Dare To Love Again

by Silver, Jordan

  “I can, and I have. My wife is off-limits, and that goes without saying for my son.” She opened her mouth to speak, but I cut her off. “Now, let me tell you how this is going to be. My wife has another year before she can touch her inheritance, but I think you’ve lived off of her long enough. You’re to move off of the Winthrop estate ASAP.”

  Her face grew redder with each word. “You’re not to take anything other than the jewelry your late husband bought you when he was alive. All the family heirlooms and keepsakes are to be left for their rightful owner, the heir to Sterling Winthrop’s estate. If you’ve forgotten what all that entails, I have a list for your perusal.”

  “I’ve already sent someone to the estate to look after my wife’s interests, so if you even think about damaging anything before you leave, you will be held accountable.”

  “You…what’re you talking about? Who did you send to my home? You have no right.”

  “According to my lawyers and Sterling’s, I do. According to the estate lawyer, when I called to alert him to the fact that Kynlee Winthrop is indeed alive and my wife, who’d changed her name, he had a lot to say. Thanks for letting them know that she wasn’t dead all these years, by the way.”

  “My guess is that you planned on keeping her alive until her thirtieth birthday, just long enough for her to receive her inheritance then arrange some kind of accident afterward, which would leave you as her sole beneficiary, of course. I don’t guess I have to wonder what you planned to do with my son.” It was taking everything in me not to go for her throat. But, as satisfying as strangling her would be, I wanted her to suffer much worse than that. This game of cat and mouse had only just begun.

  Calen

  I can’t show my hand too soon, not until after I’d backed her into a corner and got everything I want out of her. “Were you by any chance planning to kill him as well? That would be quite a feat, wouldn’t it? To have killed off three generations of the Winthrop family.”

  “It’s what they deserve…” She caught herself, but I just quirked my brow.

  “You don’t say. Do tell, what exactly do they deserve?”

  “You think I’m stupid; you think you can trap me?”

  “How would I do that? It’s just the two of us here. It would be my word against yours.”

  “That’s right. And I have a very good standing in the community, just as good as yours.”

  “Yes, it’s easy to do that, to buy off whomever you wish when you’re living off of the interest from someone else’s inheritance. Tell me, does she even know how much she’s worth? I mean, apart from what she now owns as my wife. I’m guessing no.”

  “She doesn’t deserve any of it. I was his wife; it should’ve all been mine.”

  “But this started long before he died and left her everything, didn’t it? I wonder, did you know he was going to leave her everything, or did you think you killed him before he had a chance to change his will?” For someone as smart as she is, I didn’t think my little word game would work. I thought for sure she’d see the trap and sidestep it, but she walked right in.

  “Of course, I thought I got to him before he had a chance to change his stupid will. He came to me about the divorce, and I knew I had to get rid of him before he could do any…” Her eyes widened, and she looked at me with fear until she remembered that she and I were alone, and it would be my word against hers.

  “It doesn’t matter if you tell anyone about your stupid suspicions. People have been gossiping about that since his death. I’ll just tell the authorities that your accusations are more of the same. Besides, a man like you would never go to the police about this. You wouldn’t want your wife or your precious son associated with something like this.”

  She smiled smugly, and I looked down at the hands I had clasped over my knee. “You’re right; my family name has been blemish-free for hundreds of years, barring the occasional minor scandal here and there. Something like this, having a murderous mother in law, might be bad for business.”

  “So you see if you want me to keep my mouth shut, you’d tell that bitch to give me what’s mine.”

  “Wait, wait, we’re getting ahead of ourselves here. I can still work around all of that. I can pay people to put a spin on it so that nothing touches us, but you, on the other hand…” I let the words trail off until she got the message.

  “Me what? Nothing will happen to me because no one would believe that I had anything to do with Sterling’s death after all this time. He’s been cremated, you know, so there’s no way for…” “But you and I both know. You know what, forget about all that. We seem to have each other at an impasse. I don’t want word of this getting out to taint my family name, and you don’t want it getting out for obvious reasons; why don’t we make a deal?”

  She was right to look at me skeptically. Still, I’d already concluded that this narcissistic bitch was so far up her own ass she’d fall for anything at this point because she was operating under the notion that she was smarter than everyone else. “What kind of deal?”

  “Nothing much, I just want some information.”

  She walked across the room and dropped down in an armchair, looking pleased with herself. She really believes that I’d sell my wife and son down the river to keep my name from being associated with her crime. What an entitled bitch.

  “What is it that you want to know?” She actually had the nerve to smile like the cat that ate the canary.

  I found it hard to understand just what Giselle feared about this insipid creature, but I imagine if you’d learned that fear as a child, it would be hard to shake as an adult. “How did you get my wife to leave me? What hold do you have over her that makes her afraid to face you?”

  “Why do you want to know that?”

  “Let’s just say it’s for my peace of mind.” I sat back as if her answer wasn’t that important to me, as if I could take it or leave it. But the truth is, I needed to know. If I’m going to help Giselle in any way, I must know what this monster did to instill such fear in her since childhood.

