“What do you mean?” Adrenaline courses through my veins as I watch a myriad of emotions coast over Herman’s face before it crumples.
“She knew,” he croaks, grabbing what little hair he has left on his head. Tormented eyes meet mine. “Gladys had known about Amos and Michelle’s affair for years and said nothing. She was too terrified of losing Amos, but after I discovered the truth and she knew I was going to retaliate, she had no choice but to join me or pay the price with Amos.”
So much for her being obsessed with her husband.
“How did she know?” Jared asks, clutching me in a vise grip.
I watch in disbelief as tears roll down my father’s face. I have never seen him cry. I’m sure he cried at my mom’s funeral, but I was only five, and I don’t remember it.
“Gladys took great delight in telling me how Michelle had confessed to her. My wife was trying to cleanse her soul before cancer came for her. I guess she planned to tell me too, but she didn’t get the chance because she died that night at the hands of her best friend.”
My heart thumps wildly in my chest. “What?” I whisper. “No. No!”
A strangled sound leaks from Jared’s lips.
“Cancer would have killed your mother,” Herman says, staring at me through blurry vision. “If Gladys hadn’t smothered her with a pillow first.”
ChapterThirty-Eight
Jared
“You filthy fucking liar!” I hop up and lunge at Herman, my hands instantly wrapping around his throat. First Sydney and my baby, and now this? No. This fucker does not get to live.
I’m dragged off him a few beats later by Sawyer and Xavier and tossed back on the couch.
Herman is coughing and spluttering as Sydney watches with a horrified expression on her face.
“Is it true?” she blurts, looking up at Sawyer.
He nods as I slump on the couch. “What proof do you have?” I ask, trying to calm myself down.
“None,” Herman says. “All I know is what she told me as she drove the knife in deeper.”
“We’re just expected to take your word for it?” I hiss as Syd reaches out and pulls me back in to her side.
“You need to get the truth from your mother,” Sawyer says. “She has lied about a lot of things.”
“I can’t wrap my head around this,” Sydney quietly says, curling against me.
“I know.” My arms snake around her body, and I hold her close. We need one another now more than ever. I refuse to let what our parents did or didn’t do affect us any more than they have. “Mum loves Sydney. She was her surrogate mother after Michelle died.”
“Your mother is incapable of love, son. At first, I thought maybe her guilt drove her to step up after Sydney lost her mother, but I think she got some perverse pleasure out of taking the things Michelle had loved. It made her feel like the better woman to know Michelle’s daughter loved her like a mother and she’d fucked her husband. But it’s all conjecture. The truth is, Gladys King is a sociopath, and she has spent the last ten years trying to hurt you, Sydney.”
We both just stare at him. Is there no end to this madness?
“Mum claimed you were trying to hurt me, and now you’re claiming she was trying to hurt Sydney. I think you’re both fucked in the head.”
“We have proof of hits taken out on Sydney by your mother, Jared,” Sawyer calmly says.
I blink repeatedly, wanting to wake up from this nightmare.
“It’s why I insisted on bodyguards and enhanced security at the house and why I wanted you close. If you were at home, you were safe. I have a lot of powerful contacts, and they have helped me keep you safe over the years.” Herman eyeballs Sawyer for a split second. “Ethan Hunt and his good friend Travis Lauder were instrumental in helping me protect you. I owed Ethan, and when his company was in trouble, I agreed to a merger on condition Sawyer married you because I knew you were drowning, sweet pea, and nothing I was doing was helping. I knew Sawyer was a good man. I hoped you’d fall in love and find peace, but I was wrong to force both of you into doing that. It’s one of my bigger regrets. I owe both of you a big apology.”
I think that ship has sailed, and judging by the deafening silence and lack of response, Sydney and Sawyer do too. “Why would my mother try to kill Sydney?” I ask, hurt, confused, and concerned in equal measure. It feels like I’ve walked into an alternate realm because this cannot be happening. There is no fucking way I’m meeting my mother at her apartment or leaving Sydney behind because I no longer trust the woman who gave me life.
“She’s a fucking looney tune,” Xavier says. “There may not be any logical explanation.”
“Gladys acted all concerned when you two started dating because she said you were too young to get so attached. She manipulated me into trying to keep things PG between you. She was always planning on taking you to England after Amos lost the business because she wanted to keep you two apart. During our final conversation, she said hell would freeze over before she let Michelle’s slut of a daughter trap her son into marriage and have history repeat itself. She warned me if I didn’t keep Sydney away from you she’d kill her. I’d seen enough unhinged behavior at this point to treat the threat seriously.”
