The Perfect Storm: A Thrilling Romantic Suspense (The Perfect Revenge Book 3)

by Madyson Grey

  “That’s fine,” Mr. Bush said. “I’ll be available the rest of the evening.”

  They hung up, and Rafael told Victoria what he had said.

  “I mostly wanted a little time so that I don’t sound too eager. I’m going to counter-offer twenty-four five and see if they’ll take it. If not, I’ll go the twenty-five. But it’s more fun to dicker a little first. Are you OK with this?”

  “Sure,” Victoria said. “You could put your mother in that other house.”

  “That’s what I’m thinking,” he said. “And we could build a little place for Lena’s parents if they’ll agree to it.”

  “Good idea,” Victoria said. “What do you have in mind for the rest of the land?”

  “Well, I’m not too sure,” he admitted. “I have several ideas to consider. One of which is just to leave it vacant. This area is far too built up to be safe or sane. It would be nice to keep a little bare land here and there.”

  “That’s a thought,” she said. “But we’d still have to pay taxes on it.”

  “Yeah, but bare land isn’t as highly taxed as developed land.”

  “True.”

  “Another thought I had was to build a sort of nature amusement park. Not with your traditional rides, but something different. Zip lines, an old fashioned train, a scavenger hunt trail, stuff like that. I dunno. Just something really different that kids, and grownups, can have good, healthy, normal fun doing that isn’t all bound up in TV or video game characters or electronic this or that.”

  “Hmmm, that’s an interesting concept. I think I could run with that one,” Victoria said thoughtfully.

  “Or I thought about just a nature preserve where people can hike through and maybe picnic, but not motorized vehicles allowed. A place of peace and quiet where people can come to restore their sanity.”

  “That’s a nice idea, too,” Victoria said. “We’ll have to ponder all those things. Go ahead and call Mr. Bush back and tell him we’ll take it. If you’re ready, that is.”

  “Yeah, I think I will, but I’ll wait until we get home in a few.”

  After they got back home, Rafael went into his office and called Doug Bush back. They talked back and forth about the property for a bit, with Rafael asking what the land use restrictions might be on the property. When Mr. Bush told him that most of the land was currently zoned rural, Rafael was delighted. That was just what he wanted to hear, as that would fit in with his tentative plans. They made an appointment for later in the week to meet and finalize the deal. First, Mr. Bush would take Rafael’s counter offer of twenty-four five back to the owner and see if they would accept it.

  Rafael made his report to Victoria and Lena over supper that evening. They were both supportive of his decision, and talked about all the things that could be done with the property. He was inwardly pleased that his first really big business deal was about to go down, and that he had the complete support of his wife. That meant a great deal to him.

  Monday morning Rafael and Victoria arose early and dressed for business that day. For that pair, that meant slacks and a nice dress shirt for Rafael, and a pair of good slacks and blouse for Victoria. No business suits for them for the work they would do this week.

  After a good breakfast and Lena’s good wishes, they set off to inspect their first building. They had estimated that they could do two buildings per day, taking into consideration drive time, talking to tenants and supers, and walking through the buildings, most of which were six to twelve stories tall. They may not even get through two buildings in one day, depending on the drive time or what they encountered in each building.

  The first building on their list was the one in which David had taken that apartment. They found the super, Bud Hollister, who had been expecting them ever since meeting Victoria the week before. He had a list all ready of the issues with the building. They were mostly repair issues—the public restroom on each floor were in need of renovation. The building was around 70 years old, and Bud swore the restrooms hadn’t been updated since then.

  There was one tenant who was consistently behind on his space rent, so Rafael agreed to have a talk with him. Other than that, everything was OK as far as Bud was concerned. Rafael invited him to walk through the building with them so they could examine it together. When they saw the restrooms, they understood what Bud was talking about. They may have been updated in the Sixties, but not since. Rafael made a note of that in the appropriate folder.

