In Love with a Stranger

by Rose von Barnsley

  “Then maybe not near, possibly far?”

  “Far? Why are you even suggesting this?”

  “I’m a mother, William. To have your children taken from you, even the threat…” I started crying and knew it was the hormones. I was a mess, gutted when I‘d read Henry had wanted to kidnap my daughter. I didn’t doubt he’d threatened Emmaline with a similar plot at some point. She might not have been right in the head, but I couldn’t see how it would be possible to stay sane after living with a man like that for decades. “Don’t have her visit our daughter, but you meet her for tea and speak to her about her. She’s your mother. Don’t let your father take her babies from her.” I grabbed his sweater and started crying even harder. “Don’t let him take her babies.”

  He scooped me up and cradled me in his lap. “I only want to keep you both safe.”

  I nodded my head in understanding. “I want my baby safe, too, both of them.”

  “I don’t trust her.”

  “Did she ever hurt you? Do you think she’d try something?” I asked worried.

  He hugged me tightly and kissed the top of my head, not answering. He finally let out a sigh. “Let me think on things, beautiful. I don’t want to put my family at risk. I want to look into everything, before I even consider visiting with her myself. I don’t want her trying to slip in like she did today. If my father can really employ his talent of control and keep her away, I think we should use it. I’ll approach her on my own, when I’m ready, and not a moment sooner.” He rubbed my back and kissed my head again.

  “I’m such a mess,” I muttered.

  He chuckled. “You’re too tender-hearted for your own good, but I suppose that’s one of the reasons I love you. Of course, you may change your mind in a few hours. I hear women are fickle when they’re pregnant.”

  I scowled at him.

  “Wishful thinking, beautiful, wishful thinking.”

  Chapter 28 – Threats and Promises

  WILLIAM

  I didn’t wait to be let into my parents’ home. I charged right in and burst into my father’s study.

  “What do you have on my mother?”

  “It’s none of your concern.”

  “She said you’d keep her from us.”

  “I don’t believe the states are safe yet. I’ll not have her chasing you off until the matter with the fire is settled. If I have to keep her away, so be it.”

  I laughed blackly.

  “We’ll keep our distance. We’ll stay out of your lives, William. Don’t put your family at risk, because you’re upset with us.”

  “We’re at risk by staying here around you!”

  He rubbed his face. “I’d never hurt your family.”

  “To late for that.”

  “I never meant to...”

  “All you do is hurt people. That’s your whole life’s work,” I pointed at the hidden room.

  He closed his eyes.

  “You think you’re God, but you’re not. You’ve ruined so much already.”

  “Hindsight is twenty-twenty. I’m doing what I can to make it right.”

  “When we were kids, did you threaten to take us away from mum?” He was quiet for too long. I shook my head. “You’re a sick man.”

  “There were extenuating circumstances.”

  “Which were?” He didn’t say anything. “Answer me, for all that’s holy, you owe me that! Why would you to keep us from mum?”

  “It has to do with what’s in her file. I won’t expose her like that.”

  “More secrets, more lies!” I accused.

  “She was going to leave me!”

  “She should have!”

  “You were my son, my child. She turned on me. I couldn’t have her turning you on me as well. I couldn’t stand for you to hate me.”

  “It’s too late.”

  “It wasn’t then. I had a good reason. I had a very good reason.”

  “Did she plan on hurting us?”

  “No, but I won’t discuss it further. Her file is sealed.”

  I scoffed. “No, it looms over her head.”

  He nodded. “I do keep it over her head. She needs to be kept in place.”

  “Do you hear yourself?”

  “Your mother and I have our issues, they’re ours alone and not your concern.”

  “It is if there’s a mad woman trying to mess with my family.”

  “So you’ve decided against her…very well.”

  “What did she do to make you threaten to keep her children away from her?” I had to know.