  “Your wife…has always been a timid little shit stain. Things could’ve been different. I could’ve raised her to be like me, strong, courageous, a fighter. And I would’ve had my husband not transferred all his love and affection for me to the child even before she was born.”

  Her face changed, and for a few minutes, it was as if I weren’t even there, which worked perfectly for me because it kept her talking while I listened. “Before I fell pregnant, I was the most important thing in his life; the only thing that mattered. I meant more to him than those stupid buildings and that firm he built from the ground up, his pride and joy.”

  “But as soon as I became pregnant, he seemed to just change overnight. He was so excited about the baby, and I was too. Until we learned that I was having a little girl, then he became obsessed. Everything was about her. I had to listen to him go on and on about his precious daughter day in and day out as if I no longer mattered.”

  “Everything became about her, and no one else had any say in anything. I even had to switch doctors to one he chose because he was the best, never mind that I had found one that came highly recommended. He had to build her a new nursery, twice as big as the original. He was loving and attentive sure, but I knew it was all for her.” She’s fucking nuts but whatever.

  “After she was born, it only got worst. I barely saw the child, not that I wanted to. I hated her with a passion by the time I pushed her out of me, but Sterling didn’t care; he didn’t seem to notice. He did all the feeding and changing since I refused to have that thing near me, and I damn sure wasn’t about to nurse her no matter how much Sterling begged. How common.”

  She sneered as if breastfeeding was somehow dirty and beneath her. I could see nothing of my wife in this wretched woman, thank fuck. I was beginning to feel dirty, just being in the same room as her, and could only imagine how difficult it must’ve been for my delicate Giselle to endure the same. No wonder she pulled a runne
r to get away from this beast.

  She seemed to realize she had a captive audience in me, and that loose screw in her head didn’t allow her to see or register the disgust I felt at her diatribe. “And?” I waved my hand around when she stopped as if asking for approval or some shit.

  “And what? What is it that you want to know?” She screamed, as her eyes looked something approaching feral. Why the hell am I surrounded by crazy-ass people?

  I didn’t want my inner thoughts to show on my face, didn’t want anything to stem the flow of words coming from her mouth until I got what I wanted, so I took a deep breath and gave her some semblance of a smile. “You still haven’t told me what I asked to know. Why is she so afraid of you?”

  She seemed to find pleasure in the fact that her daughter was afraid of her, something I picked up on and had no problem using to my advantage. I’ve already come to the conclusion that Ann Winthrop isn’t all there and probably never was. The things Gordon described the day before without confirmation could be brushed off.

  The other man’s obvious prejudice against her could’ve been blamed for the picture he’d painted. But now that I’ve seen her in the flesh, there’s no doubt in my mind that he’s spot on. We’ve already established that she killed her husband. Now I just need to know what it is that she’d done to make my wife so afraid. Really, I just want to know if her relatives were involved in any way and if so, how much.

  “Oh, that! After Sterling was gone...” Here she looked at me as if to see what I thought about that, maybe trying to figure out if I had picked up on her slip earlier when she all but admitted to killing him. I didn’t blink, just stared at her with as much disinterest as I could muster while trying hard not to gag at the filth that she is. Demented bitch!

  “After he died, there was no one to protect her from me. Do you know he tried convincing everyone that I was a danger to her? Me, the woman who gave birth to her. Even my family was beginning to suspect. Until I made them believe that he was being inappropriate with her, that didn’t go too far, though, because of those friends of his. They all stood by him, and before the rumors could take hold, they were squashed.”

  “I wasn’t worried though; there were other ways to deal with him and her. I was thinking of ways I could hurt him. I knew he wouldn’t divorce me because he wanted his precious daughter to have both parents, and he wouldn’t want even a hint of scandal attached to her or his name. That’s how I know that you’re the same. All men of a certain wealth are alike when it comes to that. Isn’t that why you’re here? Isn’t that why you want to claim her spawn that isn’t even yours?”

  I’m guessing she’s never seen my son because one look would’ve told her that he’s my carbon copy. I have to remember to thank my wife for that, for protecting our child from this creature from the underbelly of hell. “Anyway, those friends of his must’ve been in his ear because the next thing I knew, he was in my face with talk of divorce.” She started to shake with anger as if twenty years had not passed since that day.

  “I would’ve lost everything, his hag of a mother had made me sign a prenup, and he even talked of my mental state, saying that he was going to take the child because I was not able to take care of her. As if I didn’t know that he was throwing me out like garbage for her. He’d used me like some kind of vessel to carry his child and then planned to discard me.”

  “Don’t listen to the lies; lots of mothers don’t bond with their babies at first. There was nothing different about me. They just hated me, all of them.” Her eyes grew wild, and I didn’t bother telling her that the baby in question was five by this time. I’m not sure if PPD lasts that long, but hey, there’s a first time for everything.

  “He thought he could get rid of me and take the child, but I fixed him, stupid man. Stupid, stupid man.” She walked around the room all but frothing at the mouth. Nothing else about her had changed, which was freaking me out. She still looked like a well-coiffed middle-aged woman of means in her three thousand dollar suit and heirloom jewelry. But her eyes told a whole new story.

