Caleb leans over and presses a kiss behind my ear. “Game time.” He stands and heads toward the orchestra leader. As a consensus, all the groomsmen had decided to let Caleb speak on behalf of both sides, citing since he lived with both grooms, he would obviously do the best job.
During the rehearsal dinner the night before, Caleb joked they just wanted to throw him under the bus, and that there had better be a reward for doing this. After he saw me standing in the crowd smirking, he promptly agreed he had already been given his reward.
We left shortly thereafter for him to claim his reward.
After the song wrapped up, Caleb conferred with the band leader before being handed the microphone.
“Good evening, everyone. Once again, on behalf of Ryan and Jared, we are so thankful you chose to spend your holiday weekend celebrating their marriage.” He pauses to let the applause die down. “I was unanimously nominated to speak on behalf of both groom parties, so Ryan, Jared, if you don’t like this toast, blame your other brothers.”
The crowd starts laughing uproariously. My man is good at this. I lean on my hand and smile at him.
He catches my eye and winks. “Some of you may not know I’ve been very involved with helping to plan the wedding. In fact, at one point, I was making so many decisions I was mistaken for actually being one of the grooms.”
Oh. My. God. I’m going to kill him.
My mouth gapes open, even as my eyes narrow. I hear Phil choke behind me, Jason whack him on the back, and even Keene let out a mild snicker. Not to mention the hilarity of my sisters proceeding to tell Charlie and his wife the story that I could hear through my ear piece.
“But once that small misunderstanding was resolved, I realized my ability to make these decisions for my brother and Jared showed me just how much I knew them, inside and out. I found out when you plan a wedding, you will undoubtedly learn a lot about people. When I did, I was more impressed with not only the men they were, but the love they have for each other.” Caleb smiles broadly, looks out at the nodding crowd and continues.
“Jared, since the day I met you, I saw what an amazing match you were for Ryan. You balance him and provide his heart with the home it’s been searching for. I’m so glad to finally be able to call you brother.”
I look over at Jared, who is discreetly wiping his eyes with the back of his hand.
“Ryan…” Caleb pauses, taking a deep breath. His voice cracks slightly. “Before he died, Dad and I used to talk about the man you would meet one day, since we know what men can be like.” He waits for the small laugh he was hoping for. “All we could hope for was that he cherished you like we did, like I still do. I’m so glad you found that with Jared.” Caleb smiles at his brother, who has picked up his dinner napkin to wipe his own eyes.
“So, on this momentous occasion, I ask you to raise your glasses. Ryan and Jared, in the words of Shakespeare, ‘I wish you all the joy you can wish.’ Cheers!”
As the crowd echoes his toast around the courtyard, both grooms walk up to Caleb to embrace him. When Ryan and Caleb hug, they whisper quietly to each other before both break away.
I turn back to the table, dabbing at my eyes with a napkin to find the hate-filled eyes of Mildred Lockwood on me. Phil, not being completely obtuse, casually leans forward on his hand and whispers into his mike, “I think we may have a problem.”
I think we do too.
I just have no idea what to do about it.
36
Cassidy
It’s 10:00. Finally, there’s no one left on the estate but the family and a few close friends. Mildred has retired to her room to recover from this debacle, as she put it.
Caleb has called it. The wedding is officially over for tonight.
Tomorrow, vendors who had more structural setups will come back to break down, but for tonight, Amaryllis Events is off duty.
My siblings have already changed. Caleb is trying to convince me to go home in my dress, and that we can be there in thirty minutes, but I convinced him it will just take a moment. I want something comfortable to sit down in. Besides, I also don’t want to leave a single thing in this house if I don’t have to.
I head down the short hallway, entering the doorway to the secondary library to find my bag with my comfortable clothing. I’m distracted, already in the process of removing my necklace as I walk in when I hear the door slam behind me. I jump.
Mildred Lockwood is standing there, pointing a small gun at me. “You couldn’t stay gone, could you, you little snot-nosed brat,” she hisses as she moves toward me.
