk, I knew,” he said as he gazed at me lovingly. “And then you wrote him that note, and my heart broke into a thousand pieces, for I knew you were the one.”
“What note?” I frowned.
“The note where you told him he was the best dad ever.” He closed his eyes, and he seemed to fall into a trance. “You told him that he was the best dad ever and that you loved him more than words could say. You told him that if you could meet a man like him, you’d be blessed.”
“I did?” I frowned and looked at my dad. “What note was this?”
“It was a Father’s Day card you gave me.” My dad’s face blanched. “I had it on my desk at work, next to your photo.”
“That’s why I gave you all the clues in the notes,” Steve said lovingly. “I knew you would appreciate them. I knew you would see the feelings behind the notes.”
“You left me all the notes?” I said, shocked. “I thought it was Larry.”
“Larry?” Steve scoffed. “Of course it wasn’t Larry; it was me. I tried to help you, Bianca. I tried to let you know the truth without going against your father’s wishes. I even called you on your father’s phone.”
“That was you?” I thought back to the day that the fake policeman broke into my house. “You weren’t the policeman though.”
“No, that was my friend Trevor,” Steve said. “I was the one who called you though. You were making too many silly mistakes; letting strangers into your house and trusting people. I wanted you to be careful. I wanted you to be wary of strangers.”
“Be careful of those who seek to help you. They may do more harm than good,” I said as I recalled the words he’d spoken into the phone.
“You remember!” His eyes lit up, and he walked toward me. “I knew you’d remember. I knew you’d get it.”
“You were warning me about David?”
“David and Jakob.” His voice dropped. “And Rosie. They were all in it together, colluding to bring you down and get revenge. They didn’t know your dad was alive or that I’d told them Larry planned to get rid of him.”
“I thought you said Jeremiah was trying to get rid of us?” I said softly, and stepped closer to him. I cocked my head to the side trying to get Jakob and my father to move to the side of the room. I wanted to make Steve feel like we were the only two people here, to think only of me. Maybe then I could get him to open the door. Maybe then I could get us all out of here.
“Jeremiah didn’t care about anyone. Only himself.” Steve shook his head. “But he wasn’t violent.”
“And he had a conscience,” Jakob spoke up, his eyes burning into mine. I could tell that he wanted to approach Steve, and my eyes issued him a warning to stay back.
“Jeremiah Bradley didn’t have a conscience,” Rosie snapped. “He used everyone to make money and then he dropped them. He was selfish and killed everyone who got in his way.”
“He had a conscience,” Jakob said again, and looked at me. “Think about it. He hired Steve as an intern. I don’t think it was to keep him from revealing anything. Steve didn’t have anything to reveal. He did that because he felt guilty about what he did to Oliver. Just like with me. He gave my mom money, not because he cared about her well-being, but because I was his son and he wanted to provide. He had a sense of duty to those around him. A perverted sense of duty, perhaps, but I don’t think he was a murderer.”
“You’re a smart man.” My father looked at Jakob with respect. “All these years, I was the smartest one in the group, or so I thought, but I was fooled. I didn’t figure it out until recently.”
“Figure what out?” I asked, confused. “What are you guys talking about? Are you trying to say that Jeremiah wasn’t so evil after all?”
“Oh, he was evil, all right,” my father said quietly. “He just wasn’t a killer.”
“So who, then?” My voice trailed off as I realized the answer. It had been there all along. Under my nose. “Larry?” I said softly, and looked at Rosie. “It was Larry, wasn’t it?”
“Shut up, you stupid bitch!” Rosie screamed at me. Her eyes were wild, but I could see that she was starting to realize what we were saying was true. “He would never do that,” she said, but this time her voice wasn’t so confident. I recognized the look of pain and confusion on her face as she waited for my dad’s answer. It was the same way I’d felt when I’d realized that my dad hadn’t been the complete innocent that I’d thought him to be.
“I don’t know what happened to you, Rosie.” My father looked at her. “I didn’t even know you were Brigitta’s daughter until I met up with her one day and she showed me photographs of you. Then I realized you were the same girl who was my Bianca’s best friend. At first I thought nothing of it, but then I began to realize that maybe you had a hidden agenda. Especially after your mother told me you’d stopped talking to her after you’d become close with your dad.”
“She didn’t understand him!” she cried out. “She didn’t appreciate his greatness. No one did. Everyone took advantage of him. He needed me. I was the only one who hadn’t forsaken him. I had to help him. I had to show him that he had someone who loved him.”
“He had his wife,” Jakob said, and she glared at him.
“That woman was not his wife. That woman was a drain on him.”
“So you befriended me to keep an eye on me?” I asked her. “Help me to understand, Rosie. Was our whole friendship fake?” I bit my lower lip as I thought about all the years we’d spent together laughing, shopping, gossiping. How could all of it have been a lie?
“Bianca, why do you think I had to go on so many business trips? Why do you think I had to drink so much when I was around you? You are the most infantile, annoying—”
“Do not talk to Bianca like that!” Steve pointed the gun at Rosie, and she screamed.
“Get that thing away from me. David will be looking for me, and when he finds us, he’ll kill you.”
“David?” Steve said, and laughed hysterically.
I looked at my dad then, still needing more answers. “So are you saying Larry was the one behind everything?”
My dad nodded. “Larry and I met in college. He was Jeremiah’s friend from high school. He was never very friendly, but I thought he was just a snob. I was wrong. Larry was fiercely jealous of Jeremiah, and he hated that he made friends so quickly and easily. Larry hated having to take a backseat to Jeremiah. He wanted to be number one. He wanted everyone to know that he was rich and smart and brilliant. All of the major ideas were Jeremiah’s, but Larry was the one who carried them all out. Larry fixed problems. Even problems that Jeremiah didn’t know he had.” My father sighed. “I wish I’d paid more attention to him. I wish I’d seen the signs.”
“We were all fooled,” Jakob spoke up. “I had no idea that Larry had this other side to him. I had no idea that he even knew what was really going on. He’s smart, I’ll give him that. Manipulative and smart. He made me and David think it was our plan to kidnap Bianca. He made it seem like he was trying to help us get to the truth. He’s the one who told me about Nick and Angelina breaking my mom’s heart. He sowed the seeds and then waited for them to germinate. He was the one out for revenge, and he used us to get it. He played us all.”
“But why?” I let out an exasperated sigh. “What did he hope to get from all of this?”
“He wanted to walk away with the company,” my father said. “His plan was for him and Rosie to own Bradley Incorporated. That’s why she’s dating David. They’re covering all their bases.”
“That’s why they gave me the shares, isn’t it? Larry wanted me to go down for fraud.” I looked over at Rosie, but she didn’t react. She just stood there with a blank face.
