by Jen Davis
David grabbed hold of Chloe and pulled her into him, his arms wrapping tightly around her, almost squeezing the breath out of her. It took her all of five seconds to realize how much she had missed David over the years and wondered if she had been wrong about not going to see him all along. Tears threatened to fall, but she forced them down, melting into David’s embrace and returning the hug with mixed feelings of suspicion, relief, and love.
David broke the hug and held her at arm’s length, a beaming smile on his face and laughter in his voice. “Oh, baby girl, we found you. Look at you! You look wonderful! I have missed you so very much, and now here you are!”
Chloe was stunned, but at the same time she shared the feelings with David, with the exception that she also felt shame. She had been wrong all these years—she could have gone to him at any time. David would have protected her, but instead, she foolishly believed what her father had told her. She didn’t know what to say; instead, she embraced David again, still trying to fight back the emotions that were threatening to spill out.
“Oh, David,” she said into his shoulder. “I am so sorry. I should have come to you, but he told me…I have missed you more than you know.”
David laughed to let her know there was nothing to be forgiven. “It’s okay. I knew we would see each other again.”
A thought suddenly stabbed her. If Jack called David that morning after discovering her in the lobby of the FBI building, how did David get from Chicago so fast? Was he already in New Orleans and was this all one big karmic coincidence? Chloe pulled back with the question in her eyes, but no accusation in her voice. “How long have you been in New Orleans?”
“Two days,” David said.
The timing made no sense. “Two days? But…”
“We heard you were here and got here as fast as we could.”
“We?” Chloe asked, suddenly tense again.
David let out a reassuring laugh as he turned Chloe to see Dr. Michaelson resting his hands on the back of a chair, both excited and relieved to see her. She was just as happy to see Elias as she was David, albeit mildly curious. She had never known Elias to be outside of her father’s beck and call radius, but then again, if David wanted or needed the doctor with him, who was Matthew to say no?
Chloe gave a questioning look first to David, then to Jack, asking whether or not she was safe. David laughed and Jack smiled, both seemingly amused by her uncertainty. David gave her a kiss on the cheek. “Everything is fine.”
“It just feels…” She was going to say wrong. Something is wrong and this isn’t the happy reunion it’s supposed to be. She didn’t want to believe her words, so she didn’t say them out loud.
As if reading her mind, David cupped her chin in his hands, giving her a consoling look. “Everything is fine and is going to be fine. We have much to discuss that will hopefully make your feelings of unease go away, but for now, please know that you’re in no danger here. We are here only to help you.”
Chloe raised a suspicious eyebrow. “Help me, how?”
David nodded his head from side to side, contemplating his answer. “It has been too many years and we have a lot to talk about. I suspect we will all have a surprise or two to reveal along the way, but for now go say hello to an old friend who has missed you as much as, I suspect, you have missed him.”
All at once the tension left her body and comfort, warmth, and family surrounded her. She hugged Elias tightly and he did the same as he stroked the back of her hair.
After a few minutes, Chloe’s embrace instantaneously slackened as all the blood rushed out of her body, the pit of her stomach dropped, and she took three steps back from Elias in trembling and terrified shock. She looked over the doctor’s shoulders, trying to breathe and shuddering with every intake of air. She thought it must be a trick of her mind; what she was seeing was not real, but her logical and rational mind knew it was no apparition she was looking at. But how could it be?
She was hypnotized by the sparking, smiling emerald green eyes staring back at her. Then he bowed at the waist, tipped his invisible hat, and spoke a single word. “M’lady.”
The room went black. It was the first time she had ever passed out.
Chapter 39
Chloe regained consciousness on one of the sofas, slowly opening her eyes and staring at the ceiling. She didn’t care how long she had been out, didn’t try to hide the fact that she was awake, and didn’t have to ask herself where she was or what had happened; she clearly remembered.
She could sense herself being watched and knew that David, Dr. Michaelson, and Christopher were all seated around her, waiting for her to compose herself and sit up. She no longer felt overjoyed; the ominous stab between her shoulder blades had been replaced with curiosity and dread.
Chloe owed it to David to listen to what he had to say. The fact that her back-from-the-dead bridegroom was sitting next to her didn’t help either. She took a deep breath and sat up, making herself as comfortable as she could, curled up in the corner of the sofa. She took another breath before forcing herself to look at Christopher sitting in the chair next to her and looking at her like he always had since the day they first met—a crooked grin and eyes that still seemed to be able to read her mind. Her stomach did an unexpected little flip, but she wrote that off as memories of the past coming back to the surface and the shock of finding out that he was not, in fact, dead.
“I asked Jack to leave so we could have privacy. Shall we start with the obvious question?” David asked, looking at Christopher.
When Chloe spoke, it was cold and deliberate—she refused to let any emotion get in the way and muddle up her thought process. “I think that would be best.”
“The short story is that I found out about Matthew’s plan to kill Christopher on your wedding day,” David said. “We found out who he had chosen to cause the accident and got to him before he could carry out his order.”
“Who caused the accident?”