  He frowned and shook his head. “It’s not an issue anymore. You’re grown. If you don’t want my assistance to keep her away, then I’ll stand back and let you deal with her on your own.”

  “Tell me.”

  “You’ll have to ask her yourself. I’ve promised to not speak of it. I may be a lot of things, William, but I’ve always kept my word to your mother. Ask her if you want that information, but don’t expect her to speak freely on the matter. It was a difficult time in her life, in our marriage. I don’t necessarily blame her for her actions. I have other things…I’d never hold that over her head. It’s not right. It’s not something I’d exploit, not anymore.

  “If you want her to stay away, I’ll tell her to. I don’t need to force her. She won’t want to drive you into danger, either. You’re safe here. I hope you’ll consider staying until the fire mess is handled.” He opened a drawer and drew out another file. “I’ve got another report for you. I’ll keep you updated on what I find. I can send the rest by post. You don’t have to come here,” he frowned again.

  “Give me the files on my family.”

  He didn’t even bother to fight me, he just opened the hidden room and pulled them all out, including one marked Penelope Greyson. I was honestly surprised he passed them over so easily. “Do you have another copy?”

  “Just of your pictures, yours and Penelope’s. I kept the files locked up. I didn’t want anyone to try and use the information to hurt our family. I never entered it into my computers. They’re at too high of a risk to be hacked.”

  “I don’t want you anywhere near my family, and that includes everyone you employ as well. I want nothing to do with you.”

  He nodded, glassy-eyed. “If you stay here, I won’t interfere, other than to investigate the fire, but you can’t ask me to hold back any security measures if you return to the states. You’ll never know they’re there.”

  “Don’t you dare…”

  “I just want to keep you and your family safe, William. If you don’t let me employ security, at least employ it yourself. Don’t let your pride put your family at risk. You may hate me, but that doesn’t change the way I feel about you and your family.”

  “You’re impossible!”

  He just nodded his head.

  “Stay away from us,” I ordered.

  “As you wish.”

  I turned to leave, only to see my mother crying silently into a hanky. She glared at my father before shaking her head and running away. Her loud sobs echoed down the hallway, and I did my best to tune it out as I left. I didn’t want to think on it, and I sure as hell didn’t want to think on what Hannah had said the night before. My parents were raving mad, and I needed to hang on to that to keep my family safe. I wouldn’t let my wife’s tender heart hurt my family. I knew she wouldn’t mean to, but it wasn’t a risk I was willing to take.

  When I arrived home, I heard my wife snapping at someone. “There’s no way you didn’t know. Don’t feed me your bullshit, it was in his file.”

  “File?” It was Duncan.

  “His father kept a file on William and every way he interfered in his life. You were listed. You were the spy brought in to report on him after my disappearance.”

  “No, absolutely not. I’d never do that, and I’d never get involved with anything his dad did.”

  I stepped into the room, shocked by her accusation. Neither noticed my presence.

  “How the he
ll do you explain your convenient pairing with William, then?”

  “It was my job. Mr. Victor set me up as his partner, said he was struggling with personal issues and needed a hand. That was it, there was no involvement with his dad.”

  “I call bullshit!” she snapped again. “It’s in his file, along with your reports.”

  “Reports? I’ve never written up a report on William, for anything!”

  “Really, so how did he know that William was drinking a lot, but you didn’t think he was an alcoholic, and he liked to keep to himself?”

  “The only time I’ve ever said anything to anyone about William’s drinking was when I was first paired with William, and Mr. Victor wanted a peer review after a trip. He specifically asked me about what happened after hours, and if I thought it’d affect his work performance. I said no. The performance reviews I turn in now are all just lame crap that has nothing to do with anything but work. I know he turns the same crap in on me, too. It’s just standard procedure.”

  “No, it isn’t,” I cut in. “I’ve never done a performance review on you.”

  He looked at me confused. “Yeah, you have, you’ve had to. It’s part of our travel packets. We turn them in with our expense reports.”

