“Why you little!” Trent reached for Sam, but Noelle stuck her foot out and tripped him.
“Keep your hands off him!” Noelle said.
Trent scowled at her. “Edward you better control your little sweetie over here before I—”
Without warning, Noelle landed a right hook on Trent’s jaw. “Don’t call me sweetie!”
Trent got to his feet, rubbing his jaw. He took a step toward Noelle, but Edward blocked him.
“Noelle, what’s gotten into you?” Edward asked.
“I’m tired of pretending. I’m tired of keeping secrets. I wanted to tell you and J.B. who I really am, but I couldn’t. I was worried about my dad. When he showed up, I was afraid you’d hurt him if I told you.” She turned to face Sam. “I thought you were dead. Trent told me what they did to you, and I had a dream you were lost in these woods. I came looking for you. When I saw you, I thought you were something I created from my own fears. This forest does that somehow. I didn’t think you were real.”
Sam was Noelle’s father! Of course! He’d said the squirrels chewed through his watch—the watch Noelle had found. It also explained Noelle’s reaction when we’d first seen Sam. But why had Sam helped Morgan? And how had my dad gotten involved? My head felt like it might explode.
Everyone stared wide-eyed as Sam removed his jacket, covered in squirrels, and gently placed it on the ground. He walked over to Noelle and hugged her. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. I never meant to put you through all this.” Noelle sobbed in her dad’s arms.
“What’s going on?” Morgan yelled. “Who are all you people?”
Sam draped one arm across Noelle’s shoulders. “We’re Granvilles, and that’s our fortune you’ve found.”
Noelle turned to me. “My ancestor, Sebastien, stole this from his family a long time ago, dooming his descendants to be cursed until it was returned.”
I knew the story. I’d read about it in Dad’s journal, and I’d had visions about the curse. Now, here we all were. Together. The three cursed families that started this. The three cursed families that had to end this.
“And who are you?” Morgan growled at my father.
“Bruce Beaumonte.”
“Beaumonte? I should have known.” Morgan let out a primal yell.
Noelle smiled at me. “I figured out who you were when we were spying on the camp. Holly mentioned your ancestor and you guys being cursed.”
I remembered the look on Noelle’s face when Holly had told her. Now I understood why she’d gotten so upset.
My dad put a hand on Noelle’s shoulder. “I recognized you immediately. Your father carries your picture with him, and he looks at it every chance he gets.”
“You two were working together to find the fortune,” Morgan said through gritted teeth.
Dad nodded. “We knew you’d keep it for yourself instead of returning it and breaking the curse. We’ve been working as private investigators for years, with you being our top case. Of course, you didn’t make things easy for us, seeing as you captured our kids.”
Dad looked at Holly and me, and I could barely fight back the tears. It had been lie after lie. He wasn’t a lawyer. He was a private investigator. He’d been leaving me to spy on the Grimaults. I figured it was better than being a thief, but Dad was as much a stranger to me right now as he was to Morgan.
Morgan lunged at Dad. I grabbed the loaf of bread sticking out of Dad’s pocket, hoping it was stale. Stepping forward, I swung it at Morgan’s knife. The bread shattered, leaving crumbs in my hands. I blew the crumbs in his face, aiming right for his eyes. I’d hoped to temporarily blind him, but the crumbs scattered and stuck to the sweat on his cheeks and brow instead. Sam’s squirrels chittered and leaped onto Morgan, nibbling at the breadcrumbs.
“Get them off me!” Morgan screamed. He fell to the ground, dropping his knife, and swatted at the squirrels.
“I wouldn’t move around so much,” Sam said. “They have sharp teeth!”
“Garret! Edward!” Morgan yelled. Garret and Edward didn’t move. The corners of Trent’s mouth twitched as he fought back a smile. He must’ve been enjoying this after all Morgan had put him through.
Realizing he was on his own, Morgan buried his face in the dirt, scaring most of the squirrels away. He grabbed for his knife on the ground in front of him. Dad went for it, too, but Morgan was closer. I picked up what was left of the bread and flung it on Morgan’s back. This time the vulture swooped down for it, pinning Morgan to the ground.
