Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 78598 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78598 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
“But your mother wasn’t happy with our cover story.” I knew Dad was talking to me, though I didn’t look away from Ivy. “I was the descendant of the Sister. The money was mine, and when I was trying to win her heart, I used it to take her all over the world.
“But then we had kids,” Dad said, voice heavy. “And we had to settle down while I fulfilled my duty to the hand that fed me—serving as sheriff and making every threat to the Sisters go away. Nora wasn’t pleased. Not with this house. Not with this life of wearing jeans and bargain threads while she pretended to live on a sheriff’s wife’s salary.”
My voice was dead. “That’s why she dropped us like hot shit and ran to Isaac.”
“There were many reasons why she left, son.” Dad lifted his hand as if searching for mine. I didn’t reach back. It dropped by his side. “Yes, that was part of it. With a wealthy husband, she didn’t have to hide her money anymore. I hate to say this, because I know she loves Paris, but getting pregnant by Isaac was by design. Once he finally left his first wife, playing pretend with me was over.
“She ran off with the sweet little girl I thought was my daughter, and my secret. Nora used her knowledge of the Society to get all my money in the divorce, then she blackmailed Marjorie, Eileen, Josephine, and Cynthia St. James for a place among the Sisters. If she wasn’t getting a cut of the money and their power, the whole world would find out the truth.”
I chuckled. “No wonder you were always sending me to shrinks, testing me for psychopathy. I come by my dead soul honest.”
“No, Cairo. There’s nothing wrong with you, son. You’re just... garden variety screwed up by your parents like the rest.”
That was the same thing I said to Dad all those months ago in an interrogation room.
“So our moms have us risking everything to protect Bedlam from being exploited, because they want to be the only ones exploiting it,” Legend said, voice deadened. “And because of that, several generations of our families have been trying to get their hands on that deed. But what are we saying? That old scrap of paper is still valid?”
“Of course it is.” Jacques stood and started pacing. “Deeds don’t expire. A de Souza never sold the land. They never signed it away. The owner of Bedlam is Amadeo de Souza’s last descendant.”
The truth hit me hard and fast in the face. “That’s why Steven Ellis had you sign that contract.”
“Yes,” she replied, shaking her head. “It really does all make sense now. The contract said all the land I owned would go to Steven Ellis if it wasn’t inherited by a blood relative. The land wasn’t the farm. It was Bedlam.”
“So he knows about the deed,” Legend said.
Ivy made a harsh noise. “He knows about the deed. The Sisters know about the deed. The Black Letter Crew knows about the deed. Everyone fucking knew but me.”
“It had to be that way, Ivy.” Dad reached for her hand, and she took it. “Your grandmother did have a will. In it she left you and your sister everything, including the deed and its location. Eileen sent me to retrieve the deed, and destroy it.”
“Destroy it?” Jacques repeated. “Did you?”
Jack dropped his gaze. “No, I didn’t. I knew I had done too much wrong to ever call myself a good man again, but as I stood in that bank holding the last thing an old woman had to give her orphaned granddaughters. A woman who had suffered because of tricks and lies told by my family. I just couldn’t do it.
“Instead, I kept the deed and lied to your mothers, saying I destroyed it.”
My brow scrunched. “Why? You didn’t give the deed to Ivy and Rainey. You kept up the lie that there was no will, so why bother keeping the deed?”
“I didn’t plan to keep the deed, or back the lie,” he explained. “It was the day after I retrieved the contents of the safe deposit box that I found a black letter on my doorstep.”
“Cavendish,” Ivy hissed. “He did the farm’s taxes for free. How easy is it to imagine that Gran asked the kind young man she thought was her friend, to help her draft her will too. I know now that it was no coincidence that Cavendish was so near my grandmother when all of this happened. He didn’t offer his services for free because Gran was nice to his mother.
“Steven Ellis must’ve dug up Bedlam’s true history while he was looking into his own. He found out a de Souza owned it and still did. He had back-up plans on back-up plans. First, get Gran to sign over everything legitimately to AgriProspects. That wasn’t working so... he sent Scott to get close to her, and he killed her.”