“Hanna, tell the attorney this is a mistake,” Isabel demanded.
I couldn’t because it wasn’t. Jeremy was Xavier’s heir... and now Jeremy was the only one who didn’t know the truth.
Chapter Seventeen
Marni
Some secrets begged for release. That was the only explanation for what just happened. For the big show Xavier demanded in his absence.
Even in death he kicked up a fuss. The pompous asshole thrived on attention, though he used to claim he despised it. He sure as hell played the long game on this one. He waited us all out. Let the drama build as the years rolled by. All those whispers about him and how he never pushed for concrete answers about his son’s missing family. I figured he held those conversations in private. That he threw his influence and money around to find answers, but nothing worked.
Now I questioned all of it.
Could be Xavier had been invested in an impressive game of chicken with Aubrey, daring her to come out of hiding. Unless he told her to wait to reappear, to draw out the anticipation. With the Tanner family every devious option sounded plausible.
But Hanna. Tough Hanna. Hardworking Hanna. Practical Hanna.
Lying Hanna.
The knife.
The memory came flooding back. I saw her holding the knife that day in the Tanner house. I’d been rattled and shaken and there she was, standing at the base of the staircase with blood streaked on the floor around her feet and across the tip of her white sneaker. A weapon in her hand. We looked at each other and her pale face told me she’d done something she shouldn’t have.
Now I got it. She didn’t talk about me to the police or admit she’d been there all those years ago because she didn’t want to risk exposure or the windfall coming her way. How clever of her.
Who knew she could even move that fast? The attorney had barely stopped talking and she ran. Got up, shoved her way around Aubrey as she grinned and tried to block the exit, and took off.
There would be time for questions. So many questions. Right now—Aubrey. The conference room had emptied. People walked around the law firm hallways as if in a trance. All except for her. For the two of us. We’d lingered and now I would pay for that choice.
“I didn’t think you’d be the one to stick around,” Aubrey said. “Gutsy choice.”
I ignored that. Mentally focusing on anything but her, pretending I didn’t get her point, was the only way to survive the next few minutes. Where the hell did Cam go? I scanned theouter office. Saw the desks heaving with paperwork and the associates scurrying here and there. No sign of Cam. “I need to—”
“That’s more like it. There’s the lack of bravery I expected.” Aubrey’s mocking tone demanded attention.
Looked like the annoying child had turned into a heartless, game-playing adult just like her grandfather. I couldn’t figure out which version of Aubrey promised more danger. As shitty as it made me sound, I preferred the dead version.
“Say whatever you want to say, Aubrey. Get it out because keeping the rancid words inside seems to be killing you.” Then I could take my lead from Hanna and disappear.
Aubrey shrugged. “I can’t complain, actually. At least I got the house I grew up in. Not that the memories are worth keeping.”
I searched her tone for anger. For fury. Nothing echoed back to me but some sick form of amusement.
“You seem pretty calm for a person who just received a load of shocking information. And lost a lot of money.” Unless she knew all of it before the attorney ever scheduled the meeting. The possibility of her having advance notice to this dizzying spectacle started an avalanche of anxiety tumbling through me.
“Well, it has been a wild fifteen years.” Aubrey laughed as if her words weren’t out of line. She minimized and dismissed as if the entire country wasn’t waiting to hear the truth about what happened. She acted like she didn’t care.
“At least it’s nice to know I still have some relatives. With Gramps passing on, I’d been told they were all dead. Well, except Isabel, but I don’t count her or Stella. They’re more hanger-on types.” Aubrey sounded smug and satisfied, like she’d set up this whole messy reveal and reveled in her victory.
She scared me to the point I feared being in the same room with her without some sort of weapon or way of protecting myself. “You’re joking about this?”
“Come on. It’s hysterical.”
That singsongy voice vibrated through me. “What is wrong with you?”
The lightness left Aubrey’s face. “I rose from the dead. I need a few days to acclimate.”
Enough.“Where the hell were you for all those years?”