Dad pulled me away from Morgan. “Thanks, J.B., but I’ve got it from here,” he said. I wanted to hug him, but I couldn’t move.
Dad and Sam grabbed Morgan’s arms and yanked him to his feet. Garret drew his knife and advanced on Holly. She screamed as he wrapped one arm tightly around her shoulders and placed the knife against her cheek.
“Let my father go or she dies!” Garret yelled.
Dad and Sam stared in horror. “Easy now,” Dad said in a soft voice. “No one has to get hurt.”
“That’s right,” Garret agreed. “As long as you stay out of our way. We’re taking the fortune, and we’re leaving. If you can’t agree to that, it’ll cost you her life.” He squeezed Holly, and she started to cry.
Sam, Noelle, my dad, and I all looked back and forth at each other. As much as we wanted to return the Granville fortune and break the curse, we couldn’t trade Holly’s life to do it.
Trent walked toward my dad and motioned for him to let go of Morgan. Dad looked at Holly and released his grip. Sam did the same. Garret pushed Holly to the ground and rushed to his father’s side. Noelle and I helped Holly up, and our fathers stood protectively in front of us. We faced each other in two groups. The Grimaults versus the Granvilles and Beaumontes. With one exception. Edward stood in the middle.
Morgan glared at his son with even more disapproval than I’d seen him give Trent. “Choose your side, but make sure you’re certain. If you turn your back on me now, you’ll no longer be a son to me. You’ll be my enemy.” He spoke slowly, making sure Edward understood each word.
“Edward, come on!” Garret begged.
Noelle mouthed something to Edward. I figured she was asking him to stay with us. Part of me wanted him to. After all, he did seem different than the rest of his family. He was more human than they were.
Edward looked at me, and then he turned to Noelle and whispered, “I’m sorry.” He rushed to the chest and grabbed an end. Garret smiled and took the other. Together, they picked it up and walked off. Dad and Sam started to protest, but Morgan put his hand up to stop them.
He motioned for Trent to follow Garret and Edward, leaving him alone with us. Morgan smirked. “Those branches look like a huge claw reaching down to squeeze you all in its fist!” he yelled, focusing his eyes on the limbs dangling over our heads. Without waiting to see his creation, Morgan took off after his family and the Granville fortune.
We tried to run, but the transformation happened too quickly. In one swift motion, we were scooped off the trail by the large leafy claw. The finger-like branches tightened around us. Sam and his vulture were near my right shoulder. The vulture released its feet from Sam’s neck and clawed at the leaves, ripping them to shreds. It had the right idea. The branches were too thick to break, but the leaves were easy to damage. I started biting the leaves in front of my face, spitting them out and going back for more. I must’ve looked like a savage animal, but it seemed to be working. I could feel the tree’s grip on me weakening. “Rip the leaves!” I yelled. “It should make the claw release its grip.”
Dad’s left arm was free, and he yanked handfuls of leaves at a time. Holly jumped at the opportunity to bite something. Sam and Noelle were pinned together with very little wiggle room, but they did their best. Leaves flew through the air. We had to be close to making the branches bare, but the tree wasn’t letting go.
I looked at Sam and Noelle. They were the only ones facing the bottoms of the branches.
“Try to break the ends of the branches. They’re the thinnest points. Maybe it will weaken the tree enough to free us!”
Noelle managed to get one hand around a branch. She looked like she was arm wrestling with it. Finally, I heard a snap. Noelle and Sam fell to the ground. Sam whistled to the vulture. In seconds, I felt the bird’s beak biting the branch behind my head. The tree snapped again, and I fell. The vulture continued to break the branches until we were all free.
The bare branches hung lifelessly toward the ground. It was over. Of course, since the Grimaults stole the Granville fortune, we were still cursed, so the future didn’t look good for any of us.
Dad put his hand on my shoulder. “You okay, J.B.?”
I nodded.
“Let’s go home,” he said, giving me a half smile.