David waved his hand like he was swatting a fly away. “He was nobody important until he tried to kill Mr. Crescent during a collection. Unfortunately for this particular gentleman, his gun misfired and Crescent wasn’t alone when it happened. Instead of killing him, Matthew decided to use this man to his benefit. We found this man and directed him on how the accident would actually occur.”
That’s how he’s here, living and breathing, sitting next to me, close enough to reach out and touch. Chloe had so many questions and she was trying desperately to organize her thoughts. She looked at Christopher, still having a hard time believing he was real. “And you?”
Christopher looked back at her with ache in his eyes. “I’ve missed you.”
“That’s not what I meant,” she said sharply.
“I gave him an anesthetic and put him to sleep,” the doctor said. “The man who hit them was told where to hit the truck so that Christopher would be a little broken and bruised, but not in any serious danger. Because of the chaos with people trying to help and getting in the way, nobody noticed me giving him the injection. I put him to sleep and made sure to put him in the first ambulance to get there.”
“Why?” she asked David. “Why didn’t you stop the whole thing from happening?”
“Renee, you must understand. I couldn’t stop it. For one thing, this man who caused the accident earned his death. For another, I couldn’t let Matthew know that I had found out about his plan. Believe me when I tell you that I knew it would devastate you, but I couldn’t stop it. Matthew has been very good for business and I needed him.” He put up his hand before she could say anything. “It’s selfish, I know. But I needed him and I never would have thought he would tell you the truth of what happened or his reasons. I never thought you would leave. I’m sure he didn’t either.”
“He honestly thought I’d stay after he did what he did and said what he said?”
David got up and made himself a drink. “Nobody is allowed to leave without permission. And you did stay. Granted, only for
a few weeks, but you stayed. I am curious though. What finally made you decide to leave?”
She gave them a brief recount of what happened, the whole time feeling like a knife was being plunged in her chest. “He had already destroyed and terrified me. I wouldn’t have been able to stand anymore pain because of him. And when he was done hurting me, there is no doubt in my mind that he would kill me.”
David raised his eyebrows at her. “He told you that?”
“Did you hear anything I just told you?” Chloe asked, exasperated.
David nodded in the doctor’s direction. “Elias told me that Matthew took his anger out on the girls.”
Chloe took a deep breath, remembering what Alice had told her about the aftermath of her disappearance. “I heard.”
David sat back down and said, “I know about the girl who died after you left.”
“Do you know what he did to Sasha?”
David’s face turned to silent fury for a moment. “Jack told me.”
“Then you also know about the ten other women he has murdered over the past eight years.” Chloe did not say this as a question, but more like an accusation. “Why haven’t you done anything about that?”
“Because of you,” David stated like it was the most obvious answer.
“Me?” she asked, surprised.
“Matthew’s ultimate goal is to overthrow me. He loves the power a little too much. The more power he has, the happier he is and believes himself better than anyone else. I have not done anything about this for many reasons.” David gave an amused chuckle. “One of those reasons is that I am rather enjoying the game and I haven’t lost yet, so I must be better at it than I thought. Another reason is that Matthew has been very good for business, and replacing him would set me back quite a bit. However, he has also instigated and followed through with many activities that have gone against my explicit instructions. Matthew believes himself to be invincible and immune to consequences. The penalties for some of his decisions will be his own ruination and I will be there to see it, if not make it happen myself.” David held up a hand to stop Chloe from interrupting. “I know the reason Matthew is murdering these women is to get you back to Boston, which, I understand, you plan on doing. He has always wanted the ultimate power, and in his mind, the only way he can do that is to use you to get to me. Unfortunately, we both need you. He needs you to get to me and I need to you to finally stop him.”
“You both need me.” Chloe said the words as if she was debating whether or not to believe what David was telling her. “I don’t understand why you would need me. You are the end all, be all of final decisions. If you want to stop my father and remove him from power, it could be done at the snap of your fingers. Hell, Crescent would probably do it for you.”
David leaned forward, his eyes saying he agreed with her. “I need you, Renee, because when the time comes—if you are going back, that time will be soon—it’s important that you are there. You are, after all, next in line.”
Unlike other Families in organized crime, in David’s Family, there were three ways to become the boss: whoever has permission to justifiably kill the current “king,” the oldest child if the person in charge dies in a manner other than murder, or by stepping down and David appointing a successor. David is going to kill my father, she thought. And when he does, he wants me to take over because I’m his daughter.
“Renee…” David started.
“My name is Chloe,” she snapped. “You make it sound like I would want to take his place, that I should be honored to step into his shoes. Granted, I would be much better at it than he ever was, but who’s to say I even want it? Have you considered that? You’ve told me why you need me. Why does my father need me?”
“Since the day you were born I have always known how he has felt about you. While you were growing up, I did everything in my power to make him behave properly when it came to you. He played the role as well as he could, but he still resented the fact that he was forced to do it. He did it, in part, because he knows how I feel about you—how much I love you and cherish you. The bottom line is he would use you against me. He has already proven that he can hurt me by hurting you. I can only assume that once he has you back, he will not only continue to make your life miserable, but he will try to make every attempt worse than the one before. Once he believes he has me cornered to where I will agree to step down and appoint him in an effort to stop hurting you, he will have achieved his goal. He wants the power, but with his sense of self, he has no idea the harm he will cause. His only saving grace is that he’s not dumb enough to try to kill me himself or ask someone else to do it for him.”