Holy shit. I step back, hoping against all hope one of my siblings is still listening through the earpiece. “Excuse me? Gone from where? The house?”
“You always were, you know. Even as a baby,” she continues, and advances on me. The look in her eyes is maniacal. This woman is more than drunk, and she isn’t just crazy. She’s so far past crazy, I don’t even know if there’s a word for it.
“I don’t know what you mean, Mrs. Lockwood. Perhaps we can sit down and you can tell me.” I hold her eyes, but gesture to the two couches in front of the cold fireplace.
“It’s all your fault. It always has been.” She’s waving the gun around. “If I had just killed you the first time instead of sending you to Jacksonville, I wouldn’t have lost my Jack. And then, much later, when my husband found out about my affair, thereby breaking our prenuptial agreement, the fortune that should have been mine was split between my two worthless sons and I was given an allowance to live on. He said I should be grateful. Fuck gratitude.” Her voice is demented and churlish, accusatory and bitter.
My face freezes. “Jacksonville?” I manage to choke out in a whisper of the only word that’s made any kind of sense to me. The word that terrifies me.
How can she know about Jacksonville?
“Yes, you stupid, pathetic piece of trash, Cassidy Freeman. Or should I call you by your real name, Riley, since you were sitting so close to your brother Keene tonight?” I can feel the blood drain from my face. “Ahh, so neither one of my know-it-all sons or his pathetic best friend decided to clue you in? You know? You look just like your mother, Riley, with your father’s eyes. But I knew who you were months ago.” She walks up close to me and slaps me across the face.
I only feel a slight burn, I’m in such shock.
“How?” It’s all I can manage right now. Deep breaths, Cassidy. Nothing she’s saying makes sense. It’s not even remotely possible. If it was, Caleb or Keene would have told me. Right?
She makes a sound that must be what the devil calls a laugh. “I have spies everywhere, little girl. The tech department at Hudson is very informative, and so is Caleb’s assistant. I know everything inside the file Charlie Henderson keeps up-to-date about you because I own his wife. Oh, yes.” My face contorts at her next words. “Even Charlie’s imbecile of a wife isn’t beyond corruption. She loves money. And as much as my son pays her husband, it isn’t enough to keep the men she’s fucking on the side happy.
“Did you know how huge the file is on the Freemans? By the way, how stupid was that name choice? You’ve never been free. Not since I knew where you were the whole time and could have had you taken. Again. Oh, I was content to let you live so long as you didn’t bother my life.” She pauses and caresses the gun. The next thing I know, it’s pressed against my forehead. I suck in a breath and begin to pray as tears stream down my face.
Caleb, where are you?
“Why the fuck couldn’t you just stay in South Carolina like the rest of the white trash? Nothing bad happened to you there, huh? Why the hell did you need to move back here?” Mildred screams in my face, tapping the gun against my forehead. I feel its cold brutal weight against the center of my forehead.
It sends me into full body convulsions.
“Now I have to decide what to do with you. Do I just kill you like I did your mother, or do I send you off again? A pity about the way those men had to take it with a bat. They’ll no longer b
e useful for this type of work, though they are eager for revenge. Do you remember them, Riley? I’m surprised, after being here all day. They’re related to most of our staff here, cousins and whatnot with a taste for the forbidden.” Her smile is nothing short of demonic.
“You killed my mother?” I whisper in anguish, unable to process the rest. The mother I never knew.
In the recesses of my memory, I remember Caleb telling me about Keene, “There are things he’s lost personally that made him who he is.”
A mother? A sister?
Me?
“Tell me,” I demand in a whisper at the cretin in front of me. “I want to know why. I deserve to know why.”
“You deserve nothing more than what I give to you, you stupid bitch. But as a last wish, I’ll indulge you. There’s nowhere for you to go.” She holds the gun on me as she walks over to the side table of liquor. Not taking her eyes off of me, she removes a stopper and takes a long swig of something clear directly from the decanter. Vodka, I presume.
