“No,you’vegot it all wrong. Mom never loved me.”
“Stop, of course she?—”
Elizabeth smacks a fist on the table. “Don’t treat me like a child. You’re so fucking clueless, Catriona. I thought for sure you would have figured it out by now.”
“Figured out what by now?”
“That Dad wasn’t the one who killed Mom, despite what you’ve been trying to prove for months.”
I suck in a breath. My eyes flit around the room like I can find someone to help, but with Cian prowling the perimeter, delighted by the display, no one else dares to move. Aiden is blank and unmoving at my side. “H-how did you know that?”
“Because you aren’t as smart as you think you are. Otherwise, you would have put it together that I was there that night.”
“No, you weren’t. Devin’s vehicle was the only one there.”
Elizabeth rolls her eyes. “Didn’t your husband piece it together? Devin was my alibi. I rode with him to the house. We’ve been in a relationship for months. He disabled it so it would look like he was stranded while I hid until it was safe.”
I’m shaking my head. There’s no way. She couldn’t. She wouldn’t.
Elizabeth continues, blotches of color high on her cheeks. “Poor little Catriona. Mom’s little princess.” She spits out the word like it’s poison. “She loved you best, she always did. And do you want to know why?”
I lean forward. “No, she loved you. She did.”
“She asked for a divorce after you were born. Did you know? Said she couldn’t put up with Dad anymore. Claimed Dad raped her. That she could barely look at me as a result. That’s why she was always distant from me. She doted on you but treated me like I was a monster.”
“No, she—no, I can’t?—”
“She told me she couldn’t stomach living a lie anymore. That night, she caught me in bed with Devin. I tried to explain that we were in a relationship, but she kept screaming that it wasn’t right. That she knew I was like our father. Always lying and keeping secrets. That she knew I was rotten from the start.”
I press a hand to my mouth to cover a retching sound.
Elizabeth’s face is alight with glee. “That’s when she told me she’d changed her will. That neither Father nor I would ever see a penny from her. After all the years Father invested in their relationship, she was just going to write us off like that.”
“Please—” Catriona says. “Don’t?—”
“So I pushed her,” Elizabeth says.
I’ve never been a violent woman.
Angry, sometimes.
Prone to impulsive decisions? You bet.
Too stubborn, clearly.
But I’ve never felt the urge to inflict injury on another person.
Until now.
“You… you what?” I whisper.
At this, Cian, who’d been circling us like a shark, stands behind me and puts his hands on my chair. “Devin, here, contacted me, smart man. Told me he worked for Gallagher and could give me a fortune and a US Senator all in one go, as long as I could clean up the mess his woman made. Gallagher has always had a bit of a heavy hand at the gambling tables, but his wife’s murder would put him in a position he couldn’t refuse.”
Aiden is rigid next to me. Face carefully blank. Hands resting on his thighs. Fuck, how does he sit there without reacting when it feels like my entire world is falling apart?
When had Elizabeth learned this? How had I been so blind to her? Was this what caused us to grow apart? Fresh horror rolls over me. She’d been the result of rape, and Mom lived with this secret for decades? Elizabeth was right. How could I have been so clueless?
“And now you want me to drop my investigation into her death.”