  It took three hours to cover the building, talk to folks, especially the one behind in his rent, and to see everything, even the basement where the heating and plumbing systems were located. So by the time they were finished it was time to go to lunch.

  They had just pulled into the parking area of a fast food joint when Victoria’s cell phone rang.

  “Hello?”

  “Hello, Miss Thornton. This is Lieutenant Mobry.”

  “Yes, Lieutenant. I’m so sorry I haven’t called you sooner. I assume you have heard that my mother killed herself on the twenty-ninth,” Victoria said.

  “Yes, I had heard that, and I want to say how very sorry I am. You have really had a rough go of it lately. And you may be in for another shock. Can I come to your house this morning to chat with you for a little bit? I have something to discuss with you that I would rather do in person than over the phone.”

  “Well, I’m not home right now. Rafael and I have been working this morning and we just pulled into a burger joint for lunch. Would you want to meet us here?”

  “I would rather wait until you’re at home. What I have to say, is best said more privately,” he said.

  All right,” she said. “Can you come around four-thirty? I think we can be home by then,” she asked, looking at Rafael for confirmation.

  He nodded his assent.

  “That will be fine,” he said.

  “OK, we’ll see you then. Oh, by the way, we just moved. Here’s our new address.”

  Victoria gave him the address, which he wrote down. She gave him brief directions on how to find it.

  “All right, I’ll see you soon.”

  “That was Lieutenant Mobry,” she told Rafael. “He wants to see us this afternoon. Says he has something to tell me that he doesn’t want to talk about over the phone. Curious, huh?”

  “For sure,” Rafael said.

  The afternoon passed rather slowly for Victoria because she kept wondering what in the world the lieutenant had to say. They finished at last, however, and drove quickly home. The lieutenant was there waiting.

  When they all went inside, they led him into the family room to sit down and asked if he’d like some coffee. He was pleased to accept, so Lena brought in three cups, and then turned to leave them alone.

  “Miss Ericksen,” he said, “please stay and sit down. This concerns you also.”

  Surprised, Lena came back in and sat down on the sofa near Victoria.

  “This is difficult for me to tell you, Victoria, because I don’t know whether or not you are aware of what I am about to tell you,” he began. “Miss Ericksen here knows, but I don’t know if you do or not.”

  He knew he was rambling and stalling, but it was because he was a bit nervous. When he’d had to make these revelations to a few others, it hadn’t always gone well. He had no idea how these two women would react.

  “Just tell me, Lieutenant,” Victoria said. “It can’t be any more shocking to me than anything else I’ve been through over the past three months.”

  “It may be, Miss Thornton, it just may be,” Lieutenant Mobry said. “I just got back the results of the DNA tests that we took from the other house. I know that with your mother deceased that what we were looking for is irrelevant now. However, something else turned up that you should know about.”

  Lena blanched. She knew where this was leading. How would Victoria react? She would soon know, because the lieutenant kept talking.

  “When the testing was done on your DNA, and your parents’ DNA, we found that ther
e was only one match. Victoria, Marian Thornton was not your mother.”

  Book 4 Sneak Peek

  Keep reading for a three chapter preview of Book 4: The Perfect Burn.

  Chapter 1

  “Not my mother!” Victoria gasped. “What do you mean, she’s not my mother?” She stared open-mouthed at Lieutenant Mobry.

  “There is no DNA match whatsoever between you and Marian Thornton,” he repeated. “David Thornton was your father, but Marian was not your mother.”

  Victoria looked questioningly first at Rafael, who just shrugged his shoulders and looked as bewildered as she did, and then at Lena, who just sat there, her face turned a deep red. Victoria sensed that she knew something about this bombshell that had just been dropped on her. But Lena kept her mouth shut, waiting to hear what the officer would say next.

  “So if Marian isn’t my mother, who is?” Victoria asked the lieutenant. “Do you know?”

