Seductive Secrecy (Shadows series)

by Mann, Marni

  Maybe unconventional worked for us. Maybe all the wrong that had been done, all the pain we’d experienced and damage we’d witnessed was what we had to get through in order for us to be here. None of us at this table were untouched by darkness; we’d all played different roles through our lives. Sometimes we’d been the manipulators, and sometimes we’d been the manipulated. But in this moment, our pasts were only significant for having brought us to the same space at the same time, and for allowing us to appreciate where we were now. There were cracks forming in the blackness of what the mansion had meant to all of us. Light was finally starting to show through.

  The man to my right had circled my ring finger with a kiss and promised me a forever. And the man to my left, whose face ever so slightly resembled my own, was working very hard to help me create a future. I still wasn’t sure where Victoria fit in. She’d played a role in my life that I wouldn’t be able to forget. But she also played a role in my father’s life, an entirely different one, and it seemed to make him happy. For now, that would have to be enough.

  Questions about the mansion remained, and she would always be a reminder. But for now, I was good not knowing any of the answers. After I had lost Emma, I’d tried to control every moment that had followed. I wasn’t able to enjoy surprises. Every breath drew in darkness that filled my soul. Every dream ended in shadows that couldn’t be easily driven away.

  That darkness wasn’t gone. It would always remain as part of the foundation of who I was. But when I looked at Cameron and my father, seeing the possibility of happiness coming true before my eyes, I saw that the darkness was able to exist without extinguishing the light. I remembered what I’d written to my father on the subject.

  I should appreciate it for what it is: a background for the brilliance of stars.

  I was finally willing to believe it.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  WE HADN’T PACKED FOR OUR TRIP to my father’s villa, but it didn’t matter; the guest room had been stocked with everything we needed, in all the correct sizes and scents. Hospitality was something my father had always been good at, and he insisted that anyone who stayed with him felt as comfortable as possible.

  Cameron and I cleaned up and changed into fresh clothes the next morning. I didn’t feel sick to my stomach from all the wine we had drank last night, but my head was definitely feeling the touches of a hangover and my body needed several cups of coffee and something extra-greasy for breakfast in order for it to bounce back.

  My father and Victoria were already seated in the dining room when we came downstairs, with coffee and plates of fruit resting in front of them. Baskets of muffins and croissants and bagels lined the center of the table. We wanted for nothing. Cameron and I brimmed our mugs with coffee and our plates with a little from each selection.

  “Good morning,” my father said as we took our first bites. “I hope you both slept well?”

  It was hard to ignore the light beaming from his face. I had never really seen it before yesterday; it wasn’t something he’d shown during his time at the mansion. Considering what his work there had involved, it was easy to recognize why. Away from the madness, he was a completely different man. I couldn’t say the same for Victoria. She wasn’t looking nearly as bright as she had when we had arrived. Night work at the mansion must have had an effect on her as well. I had difficulty imagining her as a morning person.

  “The accommodations couldn’t have been better,” I said. “Thank you for making us feel so welcome.”

  “You’re my daughter,” he said. “You’re welcome wherever I am at any time, as long as it’s safe for you to be here.”

  I swore I could hear Victoria scoff when he said it.

  “Yes,” Cameron said. “We feel very…safe.” I could feel his eyes on me. His stare was making me blush…I knew exactly what he was thinking. The accommodations were perfect, but we’d had a bit of a furniture malfunction early that morning: we’d broken our bed, the wooden headboard breaking free of the bed frame during one of our sessions. Cameron’s power was too much for it. The wood was splintered, and the headboard was now tilted and loose. I made a point to be out of the room when Cameron finally asked my father for a tool set so he could try to fix it. Luckily for us, the guest rooms were on the second floor and the master was on the first at the opposite side of the house. Nobody would have been able to hear anything that had happened in our room.

  Fortunately, we weren’t able to hear anything that had happened in their room, either.

  “Are you able to spend the day with us?” my father asked, “Or do you already have plans to head back to your villa?”

  I glanced at Cameron with a question, and he answered with a smile. “If it’s all right with the two of you,” he said, “we’d like to stay another night.”

  Once we’d gone upstairs for the evening, I’d told him how much I enjoyed being here. I knew this wasn’t the way Cameron had intended to spend our vacation, and being guests in my father’s house wasn’t the most romantic situation for us. But he was doing this for me, and I would make sure to thank him later…in the shower, since the bed couldn’t handle any more of our magic. Even more, I knew that the painting supplies and twin easels my father had left in our room really intrigued Cameron. It was another reason for us to stay. He was just as excited as I was for the opportunity to paint in Europe. With the house sitting directly on the water and the balcony overlooking the Mediterranean, we’d have a fantastic opportunity to create our art in an entirely different environment.

  My father was sincerely trying.

  “We’d love to have you for as long as you’d like to stay,” my father said. “Wouldn’t we, honey?”