No one said a word as we made our way back to Bradley Park and out of the forest for good.
Chapter Twenty
I didn’t fully remember leaving Braeden Forest or even saying goodbye to Noelle and Sam, but I woke up in the morning safe in my own bed. My thoughts were so cloudy I wondered if it all had been a bad dream. Something my overactive imagination had cooked up. I threw on clean clothes and went to check on Holly. She was sound asleep when I walked into her room, but the worn-out look on her face told me Braeden Forest hadn’t been merely a nightmare. It’d been a real-life horror Holly and I had lived through for several long days.
“How are you feeling, pal?” Dad asked from the doorway.
I turned to face him, unsure if I even recognized him after all I’d been through. He looked completely exhausted. Exactly how I felt. “I don’t know. Are you asking as my dad? Or as Bruce, the thief? Or how about as a private investigator?”
Holly moaned and opened her eyes. “What’s going on?”
“It’s okay, sweetheart. You’re home now,” Dad said. He walked over and brushed the hair from Holly’s face.
“No, it’s not okay!” I exploded. Everything that had happened left me questioning who my dad really was. I felt betrayed and couldn’t hold back my feelings any longer. “Why didn’t you tell us about the family curse? Why did you go after the Grimaults by yourself? Why did you pretend you didn’t know us?”
“Whoa! One question at a time,” he said, putting his hands up in surrender.
Holly sat up in bed, and I sat next to her so we were both facing Dad, who slumped down at the foot of the bed.
He took a deep breath before he began. “First of all, I’m not a lawyer. I work as a private investigator.”
“Why the secrecy?” I asked. “You could’ve at least been honest about your job.”
“Sam and I only take on special cases, and Sam uses a fake name to conceal his identity as a member of the Granville family. Our primary goal has always been to recover the stolen Granville fortune and break the curse that’s plagued our families for years. We had to be secretive so the Grimaults didn’t discover who we were or what we were doing. If Morgan heard about two private investigators in the area, he would’ve gotten suspicious. So, we told everyone we were lawyers. It’s all been kept very secretive to stay off Grimault’s radar. It’s not a great life, but we have the curse to thank for that.”
“And what exactly is the curse?” Holly asked. “What does it do to us?”
“You saw what the forest could do. Well, the curse was helping fuel that power. Our biggest fears come to life. Holly’s fear of hospitals. My fear of not being able to provide for and protect you. Your mother’s fear of things falling to pieces.” Dad looked at me, probably wondering how the curse affected me. I turned away. I couldn’t admit to my fear—that I was losing my mind.
I thought about how this had all started. “You were at the park when that guy came wandering out of the forest. That wasn’t a coincidence. You knew he’d be there.”
Dad lowered his head. I could tell he was sorry for betraying us. “You have to understand I was trying to protect our family. Sam and I had to make sure the forest was cut off from the public. We didn’t want any innocent people to get hurt wandering into the woods and coming across one of the Grimaults. Sam has a connection at the police station, so he was able to get released even after he’d convinced everyone he’d lost his mind. The second they let him go, he went into the forest to find Morgan.”
Sam was the crazy man at the park. I hadn’t even recognized him underneath all the dirt.
“But why did Sam go looking for the Grimaults on his own?” I asked.
“He insisted on it. He thought it’d be best to get on the inside and help Morgan locate the fortune. I was supposed to come in and help Sam recover the fortune and break the curse. I felt awful when he didn’t return. If anything had happened to him, it would’ve been my fault.”
“Something did happen to him. They tortured him! They tied his hands and left him to be eaten!” Dad put his head in his hands. I knew this had been tough on him, too, but I needed to understand what had happened in the forest, no matter how difficult it was for him to talk about.
“Noelle went into the forest to search for him. She could’ve been killed! All because you and Sam lied to us!” I couldn’t control my anger. I knew Dad and Sam had thought they were protecting their families, but they’d ended up putting us in more danger.
“I didn’t have a choice. Only your mother knew the truth. The Grimaults have been coming here for generations to search for the fortune. They’re greedy people. They knew the fortune would be difficult to find without all the maps, but that didn’t stop them from trying.”