Putting down the decanter, she wipes her mouth with the back of her hand. Moving forward again, I can’t help but despair at how steady she’s still holding the gun.
Caleb! I’m screaming inside. I’m never this late. Come find me!
“I was having an affair with Jack Marshall, Keene’s father. He was leaving your pathetic mother to be with me. I was walking out on this crappy life and those two brats. We were going to be together. What Jack failed to mention was that to not throw his wife off track, he was still sleeping with her.” She slides the gun over my cheekbone seconds before pistol-whipping me with it. I can feel blood flowing down my cheek.
“And along came pretty baby Riley. Jack was so fascinated by how fucking cute you were, he decided not to leave his wife! It’s all your fucking fault!” Mildred laughs again. “But you’re not so pretty now are you, Riley?” She smirks, indicating with pleasure her handiwork with the gun.
“How?” I swallow hard. It hurts to move my face. “How do you know I’m her? I don’t remember anything about that.”
I refuse to think about what must have been a flashback at the wedding, what my Aunt Millie did to me.
Oh. My. God. Caleb’s mother sent me away? To be brutalized and raped?
The horror of it starts to slam into my mind.
This. This is what Keene was alluding to in his office. Caleb knew more of my history than I had told him. But if Keene knew, why didn’t he tell me either? I inwardly groan. Because I essentially told him not to.
In my mind, I can hear myself saying to him, “Then let us figure it out, Keene. Sometimes, blasting information in someone’s face isn’t the best way to handle something.”
The man I love and my…fuck, the bile starts to rise…my brother. And neither of them knew I was about to die unless someone was listening through the receiver still in my ear. And it was dead silent.
I swallow hard. I might die.
“Because, Riley, you bear the same birthmark.” She drags the gun down the front of my gown to just below my collarbone with unerring accuracy. “Right. Here.” She taps it with the gun. “In the same fucking spot both your mother and brother do. You look like that bitch—same shaped eyes, same shaped mouth. And speaking of that mouth…” Crack!
Her other hand comes up and slaps me across the face again. I feel another trickle of blood and reach up. She lifts her hand to show me how she turned her diamond inward, her face in a twisted facsimile of a grin. “Besides that, you have memories of her. Keene’s a smart man and has been piecing it together. He realized when you started humming your lullaby. When you recognized the picture in his office. When he saw the birthmark after you fucked my son!” She screams the last at me as she cocks the gun.
“I didn’t know they were memories, Mrs. Lockwood.” My voice is flat and lifeless. I’ve lost all hope. All chance.
“I don’t care.” That much was obvious. She pushes me back and I stumble, but I manage to stay on my feet. Barely.
She takes aim.
“Please don’t.” I’m begging, but not for myself. I’m begging for my family. For Phillip. For Em. For Ali. For Corinna. For Holly. For Jason. None of them deserve this.
I’m even begging for Caleb and Keene. Neither of them need this to end this way.
“I like you begging, Riley. It reminds me of when your mother did it. Goodbye, Riley Marshall and Cassidy Freeman. I’ll be happy to never see your face again.”
As the loud reverberation of a gun being fired hits my ears, I feel the fiery hot slice against the side of my neck. I stumble backward and fall into something.
And then there’s nothing.
Only darkness.
37
Caleb
I wonder what’s taking Cassidy so long to change. I glance at my watch—it’s 10:15. She said it would take her ten minutes tops to gather up her stuff and change so we could get the hell out this place.
I’m standing in the foyer with Keene, Charlie, Phil, and Jason. Thankfully, my mother had already retired before the end of the wedding festivities or I would be a lot more antsy than I am right now, despite being given the third degree by the men around me about my relationship with Cassidy.
“So,” Phil drawled. “Do I need to ask your intentions toward my sister?” Jason buries his laughter in Phil’s shoulder. I also notice Charlie and Keene’s stances change as they wait for the answer. Huh. So, my love has a few protectors on her side.
“Endlessly honorable. I love her, Phil,” I respond without hesitation.