  “No, we don’t.”

  “You mean I’ve been on my best behavior around you all these years for nothing? I could’ve taken off with those twins in Manchester, skipped out on our morning meeting and not gotten in trouble? That sucks, because I so wanted to get smashed with pair of them.”

  “If what you do now is your good behavior, then I don’t want to see your bad behavior. Who did you turn the reviews in to?” I asked. I didn’t think Duncan would ever knowingly betray me like that.

  “Mr. Victor himself. He wanted them. He’s a bit obsessive and controlling, but-”

  “Your father has a file on George Victor,” Hannah cut in.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” I huffed.

  “I’m sorry, William. It’s very clear in your file that not only George, but all of the board members, are under your father’s control, but you were promoted for your talents. George made sure of that.”

  That really wasn’t comforting. I picked up my file off the counter, and Hannah rested her hand on my arm. “If you’re going to read that, maybe have a drink with you and keep in mind that your father did everything out of love. Sick, twisted and insane love, but still love. Don’t let him taint your happy memories by what you read in there.”

  “Your words aren’t helping to settle me down.”

  “No, I suppose not.” She looked over at the counter and saw I had the actual hard copies of the files. “How did you get those?”

  “He gave them to me, along with another file on the fire and Penelope’s.” She quickly dug through them and pulled out our daughter’s file. She opened it flat on the counter, and I couldn’t help but smile at the pictures he had of her.

  Hannah didn’t seem as pleased. “Oh, my god, every contest, every set of tickets she ‘won’ in her class for random things, they were all from him.” She pointed to pictures of Penelope at the zoo, the Statue of Liberty, a Broadway show, the opera, the symphony, ballet, even Coney Island. “He did it all, he paid for her school, and look here, there are reports from her damn teacher addressed to him personally!” she screamed.

  There was a copy of Penelope’s medical records and vaccinations as well. The crazy thing was they also had our family history in them, not just Hannah’s.

  “They knew, they all knew this whole time who her family was, possibly who her father was, and no one ever told me! They never once mentioned his involvement in our lives. I could’ve found you so much sooner if they hadn’t played his sick little games. There’s no way they’re getting away with this. I’m suing every last one of them!”

  It took a long time for Hannah to settle down, and even still, she was furious, but she wasn’t ranting anymore. I picked up my file and found her trying to rest in our bedroom. “Is there anything in this file that affects my life now? If I read this file, will it change anything?”

  She sat up and took it from me, flipping through it. “The only pertinent information that may affect you now is that your father has files on all of the board members at your work. He insisted that you be considered for all promotions first, but you were still only moved up when you proved you actually had the skills and could handle doing the job. You were still the one who earned it, William. If you didn’t know what you were doing, they wouldn’t have promoted you.”

  “I can’t believe this. He has to stop. I’ll get ahold of him tomorrow and make sure he backs off. I’m not sure I can keep my job, now that I know what was going on.”

  She pulled me down on the bed and kissed me softly. “I know what you mean. I want to change schools and doctors. Hell, I’m not so sure I even want to go back to New York. I feel like I can’t trust anyone. It feels like they betrayed me, and my family. I’m scared that if I keep reading, things will just get worse.”

  I had finished reading over Penelope’s file. He had her life meticulously chronicled. He even had notes about her liking a show called Angelina Ballerina and had sent them a certificate for a year’s worth of ballet classes. My daughter took after her mother, though, and ended up not liking it. There was a DVD of her recitals as well. I’d have to sneak that. He’d also hired the private tutor who taught her piano. He’d been in the process of looking into getting her a piano of some sort, but worried that it wouldn’t fit into their little apartment. He’d wanted to get Penelope her own personal laptop. He’d been spoiling my daughter, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. I hated my father, and I was confused by the loving way he’d treated my daughter. I didn’t understand how he could be so involved in her life, yet keep her completely hidden from the whole family without a stitch of guilt.

