“And just why not?”
“Because,” Carter said smugly, “if you do not go along with this, then you will leave me with no choice.”
“Please,” Ada said, lifting a hand outward. “Tell me what you are threatening.”
“I will tell the police that you were the one who shot Barker Blackwood.”
It seemed all the air was sucked out of the room as Ada felt all eyes turn on her. She didn’t back down, meeting their gazes one at a time, finding no one was surprised. So, they had all been discussing this behind her back — how to ensure her compliance.
“And just why,” she said through gritted teeth, “would you think thatIshot Barker Blackwood? That is absolutely ridiculous!”
“Inspector Finch came to us to match the gun and ammo,” her father said in a low voice. “I knew immediately where those bullets had come from. Combine that with where your friends were that night…” He shrugged. “It wasn’t that hard to determine.” He met her gaze. “I trained you well. Too well.”
“Even if it was my gun, that doesn’t mean I shot it,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest before looking at her father. How could he have told Carter what he had deduced? “Are you truly going to allow him to threaten to turn your daughter over to the police?”
“If you shot a man, Ada…” her father said, before shaking his head. “There’s nothing I can do. I know that your friends are involved in this. I told you that you should distance yourself from them.”
Her mother stood, looking at her imploringly. “You have to do this, Ada,” she said before her voice dropped to a whisper. “You don’t have much of a choice. It could ruin your life… and your friends’ as well.”
Ada’s stomach dropped, swirling, sinking as the fight began to dissipate, despair taking its place. She thought desperately, but the more she did, the more she continued to come to the same conclusion. Her mother was right. She couldn’t put anyone at risk.
She only had one option.
And all she could think about was Jonny.
“I will go get dressed,” she said. “I’m not hungry anyway.”
Before anyone could stop her, she ran from the table and up the stairs. If nothing else, she had to explain, so that at least he knew what was happening, what he had meant to her.
For as much as she had tried to deny it, most especially to herself, she wasn’t just falling for him.
She already had.
Jonny looked up from his desk as a boy came running into the shipping office.
“What’s this?” he asked as the boy handed him a folded piece of paper.
“Don’t know.” The boy shrugged, holding out his hand. Jonny searched his pocket for a coin but didn’t give it to him quite yet.
“Who’s it from?”
“A lady,” he said. “Told me to give it to you. That’s all I got.”
“Fine,” Jonny said, dropping the coin into the boy’s handbefore tearing open the paper. His eyes skimmed the words, his heart dropping the further he got through it.
Jonny,
I’m sorry to do this in writing, but I don’t have much choice, as I cannot escape this house. Not before my fate is sealed. My parents and the Carters know the truth about what happened to Blackwood and they are using it to force me into marriage to David. I need you to know that I don’t want this. I don’t choose this. But if I do not follow through, the Carters will make the secret known and I fear that they will bring down everyone else who was involved with me. I will always treasure our time together. Be the man you truly are, deep within. The man you always were before Blackwood tried to take it from you. That was the man I was falling in love with.
Yours,
Ada
The letter fell from his fingers as he stood in shocked silence.
He had told her to marry Carter, time and again, and yet, now that it was actually coming to be, he had never known such despair. He stumbled backward, reaching an arm out to hold himself up on his desk as he struggled not to be sick.
It would be one thing if she had chosen this, but to know that she was being forced into it….
