by Rachel Angel
“Why? Besides our need for a place where we can fuck all the time,” Haven said.
“Because our father…well, he can be overbearing at times so much so that, well, he wouldn’t be like himself.”
Haven grew silent after that and then said, “Shit.”
Chapter 9
Haven
Why didn’t I see it before? The connection?
What did all the Triton tragedies have in common? Terrence Triton.
First his sister Emma Triton died.
Then his first wife, Rose Triton.
Then his next wife, Penelope Hills.
Was he the one behind the mysterious deaths of these women?
Was my mother Pamela Hillshire next?
My mother and Terrence seemed to still be in their honeymoon period, always kissing and hugging each other in front of us. Terrence seemed especially proud of my mother and all her achievements.
Maybe it was his way to disarm and surprise my mother when he would finally strike.
Maybe he did love my mother for real.
I didn’t know who the other Mrs. Tritons were. I didn’t know the details of their deaths as well.
I was for sure going to find out, now that I realized there was a pattern for the murders.
Dillon dropped me off where my car was parked in the parking lot behind the café and Mom’s office. I told him I’ll see him back at the Triton Mansion for dinner, and now that I have a library card, I was going to go check out more books.
He laughed at my excitement, pulling me in for a chaste kiss since we were in public, while whispering how hard he got when he saw me get so excited.
I playfully pushed him back before hoisting my backpack on my shoulder to walk toward the library.
I walked back into the library and waved to Gladys who had helped me earlier. “May I have everything you have on the history of the Tritons? On the Tritons themselves and Heartbreak Falls history?” I asked.
“Sure thing, Sweetie,” Gladys said. “Trying to learn more about your new family?”
“Yes,” I said. “And Heartbreak Falls. I’m motivated now that I keep finding out more about Heartbreak Falls and loving it.”
Gladys chuckled. “That’s a first. Most of the kids your age couldn’t wait to leave Heartbreak Falls, but you…we need more kids like you.”
I sat down in a hidden corner table where I could spend hours just sitting and researching. It was the kind of quiet time that I looked forward to when I lived in New York and was working on the research for my documentaries.
Gladys came back with a box load of materials. Then she came back again with a few more binders.
“Here are just a few,” she said. “If you know what year you want to focus on, it would save you some time.”
“Okay,” I said writing down the years quickly on a piece of paper with the pencil the paper in the holder came with.
“That stack is for that time period,” Gladys said. “And the most recent years, they’re now online and archived. Let me go get the site these articles are from.”
She disappeared for a while as I began going through the material. There were plenty of articles on the Triton Conglomerate and Bradshaw Industries. Reading through those, their financial reports and company hires and promotions were more interesting than I expected.
The articles about the Tritons getting death threats by the unions back in the 1920s were particularly interesting. It was the time of the Great Depression, and many people in America were out of jobs. Entered glamorous photos of Diamond Triton, the rich spoiled daughter of the steel and lumber tycoon, adorned in diamonds like her namesake and posed against lavish endless parties in New York.
Depressed emotionally and psychologically by the economics of the times, people would focus their resentment on someone like Diamond Triton and the Triton family.
When she disappeared then later announced as having been kidnapped then killed, the public’s reaction was less sympathetic than it should have been.
I suspected the lack of response by the police to try to rescue Diamond Triton was also due to the public’s lack of sympathy.
The Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton of the 1920s, Diamond Triton was frowned upon, but loved and fascinated by the public at the same time.
Such a family tragedy that played out in the public eye, it seemed the Tritons were determined that what happened to Diamond Triton in the public, would never receive the kind of notoriety like that again.
But what about the diamond set that poor Diamond Triton wore for her 19th Birthday? What happened to it?
It appeared she was kidnapped for the diamond set as the ransom. The Tritons ended up packaging the diamonds into a suitcase to the kidnappers, only to lose the diamonds and Diamond Triton’s life at the same time.
It was so tragic, I felt like crying. Although I was now part of the Triton family and have known them through the Twins and Tristan, I felt the sadness and the extreme loss they had in losing their clearly well-beloved family member.
I tried to find out what happened to the diamonds after the kidnappers and murderers received them, but there was nothing on the recovery. Were they even recovered at all?
If not, how did the Twins ended up with Diamond’s diamonds to give to me to wear on my upcoming 19th birthday?
“Don’t tell Tristan this, Haven. This is just between us,” Drake had said.
I smiled happily, “You went to New York to get me a present? From Tiffany’s! Oh Drake! Oh Dillon! I could almost love you two for that!”
Drake and Dillon looked nervous. “No, even better, Haven,” Dillon said.
