“I know, and I’m sorry. But I was also worried you’d ruin everything we’re planning, because when you know the truth, you’re going to want to murder your father.”
“Abby, what are you saying?” Rick’s voice is laced with strain, and a muscle pops in his jaw. “Because my mind has wandered to some scary fucking places.”
Time to rip the Band-Aid off. “Our bastard father drugged your mom and left her there to die, but he sent Christian Montgomery over later, on false pretenses, to ensure he had succeeded.” Air whooshes out of my mouth, as I pin my gaze on my beloved. “When you found your mom, Kai, she was still alive. Barely, but shewasbreathing.” He sucks in a sharp gasp, and Rick slumps to the ground on his butt, shock splayed across his face.
I wet my suddenly dry lips, hating to have to say this. “Christian watched your father suffocate your mother with a pillow after he got you kids out of the place.”
“No! Fuck, no!” Rick’s anguished cry echoes around the silent room, and he buries his head in his hands. His shoulders shake. Drew sinks to his knees beside him, placing a hand on his shoulder.
“Kai.” I touch his cheek, because he’s as rigid as a statue. The glazed look in his eyes confirms he’s someplace far away. His chest heaves up and down as he stares into space. I snuggle into his side, carefully, circling his arm around me as I plant my hand softly on his chest. “I’m so sorry, babe.” His arms tighten around my waist, but he still says nothing. His body trembles underneath me, and I can’t even begin to imagine what he’s thinking right now.
Rick’s muted sobs filter through the air, and tears prick my eyes, but I squeeze them shut to ward off the incoming onslaught of emotion. I can’t let myself feel anything, and tonight’s reunion with Kai has been emotional enough as it is.
I don’t know what else to do, so I just cling onto my husband, offering him physical support. After a few beats of silence, he finally cracks. “She was alive?” he chokes out in a voice barely louder than a whisper.
I raise my head, and my heart aches at the tormented expression on his face. “According to Christian, she was.”
“That’s if Christian is telling the truth,” Drew quietly says. “We have no way of proving or disproving his version of events.”
“I saw him there that day,” Rick says, sniffling. He tips his chin up, looking at his brother with red-rimmed eyes. “He was walking down the hall, away from the room where Mom was, toward the front door.” He swipes at the moisture under his eyes. “He gave me a hundred-dollar bill and told me not to tell anyone I’d seen him.”
“All that proves is that he was there,” Drew supplies.
“It’s the truth,” Kai says, his voice stretched tight. A lone tear rolls down his face, and I run my hand up and down his arm. “I thought she was trying to speak,” he croaks. “I ran to Dad and told him, and he shooed us out of the room. When I asked him later, he told me she died in his arms.” A bitter laugh bursts free of him. “Fuck me. He actually told the truth.” His eyes blaze red, and he grinds his jaw. “He just left out the part where he was the one who killed her.”
“That fucking bastard.” Rick hops up and paces. “For years he made us believe Michael and Abby were at fault. Made us hate them. Coaxed us into following his plans for vengeance. Roped us into looking for evidence of Michael’s guilt, when he was the guilty party all along!” he shouts.
Kai crawls out of bed on the other side, slamming his fist into the wall a couple times.
I climb over the bed toward him. “Baby, don’t.” I try to pry his hand away. “You’ll only injure yourself further.” He leans his forehead against the wall, and his entire body is a solid block of tense, corded muscle. I wrap my arms around him from behind, resting my head on his back, wanting so badly to take his pain away. He clasps hold of my hands with one of his, and I plaster myself to him, fighting tears the whole time.
Rick is still pacing, grabbing tufts of his hair. “He took everything from us, Kai,” he says in a more controlled voice, but I’m under no illusion. He’s seething with rage and primed to explode.
I thought Kai would be the one to restrain, but I’ve completely underestimated Maverick Anderson.
“Our mother, our brothers, our childhood.” Grabbing a glass bowl off the sideboard, he hurls it at the far wall. It shatters instantly, raining shards of glass over the carpeted floor.
“Fuck.” Kai straightens up, and I release him. With measured, slow steps he walks to his brother’s side, careful to sidestep any broken glass. Kai grabs his brother into a firm hug, and an intense craving to hug my brother consumes me. I walk to Drew’s side and circle my arms around him as I watch Kai and Rick holding one another, talking in hushed tones.
“What do you think they’ll do?” Drew whispers in my ear, wrapping his arms around me and holding me close.
“I don’t know,” I murmur, “and it’s their call to make, but we can’t forget the bigger picture.”
Drew pulls me over to the couch, and we sit down, giving Kai and Rick time to deal with the bomb I’ve just dropped. “Do you have any ideas on how to get into the vault?” he asks me, and I’m glad for the distraction.
I answer him, keeping one eye on Kai. “Are there any plans of the basement that might help us?”
“None that I’m aware of, but there must have been at one time. Whenever he constructed it.”
“It wasn’t long after Mom passed,” I say, because I remember workmen traipsing in and out of the house for months on end.
“That’s right. I’ll talk to Xavier and see what we can dig up. But what then?”
“Then we need Xavier to locate the security software and hack into it. And we physically need to get down there to study the layout and the guard rotation.”
Drew’s brow puckers. Kai glances over his shoulder at me, and I mouth, “I love you.”
“Love you too,” he mouths back before returning to calming his brother down.
