by Jill Sanders
“You aren’t pregnant, are you?” Rebecca gasped after a moment.
“No.” Clara frowned and shook her head slightly, then she glanced over at him. The look in her eyes let him know that she was unsure of what to do next.
“Mr. Cruz, we think that your daughter, that Gina, was murdered for the ten percent shares in your business you were going to give her,” he said quickly.
Rebecca gasped again and covered her heart with her hands. “No.” She shook her head. “Oh, my poor baby.”
The fact that Clara’s father remained silent told him that the man had already guessed as much.
“But…” Clara’s stepmother turned to her father. “Honey, don’t those have to be in someone’s name? You were going to do joint shares again. Even if they did kill Gina for her shares, you would have to sign them over, correct?”
“Yes,” Carlo said softly. “I would.” He nodded, avoiding Clara’s eyes.
“Well, there you have it then.” Rebecca started to stand up. “I’ll just go get those drinks then.”
“They wouldn’t have to sell them, not if they inherited them after their husband died and left everything in his will to them, including the shares.”
Rebecca froze mid-step. Slowly, she turned around. “Are you… accusing me of murdering my own daughter?”
“Step,” Clara added quickly. Her eyes narrowed as they both watched Rebecca’s face for any hint of guilt.
“This is preposterous.” Rebecca rushed back over to Carlo’s side. “I loved that girl like she was my own. Both of you.” She motioned to Clara. “I have everything I could ever want here. Why would I jeopardize what I have?” She turned to her husband. “Tell them.” She waved her arms around the room.
Instead of answering, Carlo glanced up at her. “I’ve had my doubts over the years myself,” he said softly, shocking everyone in the room except Reagan.
Chapter 19
Clara stood up, breaking the silence. “I can’t remember anything from that day. I have a list of medications here.” She pulled the list Reagan had printed at the hotel out of her pocket. “Medications that can cause someone memory loss. If I go up to your bathroom, would I find any of those in your cupboard still? Would any of these be on a list your doctor prescribed to you back then?”
Rebecca’s eyes narrowed. “No, I don’t take any pills.” She waved the accusation off.
“No, but I do.” Her father stood up. “And you have access to them.” He held out his hands and she handed the list to him.
“I can see two so far that I have somewhere in the house.”
“We all know you were lying about the memory loss.” Rebecca’s voice rose. “You didn’t even tell the police about it,” she accused.
“I was young and had just woken up next to my murdered sister.” Clara heard her voice crack and tightened her fist to hold back the slew of emotions that were bubbling to get out. “I’d never been arrested or questioned by the police before,” she said a little more calmly.
“You were covered in Gina’s blood.”
“Because I woke on the floor, next to her. As if I’d just passed out after finding her like that. Even the medical examiner claimed that I had no defensive wounds. That the blood on my hands could have come about because I’d tried to stop Gina from bleeding out.”
That seemed to stump her stepmother. Her eyes were darting back and forth between her and her father.
Then, suddenly, she calmed down. “Lies.” She smiled. “You have no proof. It’s been five years. Don’t you think I would have made a move on Carlo’s life by now if I was after his money?”
“You couldn’t.” Her father turned to her. “At least not until I officially change my will. Which you constantly asked me to for the past five years and which I finally told you I had just recently, however…” Her father turned and looked at Rebecca. “I lied. I never changed my will.”
A high pitch sound started deep in Rebecca’s chest. “You lied?” she cried out. “You lied about changing your will?”
“Yes,” her father said easily as he raised his chin. “I was hoping it wasn’t you, but I noticed how you had reacted to Clara’s return. The moment she came back, you started building up the lies, telling me how smart it was for me to cut her from the will. You had a million reasons for keeping the money from her. It was hard to convince me to cut her from my will when she wasn’t around, but the second she stepped foot back into this house, you had a list going.”
“I won’t stand here and listen to these lies.” She started to move towards the door, but Reagan stepped in front of the hallway.
“You’re not going anywhere. Not until the police get here and we go over this all once more with them,” Reagan said, pulling out his cell phone.
“This is my house—”
“Sit down,” her father yelled across the room. “This is my house. Your name isn’t even on the title,” he growled. “Nor is it ever going to be. When I go, everything I have still goes to Clara.” He nodded to her.
When Rebecca stayed where she was, Regan motioned to the chair as he dialed the phone.
“What I don’t get is,” Clara said softly, “who did Gina scratch? You were the one to find me and Gina.” She noticed the look in her stepmother’s eyes as they darted towards the hallway.
To her horror and surprise, she noticed Corey standing just outside of her father’s office. He held a gun in his hands, pointed directly at Reagan’s chest as he dialed the police.
“Reagan!” she screamed, just as Corey pulled the trigger.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Reagan hit the ground. He landed behind one of the white sofas. Then she was being tossed to the ground by her father as another shot rang out in the room.
With the weight of her father pinning her down, she gasped for air and tried to free herself so she could find out if Reagan was alive.
She continued to cry for him until a shadow fell over her. Looking up into Corey’s face, she remembered a time when she’d imagined him to be attractive. Back when she’d dated men that she believed would give her everything she’d wanted in life.