Drake opened his palm to reveal a 5-carat diamond ring. “This was Diamond Triton’s Coming of Age 19th Birthday Ring,” he said. “It’s fitting that you should have it as your 19th birthday a little later this year.”
I dropped my mouth in awe. I’ve never seen a diamond ring so huge. “Why are you giving it to me now when it’s not even my birthday yet?”
Drake kissed me and said, “Because we can’t help ourselves. We want you to have everything your heart desires. Everything.” He kissed me long and slow before letting go and saying, “I’m so in love with you, Haven, I’d give anything to have you.”
Giving me Diamond Triton’s ring was even a secret they didn’t want Tristan to know about.
So how did Diamond Triton’s 19th birthday diamonds ended up with the Twins and now with me?
Gladys came back with more old newspapers and some website addresses to look up when I pulled out the next couple of articles on the Diamonds.
The Triton Diamonds as they were called never resurfaced into the public light again. Many speculated they were taken apart and sold separately on the black market or offered to private jewelers.
But they were never recovered let alone found as a set.
Which made me question the authenticity of the diamonds as the Triton Diamonds in the first place.
When I skipped decades to finally reached the years Emma Triton, Terrence’s sister, went missing and later found kidnapped and murdered; it was already getting dark. There wasn’t much on the tragedy as Emma Triton wasn’t a party girl and socialite like Diamond Triton. The Triton family must have played down the story, not wanting to draw more attention to it than necessary.
There was an ad from the police in Heartbreak Falls, asking for the public’s help in locating Emma Triton’s whereabouts.
Then there was the sad, smaller headline article about Emma being found, but it was too late, she had been killed, but the ransom was not paid this time, which was surprising. Gilliam Triton, Terrence’s father, stated that he firmly believed that if he had given the ransom, she would have been killed anyway.
There was a photo of Gilliam Triton with his children Emma and Terrence at age 19 years old. Terrence was incredibly handsome like a movie star, and bore a striking resemblance to Tristan. In fact, it looked like Tristan in the photo, but wearing clothing from the 80s.
&nb
sp; It was right at the beginning of the Great Recession in the 1980s with disastrous inflation and the loss of jobs. Triton Conglomerates had to lay off hundreds of thousands of employees all over the world, causing the national unemployment rate to skyrocket drastically. Bradshaw Industries was hit very hard by its partnership with Triton Conglomerates, nearly going bankrupt. Both companies started struggling, but were fortunate enough to find an international partner to help bail them out.
Hillshire and Roe Conglomerates, both based in England.
Hillshire? England? Didn’t my father’s family come from England?
Wasn’t, no, not wasn’t…he was a Hillshire?
I didn’t get the chance to know my father that long after I was born. But I knew he was kind, sweet, very handsome, and had the bearings of an aristocrat. He was from England, which I always thought meant he was tied to royalty.
He was also very much loved by his parents, who were still in England when he moved to the U.S. to marry an American…my beautiful mother.
I never got to see my grandparents as they were very unhappy with my father’s marriage to my mother, especially since he was their only son and heir. And Mom, having her pride, never wanted anything to do with my father’s side of the family.
I didn’t understand anything my mother explained to me about my father especially after his fatal accident. It wouldn’t matter much back then when my mother protected me from any family bickering or disputes.
But now that I was a Triton and a Hillshire, I needed to find out what all that meant?
Chapter 10
Max
I was heading down Main Street when I spotted a familiar figure walking out of the library.
Haven.
I could not believe my luck. I slowed down my red Ferrari to a crawl as I slide my car into the lane along the sidewalk. “Haven!” I shouted out the open window of the passenger side. “Haven!”
I honked.
She looked over and waved.
I stopped the car as she walked over to the window. “What are you doing here?” she asked.
“Coming out to your place to see you!” I said.
“Again?” she asked.
“Why?” I pouted. “Aren’t you happy to see me?”
“Well…”
“Hop in, Haven, I need to talk to you, please! I was brave enough to try to see you at your family home and risk being pummeled by your mean jealous stepbrother…”
“Oh okay,” Haven said, getting in.
“How about we go somewhere quiet and I can have all your attention,” I said.
“That’ll be nice,” Haven said, almost distractedly.
“Hey, Babe,” I said, “What’s wrong?”
“Just thinking,” Haven said.
“About…” I asked.
“How the hell was I kept in the dark for so long about my father’s family,” Haven said. “And why did my mom want nothing to do with them?”
My heart stopped for a brief moment as I realized what she said.