  I didn’t push her to tell me what I wanted to know but let her ramble on down memory lane. The security camera was, of course, both video and audio, so though I hadn’t lied when I told her that no one else was here with us, this is a one-party consent state, which means I can record her to my heart’s content and use her every word against her in a court of law.

  She rambled on about her hate for her dead husband before turning her attention back to Giselle. “After the reading of the will, I knew what I had to do. He’d given her everything in life. No way was I going to allow that bitch to steal what’s mine after his death. But it was ironclad. There was no way for me to get my hands on any of it.”

  “The fact that I signed a prenup worked against me. But as long as I still had control of her, I had control of her inheritance, at least for a time. I sent her away. I found the cheapest boarding school that was the farthest away. It was strict, so I knew that even if they found her, none of Sterling’s friends would be allowed to visit. I wanted her to suffer, to be alone like I was after she stole my husband’s love.”

  “I spent as little on her as I possibly could. It gave me a thrill imagining all the other little girls in their finest while she wore the rags I found at second-hand stores, which is all she deserved. Do you know what happens to kids at boarding schools whose parents are neglectful? The staff catches on and treats them accordingly. Add the fact that I never visited, and you can imagine how those old nuns treated your precious wife.”

  “Oh, but that’s not what you asked, is it? You wanted to know why she’s so afraid of me.” I forced myself to stay seated when she walked over and got in my face. I had to relax the tension from my fingers so that they didn’t reach for her scrawny neck, and once again, I didn’t let any of what I was feeling show on my face.

  “She was there.” She whispered the words in my ear. I was afraid of that. Whenever I tried coming up with an answer for Giselle’s innate fear, this was the one thing I shied away from even though it was the only thing that made sense because it was too monstrous. “She was where? I don’t understand.” Like hell!

  “Oh, don’t play coy with me. Haven’t you noticed what a sniveling coward she is? It’s what she deserves for preferring him to me, for stealing away his love and affection, the little bitch. I made her watch.” She laughed maniacally, and I had to fight the rise of bile in my gut. “You should’ve seen her little face when she ran to him, screaming.”

  “It was then; it was then I told her what would happen to her if she ever told a soul. I needn’t have bothered because it seemed to splinter her fragile little mind. She didn’t speak for a good year, did she tell you that? Weak! If I hadn’t pushed her out of my body, I would’ve believed the hospital switched the little bitch at birth. Do you know who my family is?”

  “There isn’t a weak cell in any of us, but I had to give birth to that simpering little idiot.” The door opened with a crash, startling both of us. “Oh shit, Giselle.” She stood there with her chest rising and falling, and her little fists clenched tight. “Mom, what’s going on, why is she here?”

  Giselle

  I jumped up from the table and called out to him, but it was too late; he was already gone. That’s when the nerves and panic set in. What have I done? I can’t let him face her alone. She’s going to hurt him, just like…just like what? I got the same splitting headache I always get when I try to remember what it is about the monster that makes me so afraid.

  It’s silly, I know, to be this afraid when my scattered mind can’t even recall what it is that I’m afraid of, but I know that it’s bad whatever it is. I’ve seen flashes in dreams, hints of blood, and a loud banging sound that scares me and makes my heart race, but in the cool light of day, nothing comes to mind, just that feeling of mind-numbing fear.

  My tummy started to hurt as I looked at my son’s innocent little face. What should I do? I can’t let Calen walk into danger. I may n
ot recall the things from my past that had shaped me, but I remember very well her threats against him. It’s because I can’t remember much more than those flashes in my dreams that I believe her capable, that, and the pure malice I see every time we meet.

  I bit my nails and paced back and forth, trying to come up with something. Just then, Calen’s mom entered the room; all smiles as she made a beeline for her grandson. “Who’s a precious boy? Give nana a hug.”

  My heart warmed at the way he chortled at her, holding out a piece of bitten fruit that he’d slobbered all over. Her laugh and the way she lifted him from his seat in the highchair almost brought me to tears when I thought of the fact that he could’ve missed all of this had Donovan not seen us that day.

  Was that only a few days ago? She turned with the baby in her arms and must’ve read the panic on my face because the smile fell from hers. “What is it? What’s the matter?”

  “It’s Calen, he…” How will she take what I’m about to say? I know she’s always been kind to me, but what will she make of the fact that I’d put her son in danger?”

  “He what? What’s going on?”

  “He went to see my mother.” She didn’t seem to get it because she turned her attention back to the baby and bounced him in her arms. “Oh, that’s all? He’ll be fine, trust me.”

  “No, you don’t understand, she’s, she’s dangerous.” I started to shake uncontrollably even though I tried not to.

  “Delores, get in here. Okay, Giselle, calm down.” The head housekeeper came at a run, probably alerted by the tone in my mother in law’s voice. She passed the baby off to Delores and took my hand in hers. “Let’s go!”

  “Where?” I’m afraid I knew, and the fear rose up to choke me. But then the thought of Calen facing her alone erased any fear I had for myself, and I straightened my spine and nodded my head as we turned for the door.