  Victoria paid no attention to him. Her eyes were fixed on her plate, though she wasn’t eating the fruit on it. She was cutting it into small pieces and circling it around with her fork, mashing it all into pulp.

  “Victoria,” my father said, trying once again to get her attention.

  She slowly glanced up and met my gaze. Something about her had changed.

  Everything, actually.

  Her eyes had gone cold, her expression hard. It was a look I’d seen many times, in Lilly. “Of course, dear,” she said, “I’d love to have your daughter here even more than she already is. It’s all about her anyway, isn’t it?”

  My father looked at her. “Is there something wrong?”

  “Not for Charlie. Nothing’s ever wrong for her.”

  Cameron gave me a worried look. “We can go back to the villa,” he offered, “if you’d rather have time alone.”

  She looked back at her plate. “Like that’d make a difference.” She was mashing more violently now. “She’s always there…even when she isn’t, she is.”

  “Victoria,” my father said. He reached for her hand and stopped the motion. “What’s gotten into you?”

  She threw his hand off and slammed her fork on the table. “What’s gotten into you, Dr. Luna?” She was shouting now. “You used to be focused on what was important for us…you used to pay attention to me, and me only, because that’s how you behave when you love someone.”

  “It isn’t the time or the place for this.” His voice was stern.

  She leaned over and smiled in such a horrible way as she caressed his cheek. “Well, this is where and when it’s going to happen, sweetheart.” She swept the plate from the table, knocking it across the dining room. It shattered against the tile floor.

  We were stunned watching it happen.

  Then we looked back to her as she stood from the table and drew her hand from behind her back. She was holding a gun.

  My father slid away from the table. “Victoria, what the hell are you doing?”

  “I’m making things right, Marvin,” she said. Her voice wavered as she slowly brought her arms down and aimed the gun.

  It was pointed directly at my head.

  My father’s eyes shifted toward me as he talked, keeping his tone quiet and even. “I don’t u
nderstand…what are you making right?”

  “This!” she shouted, shaking the gun in my direction. I flinched. “This…fucking mess you’ve made of everything because of her.” Her eyes followed the gun and landed on me. “I gave you a chance to be something more than just some trashy little whore finger-fucking herself in the bathroom of a hotel. I picked you up out of the gutter and made you shine…I took care of you, gave you everything, and you thank me by having your father bring down my whole fucking world?”

  I glanced at my father as I put the pieces together in my head. She knew I had masturbated in the employee bathroom of the hotel I’d used to work in? That was the same night the Recruiter had showed up to offer me an interview. “I didn’t—”

  “Oh, you did. He told me everything last night…how you two worked together to ruin the mansion, how clever you were at figuring out how to keep your hands clean while you threw everyone else to the wolves…including me.”

  “That isn’t true, hon.” My father was trying his best to keep her from pulling the trigger. With a gun pointing at his daughter, I couldn’t think of any other reason why he would call her hon. “I told you to get as far away as you could. Don’t you remember? I was helping you escape.”

  “You wouldn’t have had to if that little bitch hadn’t insisted that you open your fucking mouth and tell the world about everything. She was supposed to die. Why couldn’t she have just died?”

  I saw Cameron out of the corner of my eye, reaching for my hand. Victoria saw it too, and shook the gun in his direction. “Don’t move, Boy Scout, or I’ll make her watch you die instead.” She glanced back at me, and I flinched again. My breath was coming in gasps, and my heart fluttered uncontrollably. “After you took everything from me…everything…you then had to take the attention of the one man who loved me.”

  I made myself speak to her, in spite of my fear. “That isn’t true, Victoria,” I said. “I just wanted to know my father.”

  “Oh, I know…you can’t stand to have any other woman take a man’s attention away from you.” She breathed in deeply and released it slowly. “You’re just as much of a slut as your mother was.”

  My mother?

  Cameron spoke up then. “What the fuck are you talking about? How would you know Charlie’s mother?”

  She smirked, but the action felt forced. Deceitful. And her eyes never left me. “My love for the brilliant Dr. Luna didn’t start in the mansion, Cee.” She was taunting me now. “It goes back much further than that…back to a bar in Boston…back to the fucking whore of a bartender who preyed on a handsome med student who couldn’t keep his dick in his pants.” She saw the recognition on my face.

  “You really did know my mother.” It was slowly sinking in.

  “Victoria,” my father said, “You worked at that bar? The same one as Lilly?”

  She tried to smile, but it didn’t seem possible for her anymore. “Yeah…we both fucked your father. But I was the only one who loved him.” She didn’t turn in his direction, obviously ignoring his question.

  “I don’t understand. What…what are you saying?” He was pleading.

  “All you’ve ever done is choose someone else over me,” she shouted, finally facing him. “When I sat near you in the school library you and your friends droned on, or when I stood next to Lilly on the other side of the bar and ate up every fucking word you said, or when I waited for you to notice how much I loved you in that mansion…don’t you see? It’s always been them, not me. And then when you finally did come along, it was her.” She was talking to herself as much as to the rest of us. “Maybe it was a mistake to recruit her...maybe she should have been left in the gutter where she belongs.”