“Then when are you going to tell her you bought out Laskey’s company?” Phil shoots back. “Even if she’s told you the worst, she still deserves to know.”
My face goes blank. The air in the room stills. “How did you know?” I ask quietly. I’m not upset. I’m trying to gauge his reaction.
“Ryan mentioned it one night over dinner,” Jason offers, moving from behind Phil to stand next to him. Their hands lock. “He wanted to let us know about the initial background investigation and why you did it. That led to Phil asking questions.” No shock there. “And the rest came out.”
“I’ve been waiting for her to tell us about it, Caleb. It was our right to know.” Phil’s tone is both angry and hurt.
He deserves to be both.
I drop my head and run my hand across the back of it. There’s no good reason and there’s no good answer. “I have no answer, Phil. None that will satisfy anyone, least of all Cassidy. I thought I would tell her pretty quickly on in our relationship, but she surprised me by telling me the worst of it first. The rest of the details didn’t seem to matter. I didn’t go looking for the information.” Charlie confirms what I’m saying to be true by nodding. “I ran a check on the company for the wedding and it triggered warning flags Charlie had put in place to protect you all.”
Phil nods. “I can understand that, but I’m not in love with you. This is going to hurt her. She may not understand why you didn’t tell her, especially after all this time.”
The acid which has been burning when I think about the secrets at the foundation of what I built between Cassidy and I starts up. “I know. I just can’t figure out how to say what I need to.”
Phil, ever the smart-ass, taps his chin. “Yeah, I don’t think there’s a way to say it with flowers either.”
Everyone, but me, bursts out laughing as intended. I check my watch. Another five minutes have passed. “Phil, do you still have your earpiece in?”
“Yes, I turned the transmitter off though. Why?”
“Can you turn it on and see what’s keeping Cassidy? I want to get out of here.”
“Sure, give me a second.” He reaches into his pocket, grabs the small black box and flicks a switch. When he does, he stays quiet for a few moments and his face goes chalk white. “Oh God, Caleb. You have to get to her. Your mother…oh my god!”
“Give it to me. Give it to me now!” I bellow. He fumbles the bud out of his ear and hands it to me. What I hear almos
t immobilizes me.
My eyes flash up to Keene’s. In his face, I finally see what I hadn’t before. I’m stunned for half a second before I ask, “Are you armed?”
He pulls back his jacket as he nods.
“Charlie?” A second nod.
“Both of you outside the library window ready to take out my mother the first chance you can without hurting Cassidy. Jason.” I swallow hard. He’s an ER doctor. “We might need you after.”
“Phil, I need you to call 911 and tell them to come in silent. The code for the front gate is 7-6-1-3. Can you do that?” He’s frozen to the spot, about to go into shock. “Can you do that?” I yell at him. I have this awful feeling every second is going to count.
“Yes,” he whispers.
“Go. Now.”
We all run.
I break through the library door heartbeats after my mother has shot the love of my life. Her body falls back as I scream.
I can’t get to her fast enough.
The animalistic shrieks of “I’m glad the bitch is finally dead!” are ringing in my ears as I run through Cassidy’s blood to find out if she still has a pulse.
Somehow, she does.
“JASON!” I scream. He comes running in, his tuxedo jacket off, ready to use it to apply pressure.
Phil’s standing at the doorway, screaming. “Oh God. Oh, Cassidy. Little Girl! What the fuck happened?”
“Gunshot wound to the neck. I can’t tell where the blood is coming from though. There’s no other obvious signs of a bullet.” I’m frantically running my hands over her body.
“Caleb, put pressure on her neck. It grazed her. Let me do my fucking job!” Jason yells at me. Slowly, carefully, he reaches behind her head and I see it. The blood. “Fuck, she must have tripped when she fell. Fold your coat up and give it to me.”
Vaguely I’m aware of someone shooting, and from the voices, I know my mother’s hand was hit by a shot from outside the window, and the gun she was holding is halfway across the room.
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