  “Yes, I know,” he said solemnly. “Your mother is sitting right here with you. Lena Ericksen is your mother.”

  Lieutenant Mobry unconsciously held his breath waiting for Victoria’s reaction to his revelation. Rafael and Victoria both were frozen with shock. Lena sat quietly twisting her hands in her lap, afraid to look at Victoria.

  As soon as she could speak, Victoria turned to Lena and asked, “Is this true, Lena? Are you my mother for real? How … uh, why … uh, you and my dad?”

  Victoria couldn’t quite form the question that was burning in her mind. Had Lena and her dad been lovers? For how long? Did Marian know?

  Lena finally straightened her back, looked Victoria in the eyes and said, “Yes, I am your mother. It’s a long story, honey. Are you ready to hear it?”

  “I, I think so,” Victoria said hesitantly, wondering just what the story could be.

  “Excuse me, but I’m finished here,” the lieutenant said. “So if I’m not needed anymore, I’ll go so you three can talk.”

  Rafael stood as the lieutenant did and reached to shake his hand.

  “Thank you for coming,” Rafael said. “I think.”

  He grinned slightly at the lieutenant, who understood and nodded slightly.

  “Yes, thank you for all you have done over the past months,” Victoria said, also rising to her feet to shake hand with the officer. “I guess we won’t be needing you anymore. At least I hope we won’t. But we appreciate everything you have done. You’ve been kind and helpful during this awful time.

  “Just doing my job, ma’am,” he said. “But, you’re welcome. I’m glad to have been of service. I hope my news doesn’t cause a rift here between you and Miss Ericksen.”

  “No, not as far as I’m concerned it won’t,” Victoria said. “I just need to hear the story. That’s all.”

  After Lieutenant Mobry was gone, Victoria and Rafael settled back down to listen to Lena’s story. She fumbled a bit trying to find a good place to start the story, but then found it and began.

  “David and Marian were married while she was still caring for her ailing parents. David moved her parents into the house with them and hired a woman to cook for them, and hired Nancy—you remember Nancy—to be the housekeeper.

  “Marian’s parents, the Smiths, also had home health nurses who came in to help Marian care for them. But, as you can imagine, their care was a constant strain on Marian. She was young and had been their sole caregiver for nearly six years. She tried to juggle their care with being a wife to David, but it was just too much for her. I know that now. Back then, all I heard is that she was often short with David, cross with Nancy and the cook, and simply wasn’t what I considered a good wife to David.

  “I was a young receptionist, just out of high school down at your dad’s office. One day I needed a ride home and he offered to take me. We sat and talked in his car for a while that first day. A few days later, he took me home again. Then he began coming to my apartment to talk and to just escape the stress of Marian and her parents. One thing led to another, and eventually we, uh, we, well, you know.

  “It only happened a few times. David felt so guilty about it afterward that he would avoid me for a week or more afterwards. He didn’t mean to be unfaithful to his wife, but he was lonely and felt neglected. After all, they were still basically newlyweds. But then he would take me home again, and we’d just talk for several evenings, and then it would happen again.

  “What he didn’t know, and I never let on, was that I had fallen head over heels in love with him. I was certain that I loved him far better than Marian did. He was aware that I cared for him, but I don’t think he knew just how much I loved him. Anyway, it didn’t take long for me to learn that I was pregnant.

  “Soon after I got pregnant, the Smiths both died, one soon after the other. Now, you have to realize that all this took place within the first year or so after David and Marian were married. It seemed like a long time then, but in retrospect, it really wasn’t. After they died, Marian turned more of her attention to David, so he quit coming to see me. I was still working at the office and seeing him every day, but he stopped coming to my apartment.

  “Soon after her folks died, Marian went to the doctor for a pregnancy test. She had skipped a couple of periods and thought she was pregnant. But in doing the testing, the doctor discovered that not only was it a false pregnancy, but that Marian was sterile and could never have children. I think she was actually relieved to learn that. But David was sorely disappointed. He wanted children, but she really didn’t.