  It didn’t fit together yet. I couldn’t recall Lilly ever mentioning Victoria’s name to me and I knew I had never met her before the mansion. If they were friends, I wondered why that was. “If you and my mother were friends, then—”

  “We weren’t friends! That woman was trash. I should never have wanted her sloppy seconds, the scraps she had left behind.” She looked directly at my father when she said it. “I gave up everything for you...my mind...my heart...my face.” She scowled.

  The expression was all too familiar. As I analyzed her features I realized they were, too.

  “You were in the library while I studied,” he repeated while he shook his head. “And at the bar the night I met Lilly?” Confusion covered his face. “I don’t remember you. How…how do I not remember?”

  “Get a good look.” She leaned in closer. “Do you notice anything significant?”

  I didn’t need her to take another step toward me. The similarities were screaming. My hand flew to my mouth. “You look so much like… my mom did.” The familiarity I kept feeling from the unmasked Victoria all made sense now.

  “Yeah…I had a little work done. I don’t look anything like that little girl you stepped over…who you walked around to get to Lilly. So I tried my best to look like what you wanted…I tried to look like her. That’s why you don’t remember me, Marvin.” Her smile was now in place. It spoke of her insanity. So did the frown that replaced it as she looked at my father again. “I did it for you. I did everything for you...so you would love me.”

  “But I’m with you now, Victoria.”

  I knew he didn’t mean that. He was keeping his reaction calm and controlled.

  “But you chose her, and then Charliethe one you made with the whore!” She was crying now. “I sacrificed everything, and you gave up nothing for me nothing!”

  She was starting to repeat herself. It made her sound even more unhinged. The way her eyelids stretched wide and her lips pulled high over her teeth only reinforced my thought.

  “You need to give me the gun,” he said, “so we can work this out rationally.”

  She stood straighter. “I’ve already worked it out. This is how it‘s all going to end.”

  His tone became firm. “Once Santo realizes what’s happening, he’s going to”

  “Santo is dead, Dr. Luna. He took a bullet to the head this morning….while he was licking my pussy.” She sniffed and wiped away the black mascara tears that dripped down her bare neck. Her hands were shaking almost as badly as mine. “Where do you think I got the gun?”

  We were completely unprotected. There was nothing that could stop this woman from pulling the trigger. I knew I shouldn’t have trusted her, but I never thought she would have taken things this far, this out of control.

  The acid in my stomach began to churn.

  But I was done hiding in the shadows.

  “Enough of this bullshit,” I yelled. “What the hell do you want from us?”

  My volume surprised Cameron; he jumped a little at my sound and his brows rose. He’d seen a lot of insanity throughout his life. I wondered if anyone had ever held him at gunpoint.

  She looked at my father again. “All I’ve ever wanted was happiness...with you.”

  “We can still have that,” he told her. “But you have to put the gun down.”

  “No! No. I’ll never be enough for you. You’ll always choose her now…always.” Her eyes shifted to me and her lip curled. “I don’t know why, though. She wasn’t even good enough for her own mother to love.”

  Lilly tried to drag me down every time her voice entered my head. I was done letting her slither in.

  “My mother was an addict who didn’t love anyone but herself. But I don’t need to explain that to you, she has nothing to do with my father, and she has nothing to do with me.”

  She sniffled. “That’s funny…she seemed to think she had a little something to do with you, when she sold you to the mansion.”

  My head was reeling. “What the hell does that mean?”

  “You’re as simple as you are pretty, Cee.” Her legs spread a little wider and her arm lowered, but she kept the gun pointed at me. “We may not have been friends, but she stayed in touch through the years, calling me when she had something important to say, something to brag abo
ut, which was never more than a one-night stand and the eight-ball he paid her with. My life was always fine whenever she asked. But then one day, it really was fine; I was in the mansion. I had the man she’d made a child with. I had everything.” Her eyes glazed over as she spoke. “She called again and told me she was dying. Wondered if I’d be willing to help with the garbage she was leaving behind.” She laughed. “She didn’t actually call you garbage… that’s just a little something I threw in. But I told her I’d make sure you were well taken care of.”

  “That’s not possible.”

  “No?” She tapped the barrel of the gun on the tabletop to emphasize her words. “Did you really think the Recruiter just showed up in your lobby by coincidence…or in the bathroom stall next to the one you were masturbating in?”

  I’d always wondered how I’d been targeted, what made the mansion choose me when I’d never even been remotely involved in any activity that would have drawn their attention to me. When I had asked my father, he didn’t know. He just said I fit their criteria. But this…this I couldn’t believe.

  “Lilly? She sold me to the mansion?” My voice wasn’t any louder than a whisper.