“Because if someone else did it for him, he wouldn’t succeed you.” David nodded and Chloe continued trying not to show the impatience in her voice. “You’re avoiding answering my question, David. Why does he need me? How can he hope to win his prize by using me against you?”
David took a drink and exchanged a confirming look with both Dr. Michaelson and Christopher. “Because you are my granddaughter.”
Her face was twisted in confusion as she tried to process what she heard. “What was that?”
“You are my granddaughter. Matthew is not your biological father. My late son, Wyatt, is. You are the reason Matthew has not been removed from his post. You are the reason Matthew treads lightly around me.” David let go a compassionate sigh. “You are, and have always been, the reason for many of the decisions the two of us make.”
Chloe gave all three men a dumbfounded look, and their faces all told her the same thing: David was telling her the truth. Her shock was quickly being replaced by white-hot anger, and for the first time she could ever recall, she glared at David with abhorrence in her eyes and spoke with hardness in her voice. “Has my entire life been a lie?”
“I’m sorry, baby girl.”
Chloe was angry enough to cry and she knew she had to get out of the room. Slowly, she stood to leave and David put up a hand to stop her, which she swatted away. “I need a few minutes to think. I just found out that my entire life has been a lie, and, apparently, my sole purpose in life is to be a pawn for both you and my—”
She abruptly cut herself off and walked to the dining room where, maybe, it would give her some time to absorb the blows that were flying at her. She had calmed herself down to the point where she knew she had her emotions in check enough for her to think clearly, but the problem was she had too much to think about. The fact that her life had been nothing but a lie for the past twenty-eight years was irrelevant. The important thing was that her life over the past eight years had been her own and she wasn’t about to give it up so that the two men she had loved since childhood could use her to pit themselves against each other.
She could hear quiet talking from the other room and didn’t bother to try to eavesdrop. Whatever they were discussing, she would hear about it eventually. After a few minutes, she felt composed enough to go back and sat back down on the sofa. She had decided that no matter what else she was told, the wall she had built around herself would not crumble. She thought about when Nicholas had lost his ear. She didn’t flinch, she didn’t cower in terror, and she never had nightmares about it. If she could stomach that kind of brutality at ten years old, she could certainly deal with learning her entire life had been a lie.
Chapter 40
“When your mother first suspected she was pregnant, she came to me,” Dr. Michaelson began. “She told me that she was apprehensive to tell Matthew about the pregnancy for many reasons, but mostly because she knew he didn’t want any children. So, naturally, I tried to reassure her that everything would be fine. I had no idea Matthew was furious with Elise and swore he would have nothing to do with fatherhood. She probably would have been okay with his reaction to her pregnancy had it not been for the fact that the baby was fathered by somebody else. Because Matthew couldn’t produce children of his own, there was no question that you did not belong to him. Matthew had apparently been spending a lot of time
traveling for work and she was lonely. She told me that she and Wyatt began spending more and more time together when Matthew was out of town, and the affair inevitably happened. Don’t misunderstand, that doesn’t make what she did right or acceptable, but she made her choice and accepted responsibility for the consequences.” Dr. Michaelson strongly emphasized his point.
“Was she in love with Wyatt?” Chloe asked.
“I don’t know, but she did tell me that while she regretted what she had done, she never stopped loving your father and never would.”
Chloe narrowed her eyes at the phrase “your father.”
Dr. Michaelson gave her an apologetic look and continued. “Your mother died in childbirth, but she wouldn’t have if I were a stronger person.”
He could see Chloe come to the instant realization of the truth—he was responsible for her mother’s death. “Matthew made it undeniably and painfully clear to me that neither you nor your mother were to survive the birth.”
Chloe looked at him in absolute disbelief. “How could you do that? First do no harm. Ring a bell?”
“Because you lived, my wife died.” There was no blame in his voice as he looked at Chloe with grief in his eyes that showed the years of guilt and horror he had been carrying with him all this time. “But first he tortured her until I made my choice: my wife, or you and your mother. Helen died in a fire. The official report was that she had drunk herself into a stupor and passed out, leaving candles burning as she slept. The unofficial report—the truth—was that she had been bloodied, bruised, and broken. She had been lain out on the bed while Matthew’s men spread accelerant throughout the house and lit a dozen candles, tipping them over as they left the house, and burned her alive.”
Chloe didn’t think it was possible to feel someone else’s pain the way she was now. Her heart was aching. She couldn’t fathom what her friend had gone through and the pain he had been enduring all these years because of her father and his absolute abhorrence of her mother and her. She wanted to be angry with Elias, wanted to hate him and resent him for the rest of her life for causing her mother’s death. But, in his mind, he’d done the right thing, he’d saved an innocent life that he felt had the right to experience life, fully aware of the consequences of his decision.