Haven Hillshire had finally realized who she was… a Hillshire, and not just a Hillshire, but the long-lost heir to the Hillshire fortune and legacy since she was the only child to the last Hillshire son.
“Haven, I think I know what you’re saying,” I said. “I’ll try to fill you in as much as possible when we stop and talk.”
“Good,” Haven said. “If you can shed some light on things, Mr. Historian, for me about my family tree, other than from my lying mother…”
“Your mother lied to you?” I asked.
“Well, she didn’t tell me anything. Omission is the same as lying,” she said.
“Bitter much?” I asked.
“You would be if you were kept in the dark all your life. I realized today when I stopped in to get coffee at the café that I have led a very sheltered life up to now. I’ve never even been to a farm or picked fruit off a tree. I didn’t even know how to check out a book from the library.” Haven lifted her arm in the air in exasperation. “How pathetic.”
“No, not pathetic,” I said. “They’re just not the kind of experience you would get while living only in a concrete jungle.”
“What?” Haven asked.
“The city…as opposed to the country or suburbia or anywhere non-urban…”
“Concrete jungle, I get it,” Haven said.
“Are you hungry? Have you eaten?” I asked.
“I’m always hungry,” Haven said. “It’s because of the mass amount of sex I get,” she grinned. “Lots of energy expended. Lots of intense workout.”
“I wished I knew it,” I said drily, wanting to punch Tristan for being so protective of Haven, no… for being so possessive of her. If it was not for his interference, Haven and I would be a real couple having sex often and everywhere.
“I think everyone is waiting for me at home for dinner,” Haven said. “So if we’re getting anything to eat, it’ll have to be light.”
“Okay,” I swung into a parking lot where there was a sushi ramen restaurant.
“Yum!” Haven said, “Sushi ramen!”
We got out of the car and I placed my arm around her, leaning in to kiss her. She kissed me back, which I was afraid she wouldn’t at first.
When we broke away, I wanted to wrap my arms around her to take her away with me. “Run away with me,” I whispered into her ear. “We’ll go to some island where I can finally make love to you without Tristan interfering, and…”
Haven was smiling at me in that adorable sweet happy smile I couldn’t get enough of. “Why do we have to run away to some island to do that?”
“Because every time I try to get further with you, Tristan interferes.”
We walked into the restaurant and was seated in a private booth away from everyone else. Seated next to each other, I finally could wrap my arms around Haven and lean in for another kiss.
When the waitress came to take our orders, Haven spoke in Japanese to order everything for us.
I shook my head. “You are full of surprises, aren’t you?”
Haven shrugged. “I took Japanese for three years, and we eat sushi all the time back in New York. There was a sushi place at the corner of our home where my mom and I would eat at every Friday night.”
“You must miss New York,” I said.
“Lived there all my life,” Haven said. “It was the only place I knew of as home.”
“Understandable,” I said, suddenly feeling guilty for bringing her to Heartbreak Falls on a bet with Megan.
“You know,” Haven said, “As much as I miss New York, I like it here too. It’s grown on me…”
“Heartbreak Falls?” I asked.
“Yes, believe it or not, Mr. Historian.”
“It does have its charms,” I said. “Especially when I live here,” I grinned.
“Oh, especially because the one and only Max Bradshaw lives here,” Haven said, her eyes twinkling.
Can this beautiful woman get any more adorable? Her eyes were really like diamonds with how they sparkled and lit up the night when the light hit them. “You are the most beautiful person on Earth,” I said.
Haven laughed. “That’s a funny compliment.”
“Why?”
“Because who knows how people or beings outside of Earth would look like? It sounded like you just said, that for an earthling, you are beautiful.”
“Really?” I asked, trying to think through the logic.
“Well, it’s a nice compliment anyways, and I’ll take it,” Haven said, snuggling up next to me.
“Do you really have to go back to that dreary mansion after this?” I asked. “I want to take you out to the movies. I want to go strolling with you…I want to be with you, let you know how special you mean to me.”
“Max,” Haven said.
“I love you, Haven,” I said. “I’ve never told anyone that before because I’ve never felt this way about anyone but you.”
“Oh Max,” Haven said. “If it was only that simple
.”
The food arrived, and we started eating.
Haven really did understand how to order Japanese food, and she knew how to use chopsticks, and pour tea properly, in a traditional manner. “Someday, Max, I might just want to be an ambassador. And I know I’d like to travel the world. I have a bucket list of places I want to see,” she said. “Once I graduate from college,” her eyes lit up. “I’m going to get into the college of my choice…NYU, and then maybe graduate school there, too. Then I’ll travel for a year before starting my job…”