“Corey?” She shook her head. “Why?”
Rebecca walked over and wrapped her arms around her ex-boyfriend.
“Your sister found out about us.” He motioned with his free hand between him and Rebecca. “We wanted to get some of your father’s money but after what happened that night, we made a new plan to get all of it. Including the shares, we hadn’t even really care about those before, but with our new plan we could have had it all. That night changed everything, when Gina walked in on us. It was stupid of us to steal a moment alone, but… when you’re in love... Gina was very upset and threatened to expose us right there during her party. You see, I was all set to propose to you that night. That way, we would have been able to continue to see each other behind your back while enjoying the lifestyle we wanted. Then, once your old man died, we could finally be together. Instead, we came up with a plan to frame you so that Rebecca could convince Carlo to remove you from his will while you took the fall and rotted away in jail. I spent the next week hiding while my arms healed from Gina’s attack. But then you took off on us. Rebecca tried to convince Carlo that you were guilty, but without you around, he wouldn’t listen. You ruined everything by taking off on us,” he screamed. But then he smiled. “But then your father hired him.” He motioned with his free hand to the other side of the room where Reagan was. “Rebecca filled me in on his reports, and I flew down to Florida and hired some bum off the street to kill you and make it look like a robbery.” He shrugged and she remembered that first night someone had attacked her. “You know what they say—never hire a crack addict to do a job you want done right.”
“You shot Reagan?” she asked, remembering the second night.
“Yeah, but then I heard sirens.” He sighed. “And got spooked.”
“What about Reagan’s car accident?” She asked, unsure of why they would go after him
.
“A moment of sheer stupidity.” He shrugged. “I thought for a moment that if I got rid of him, it would convince your father you were trying to hide something; besides, I hated the way the guy looked at you.” He turned towards Rebecca. “And the way she looked at him.”
Clara’s eyes were glued to the gun pointing at her forehead. She wanted to look away to see if Reagan was okay, but she was frozen in place with fear.
“Baby, it’s only ever been you.” Rebecca jumped in. “We didn’t mean to kill her,” Rebecca added. “She jumped at Corey and scratched him,” she added, holding onto the younger man. “I… I just picked up the first thing near me and…” The woman closed her eyes. “I really did love you girls like you were mine.” She sniffled. But the fact that her body was pressed up against Corey’s as he pointed a gun at her head didn’t convince Clara that she was sincere. “Corey snuck some of your father’s pills into your drink and we moved you in to the office, then… I waited and found you after I heard you scream for help.”
Just then she heard her father groan and the gun was quickly turned to aim at him instead. Clara swung out her legs, catching Corey in the shins. The gun went flying out of his hands as he fell backwards.
She pushed her father aside and scrambled for the weapon just as Rebecca flung herself on top of her. Then she was fighting her stepmother, the woman who had helped raised her, for her life.
“Son of a…” Reagan cursed under his breath when he woke and felt the sting of yet another bullet that had ripped through his skin. Instantly, he jerked back to the now and remembered Clara.
Glancing around, he heard someone fighting and pushed off the ground. Finding his phone, he finished dialing nine-one-one. Then he chanced a glance around the sofa and saw Rebecca and Clara wrestling for the gun. Corey was kneeling on the ground, holding a large gash on his forehead.
He heard Clara scream and dropped his phone to rush to help her. He hoisted Rebecca off of Clara, and the woman kicked out and screamed as he tossed her through the air.
This gave Clara access to the gun, which she then turned on him blindly.
“Easy, baby, I’ve already taken two bullets for you. I’m thinking my luck is going to run out if I take another one.” He held up his hands towards her.
“Reagan,” she cried out, jumping into his arms. “They… they killed Gina,” she cried against his chest.
“Easy,” he said, taking the gun from her hands and holding it out so that Rebecca didn’t run out of the house. “Baby,” he said to Clara, “my phone. Tell the dispatcher the address.” He motioned with his free hand.
She ran over and picked up the phone, then rushed to her father’s side. “Daddy?” she cried, then she relayed the information over the phone.
“He’s just hit his head,” she said after a moment. “No, he’s breathing normally. Daddy?” she said again.
He watched out of the corner of his eye as her father started to come to. A groan from Corey had him stepping back. “Tell them we have wounded,” he added, feeling the spot on his wrist starting to sting. Switching the gun to his left hand, he glanced down at the spot. “Damn,” he said. “Clara.” He glanced down at her. When she noticed the gouge out of his skin, she cried out, dropping the phone and rushing to his side.
“You’ve been shot.” She wrapped his wrist in a throw blanket. Tying it off as tight as she could, she applied pressure.
“I did tell you I’d taken two bullets for you.” He smiled. “I’m okay, I just think maybe you should…” He handed her the gun. “I need to sit for a moment. This time it hurts a lot worse, and I don’t want to pass out and have these two idiots rush you.”
He moved over and sat on the edge of the opposite sofa. His eyes were still glued to Rebecca, and he occasionally glanced over at Corey, who was still moaning on the floor as more blood spurted from the gash.
“How did he get hurt?” he asked Clara.