  I knew if Hannah kept reading Penelope’s file, she’d freak out even more. I tucked it away and planned on doing the same with mine. No good would come from digging through the past. My childhood had been relatively happy. My relationship with my parents had only waned when I’d started dating. My father not helping me find Hannah was the final wedge that’d split us. We’d been on the outs ever since, and I didn’t want to taint the little bit of good I’d had in my life.

  Once Hannah fell asleep, I slipped out and grabbed the fire folder. I needed to find the arsonist, so I could take my family home and far away from my parents.

  There were detailed notes on everything. There were several DVD’s labeled as security footage of different buildings, not only around the area, but outside the suspects’ buildings, to document if they’d been out at the time of the fire. There was one thing to say about my father, he was very thorough. His list of suspects was huge, and he’d carefully marked them off, when he’d learned of their alibi. He’d whittled his suspect list down quite a bit.

  Of course, nothing prepared me for the revelation of Lily Sax’s motives, one of the final suspects Hannah didn’t know. She was British, and the sister of Gregory Sax, the man who’d been hired to bribe Hannah and had ultimately attacked her.

  His fate had finally been discovered about a year ago. He’d been beaten, and from what my father suspected, it’d been Marvin who’d done it. Apparently, Sax had woken up after his beating and had taken off before Marvin could return. He’d left his severe head injury untreated, though, and internal brain hemorrhaging and a concussion had gotten the better of him. He’d been found brain dead, and Lily had been the one to give the okay to take him off life support.

  Lily had hired a detective herself and had found out that it’d been Henry who’d sent her brother to the states on “business.” She hadn’t been able to discover what that business had been until recently. When I got back with Hannah, and Ms. Sax saw we had a daughter, she must’ve realized that we’d been the cause of her brother’s visit that’d eventually ended in his demise. In the end, she had the strongest motive and was the most dangerous. I hated to
admit it, but I was with my father on this. I needed to hire some security to protect my family. He was sure she was still in the states, but I wasn’t going to risk it. I had to keep them safe.

  Chapter 29 – Security

  WILLIAM

  I joined Hannah in bed, knowing she needed help relaxing, but not before I stopped by Penelope’s room, where she was playing with Camille. I was still pissed at my sister, and I needed to make things clear for her.

  I waved to her, so she’d join me out in the hallway. “Don’t answer the door for our parents, or anyone you don’t know.” I realized it could be more extensive of an issue, so I clarified, “You know what, just don’t answer the door or let anyone else in the house.”

  “Is something going on?”

  “I need to find some security we can trust, before we-”

  “Did something happen?”

  “One of the suspects in the fire might be out to avenge her brother’s death.”

  “No! That can’t be right. Dad would never kill-”

  “He didn’t, but his actions led to her brother’s demise, and we’re afraid she might be out to hurt us.”

  “Oh, bloody hell, William, what are we going to do?”

  “Keep tabs on her and gather more evidence. In the meantime, I’m going to see if I can’t track down some people I can trust who aren’t under dad’s thumb.”

  “That’s not very likely over here, but I’ll help you where I can, and William, I’m sorry about mum earlier. She said you’d be alright with her calling in. I didn’t think she’d lie to me.”

  “Hannah might’ve led her to believe there was a chance for her to be a part of our lives, but I’m just not ready for that yet.”

  She nodded at me, but I had a feeling she didn’t fully agree with me cutting our mother out of my life. I knew for a fact she still met up with mum on occasion. She had a relationship with her I wasn’t sure I’d ever have.

  I climbed into bed and pulled Hannah into my arms. She let out a contented moan and kissed my lips. She moved my hand down to her flat tummy, and I smiled. “We’re having a baby.” I was still trying to let that sink in. I had a son or daughter growing right under my hand. I planned to have this arsonist mess cleaned up long before they arrived. As for my parents, I still didn’t know what to do with them.