Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 135696 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 678(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 452(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135696 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 678(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 452(@300wpm)
Riggs didn’t want to imagine it.
But yeah.
At least they let the horses out.
“I know when Linc got out of prison,” Tru carried on, “he came to me and shared how he was concerned that Jeff and Sharon were still close. Something I had no clue was happening. I hadn’t seen her since before we lost Mom and Dad. Though, Lincoln didn’t share about Sharon’s psychological manipulation, I know he had deep concerns about her. Before he was sentenced, and after he went to prison, he’d warned me multiple times to be certain she had nothing to do with Kennedy or Jeff. He was also upset that I’d become estranged from them.”
“And Kennedy in all of this?” Harry pressed.
Tru blew out a sigh before he said, “Jeff was our baby brother, sheriff. You don’t know it’s stupid to spoil him and let him get his way and do everything for him when you’re doing it. He’s cute and your little brother. You just do it. Though, Kennedy learned how stupid that was tonight. Hence her being hysterical. But we got the full story at the hospital, which is why I’m here.”
“And what was that?” Harry asked.
“Sharon was messing with Jeff’s head. And for her to get at the money, probably in another effort to screw over Linc, and posthumously, Mom and Dad, she used Jeff to mess with Kennedy’s head. Though, I’ll say, that might be jaded when it comes to Sharon, since Jeff is after the money himself. My sister and I aren’t estranged. Medical school is no joke, and residency sucks all your time and energy. So there’s that. We also just don’t see eye to eye on some important things, the unending lawsuits being the biggest one of them. Though, she’s more about keeping Mom’s folks from getting the money. However, we were all flabbergasted Dad’s folks and Aunt Mary got in on the act. Greed, I’ve learned, makes people do shitty things. They saw the money was possibly up for grabs, and they pounced.”
Greed sure did that to people.
Riggs was living that nightmare in his own way with Angelica.
Tru continued, “But Kennedy’s always been the worst, along with Mom, in spoiling Jeff and seeing to his every need. Now Jeff,” he nearly spat the name, the emotion coming out of him now, “he and I were estranged. But this had a lot to do with him killing my mother and father in an ‘accident’ and ruining a man I loved very much, who busted his hump and gave, essentially his life to cover for him.”
“It’s my understanding, in the lawsuit, Kennedy asserted that you didn’t get along with Lincoln and your mom,” Harry commented.
“No, Jeff asserted that,” Tru contradicted. “They filed those papers, and Kennedy didn’t read them before she signed them. She lost her mind. Called me and apologized. Told me she read Jeff the riot act. But I don’t blame her. Honestly, there’s so much paperwork with that crap, it’s a wonder I got through my residency with all the stuff I had to wade through. I could see just signing your name and being done with it.”
“Right, so with all of that, I’m wondering why all of you kept this secret even after Lincoln died,” Harry noted.
“Because he told us to from the very beginning. Because he didn’t want everyone all over the globe talking shit about Mom and Dad. The books have been translated into over thirty languages, sheriff. It’d be everywhere. Also because he knew Jeff was a fuckup, and he wanted him to get help, not be sent to juvenile detention, but he wasn’t in a position, considering he was in prison, serving Jeff’s time, to get it for him. And if Lincoln was going to put himself that far out to protect their secret, and his son, I loved him too much to go against it.”
Couldn’t fault the guy for that.
Tru still had more.
“And I have to say, things didn’t get better after it all happened, because we went to live with Dad’s parents, and they were devoted to Dad more than Linc, in a way that, I loved them before they got in on the legal action, but even I thought it was weird. I think they sensed, too, that things were not as they seemed, even if they weren’t in on the secret. As such, they sensed Kennedy and I were their precious son’s children, and Jeff was their less precious son’s. Don’t ask me how. All I know is, they treated him differently, not spoiled and nurtured and cosseted. And I think that got under his skin, the reality he murdered two people who adored him got under his skin, and since Sharon somehow managed to stay close to him, she worked that angle too, because it corroborated all the shit she was filling his head with.”