“I kicked him,” she answered proudly. “He hit his head on the corner of the glass coffee table.” Then she turned to her stepmother. “You’re awfully quiet.” She smiled. “Trying to figure out how you’re going to get out of this?”
“You have no proof. It’s your word against ours,” she started, but Reagan’s chuckling stopped her.
“We came in fully prepared to get a confession.” He nodded to the phone lying next to her father. “The recording should be enough evidence. That and I’d expect Corey’s DNA matches that found under Gina’s nails. I’m betting he’s never done a 23andMe test before since he wasn’t in the database.”
He knew he was mumbling but talking made him focus on something other than the fact that his wrist bone was most likely broken and half of the skin covering the bone was gone.
“Reagan?” Clara’s soft voice anchored him even further.
“Talk to me, baby,” he said softly. “I need to stay awake.”
Just then, her father sat up. “Clara?” he asked, looking around.
“Daddy, help Reagan. He’s been shot,” she said, keeping her eyes on Corey as he started to move as well.
Just then, he could hear the sirens in the distance and relaxed slightly.
“You okay?” Carlo asked as he glanced down at the blood-soaked blanket.
“I’m going to marry your daughter,” he said, “and I’ll be pretty pissed if you try to stop me.” Then he passed out cold.
Chapter 20
Over the next three days, Clara spent as much time as she could in Reagan’s hospital room. He’d had two surgeries, the first one to put pins in his broken bone, the second to patch the chunk of skin that was missing with a piece from just above his hip. Each time he went under the knife, she worried.
His parents arrived the morning after the shooting and had spent as much time with him as she had. The second day, his sister Bella showed up.
Clara had instantly liked the younger girl. Even though she was only five years younger than her, Bella informed her that she was graduating college later that year.
“How young were you when you started?” she asked, impressed.
“I graduated high school at sixteen.” She smiled.
“Both of our kids did. Reagan was so bored during school, the only way to get him to sit still in class was to give him more challenging work,” Marissa added with pride in her eyes.
“They take after me,” Roman added with a wink.
“Right,” Marissa and Bella said at the same time.
“It took you seven years to find Mom and Reagan, who were living less than fifty miles from you.”
“Smart aleck.” Roman hugged his daughter.
Clara thought about her family. She’d always believed she had taken after her father, until one day she’d seen a picture of her mother. Both Gina and she had taken after Ronda Cruz, a woman who had died far too young.
The day they released Reagan, they spent the night back at the hotel, since she couldn’t walk into her father’s house without the memories surfacing.
She was surprised when her father showed up at their hotel room.
“I thought I’d come see how Reagan was doing,” he said as she let him into the suite. Reagan’s parents had taken the other room so they could be close to him. They all had tickets to fly back to Florida the following day, and they had wanted to remain close to Reagan.
“He’s doing fine.” She motioned to where Reagan sat on the sofa, his right arm resting on the side of the sofa while he tried to eat a plate of spaghetti with his left hand.
“Carlo, come on in,” Reagan called out.
“He’s on pain pills,” she explained quietly. She’d tried to get him to swallow the pills the doctor had prescribed him, but he’d refused. Until his mother stepped into the room and gave him a look. Then he’d swallowed them without complaints.
“You’ll have to show me how you do that,” she’d murmured to her.
“I didn’t get a chance to say thank you.” Her father sat next to Reagan. “For saving my daugh
ter.”
Reagan smiled and set his fork down. When his plate teetered on the edge of the sofa, she moved it quickly before it ended up on the floor.
“I love her. I’ll take a million bullets for her if I have to.” He smiled. “You hurt her.” He frowned. “She thought… that you believed she’d killed Gina.”
“Never,” her father said, his eyes turning to hers. “I knew something was up. Henry and I… we both knew it. We thought we could draw Rebecca and her co-conspirator out ourselves. I never wanted you to get hurt. Either of you.” He glanced between them both. “I needed Rebecca to think that I had changed my will so that I was the target and not you.”
“Dad.” She rested her hand on his shoulder.
“I never meant to hurt you. Really.” He stood up and wrapped her in his arms. “I love you. I loved your sister so much.”
His body shook and she realized he was crying. She held onto him more tightly and joined him.
When he pulled back, he shocked her by adding, “They’re looking into Ronda’s death. The police.” He wiped his eyes with a tissue Reagan’s mother handed him. She took the one she offered to her as well.
“What?” she balked. “Mom?” She shook her head.
“Rebecca mentioned something about it when she was interviewed. They think there’s a possibility that she poisoned Ronda.” He buried his face in his hands. “She killed your mother to get closer to me and all for money. I was so blind. I should have never allowed myself to trust someone else. You girls were everything to me, at one point. Then… I wish I’d never started my business. I lost sight of what was important to me. I allowed my greed and the new power I had to blind me.” He looked up at her, his eyes red from tears. “How can you ever forgive me? Your mother and sister are gone because… I trusted someone I shouldn’t have.”
“Dad.” She held him again. What could she say? She’d never been as happy as when she’d been scraping pennies to pay bills. When she’d had access to anything and everything, she’d been blind to real friendships and had taken her family for granted.