“Where did you get a map?” Holly asked.
“I drew it. Sam and I had been in the forest numerous times, and we chose a place to use as the setting for a fake map. It was a long shot, but I had to bring Morgan something that would make him accept me as the son of his father’s friend.
“It wasn’t until much later that I discovered I really did possess a piece of the treasure map. I knew Aristede made the painting of the forest,” Dad said, looking me in the eyes. “The one from our living room. But I had no idea it was part of the treasure map until Edward showed me the other maps back at the campsite. After talking to Edward, I went back to Bradley Park, intending to head home and retrieve the painting, but I found the painting on the merry-go-round where you’d left it. That’s when I got your mother’s panicked voice mails on my cell. She said you two had taken the painting and were missing. I knew you’d gone into the forest, so I had to find you and the fortune. When I came across the Grimaults holding you captive, I had to pretend I didn’t know you so Morgan wouldn’t harm you.”
“So, you did wink at me?” I asked.
“Yes. I wasn’t sure if you saw that, but I wanted to give you a sign I was there to help. Luckily, you played right along.”
“We weren’t playing along. We thought you were really a thief. We were terrified!” Holly said, squeezing the sheets in her fists.
“I’m sorry, honey. I wanted to tell you, but I couldn’t chance Morgan hurting you.”
“Why did you stop us when we tried to escape?” Holly asked.
“You saw what that place is capable of creating. It was too dangerous to let you wander through the forest alone.”
My mind was racing trying to make sense of it all. I nearly kicked myself for forgetting to ask about Noelle. “How’s Noelle? And Sam?”
Dad laughed. “Is this your first crush or did I miss one along the way?”
Man, I thought one girl was pretty and everyone had to get on my case about it.
“Noelle is fine, J.B.,” Dad said. “I spoke with Sam this morning. You can call her later if you’d like.”
I wasn’t even sure she’d want to talk to me after all that had happened, but I was glad she was safe. One question still bothered me. “Why did we have that old painting in our living room?”
Dad folded his hands in his lap. “Jean Beaumonte helped steal the Granville fortune, as you now know.” He gave me a st
ern look and added, “By the way, I want my journal back.” I swallowed hard, expecting a lecture on stealing, but Dad continued with his explanation. “Everyone in our family has tried to find the Granville fortune and return it so we could break the curse. We discovered Aristede’s painting, and it’s been passed down with each generation of Beaumontes as a reminder that we had to stop the Grimaults from stealing the Granville fortune again.”
“So this is a family business, just like the search for the fortune was in the Grimault family?” I asked.
“Yes. I was hoping the curse would be broken before you were old enough to join the search. But now that the Grimaults got away with the fortune—”
“Anyone hungry?” Mom walked into the room carrying a tray of milk and blueberry pancakes. She placed the tray on Holly’s nightstand.
“Mom!” Holly cried. She jumped up and hugged her. I tried to hold back and act tough, but I couldn’t fight the urge to hug my mom.
“I’m so happy you two are all right. I was so worried about you,” Mom said. Tears streamed down her cheeks.
“We’re sorry we lied to you,” Holly said.
“I think your father and I are partially to blame. We shouldn’t have kept this from you,” Mom said.
We all sat on the bed, and Holly and I dug into the pancakes.
“How are you part of this, Mom?” I asked with my mouth full.
“I worked with your father up until you were born, J.B. Then, I upgraded to a better job.” She squeezed my hand and Holly’s. I wasn’t sure I’d consider being a mom an upgrade, but she sure seemed to love it.
“What about the journal? You wrote it,” I added.
“I still help out, doing research, keeping notes, things like that.”
I still wondered about one thing. “Why did you let us hang out at the park if the forest was dangerous?”
Dad sighed. “All your friends hung out there. It would’ve been too difficult to stop you without telling you about the curse. Plus, the Grimaults used the seaside entrance to the forest, and they never would’ve exposed themselves to a park full of people. The park itself was safe.
Curse of the Granville Fortune Page 11