  “During the last couple months of my pregnancy, David approached Marian with the idea of adopting a baby. He didn’t tell her about me at all. It took him several tries to talk Marian into adoption, but when he did, he arranged things so that when you were born, he and Marian came to the hospital to take you home. David and I agreed to insist that this was a closed adoption. That they would never know whom the birth mother was. Of course, David knew, but that prevented Marian from finding out.

  “When you were about two months old, the cook they had quit. David asked me if I would be interested in the position. He knew from the time he had spent with me that I loved cooking and was pretty good at it, even being so young. I said yes, and so he hired me without a word to Marian as to the fact that I was really your mother.”

  All the time Lena was talking, Victoria sat on the edge of her seat taking in every word, trying to visualize, to understand the situation that both her dad and her mother, well, Marian, had been in at the time. Rafael had his hand on her back, lightly massaging it to convey his love and support through his fingertips.

  “So I moved into that upstairs apartment and began my life working for your parents. I also took care of you a lot, as Marian really didn’t cotton to being a mother. She was busy trying to break into the right social circles and didn’t have time to be bothered with a toddler. I was thrilled to be able to care for you, my own baby. I had seriously hesitated in giving you up. David had to talk long and hard to get me to agree. He promised that as soon as he could figure out how, that he would hire me into some position in the house so that I could at least watch you grow. The cook’s resignation was very fortuitous, allowing him to hire me sooner than I had dared to hope.

  As you grew into a little girl, Marian began commenting on how curious it was that you bore such a strong resemblance to David. He tried to make a joke of it, saying things like, ‘I ordered a baby that would look like me,’ or ‘Who do you want her to look like—Santa Claus?’

  “You were about eleven or twelve and had appendicitis—remember?”

  Victoria nodded.

  “They took blood samples from both David and Marian to see if either of them were a match to you, just in case of an emergency. David was a match. You’re both B negative, which is a fairly rare type. That really set Marian on edge, and after they got home, she raked him over the coals about it. David held out for several weeks, but Marian kept badgering him about it, hammering home the fact that you look like him and then to have the same rare blood
type was just more than she could accept as coincidence.”

  “David held out on her for months. Marian would get involved in her social activities and forget about it for a while, then something would set her off again, and she would make snide remarks, or grill David again about you.”

  “Funny, I never heard any of these arguments,” Victoria said, interrupting Lena’s story. “I thought I heard all their spats. But I missed this one completely.”

  “Oh, honey, you didn’t hear half of their arguments,” Lena said. “As far as this goes, I will give them both credit for never allowing you to hear any of their discussions about this subject. That was one thing that David told me that he put his foot down hard on. He told Marian when they first adopted you that you were to never know that you were adopted. He wanted you to know that you belonged to them, no questions asked. Marian agreed, because she was just selfish enough to want you to never wonder who your birth parents were and go looking for them.

  “Anyway, eventually she wore him down and he confessed that you were really his child, and mine. When she threatened to tell you the truth, he bribed her with money, which she fell for.”

  “So was that what those cash withdrawals from Daddy’s account that I can’t account for were?” Victoria asked.

  “Yeah, I’m sure,” Lena said. “That was when she started being mean to me, too. Not overtly mean, but little jabs here and there, giving me extra work to do, criticizing my cooking, questioning my shopping habits. You know, just little things to try to make my life miserable. If it hadn’t been for you, I’d have left long ago. But just being able to be with you and watch you grow made all of her insults and meanness worthwhile.”

  “It looks to me like, then, that every time Daddy gave her more money was probably when she would threaten to expose him to me,” Victoria guessed.

  “I imagine that’s right,” Lena agreed. “Obviously, I didn’t hear every argument they had, nor was I privy to all their business. But that is true to Marian’s form—to blackmail David into giving her more and more money.”