Anyway, I digress.
Every now and then I'd tell him his Darling Robin was unfaithful, with pretty damning evidence; which were deep fakes, by a tech guy I’d blow on the odd Sunday. I'd convince him she was playing him for a fool and each time it worked like I planned. He’d retaliate with a string of women that had his girlfriend running in the opposite direction. I lost count of the amount of times I saw him around London, publicly decimating their relationship with woman after woman. Embarrassing really, but I always made sure Robin was informed.
When they didn’t separate straight away, I upped the game and made him so paranoid of her whereabouts that he actually paid me to move up to York, buying me the apartment next to hers. I was his little spy. It worked out really well actually, because I wanted to be up there to keep an eye on her with Phoenix. It was too easy to twist his mind, even though I didn't see it coming when he bought her this giant manor house in the countryside. He exceeded my expectations and finally, thank goodness, they split.
I really thought it would end there, but he was obsessed with making her pay and I’m always up for a little chaos and revenge. To my knowledge she was pregnant with his baby, but her bellynever grew and I thought that meant the worst. She'd gotten rid of a Claythorne heir.
I helped him set up the entire thing, even helped put together the murder mystery party she always wanted. You’re fucking welcome,Roo. Again, he went above expectations and got himself a little fiancée to flaunt in her face, the cheeky devil. A fiancée from a family he should have never gotten involved with. He really thought he was entirely in control of all of us.
What a fool.
I felt that searing white rage once again and the common factor to crack my carefully curated life was her.
Indifferent was the word that came to mind when the little Darling came to family dinner and announced she was having one of those silly stories she writes published. With a very well-known publishing house, I had to give the girl that. So I didn’t look like an idiot if she ever asked, I read the thing and that’s when the burning anger took hold. I fantasised about ringing her neck, just like when she was that little rat baby, stealing from me. As I read the same details of how my Mum died, the dots connected and I knew I’d been right. She’d been taken from me, murdered, fucking ripped from my life but not by the person I had thought. My mother would have never left us, never left me. The little snake had written how she’d pushed her out of the window that night–it wasn't suicide.
Father wanted his new family he was subtly trying to create, and I couldn't have that.
Crushing two full packets of medication into a hot chocolate, I even delivered it to her. Robin's mother, the stupid bitch, had even thanked me, called me a sweet girl and how she was lucky to have me in her life. She knew the drink had tasted awful, but I’d made sure to sit close on the bed so she would politely drink enough because she didn’t want to disappoint. She was already in bed so all it took was a little snooze and she wasn’t ourproblem anymore. What I didn’t factor in was the police blaming Father, but I guess he needed to go too if he thought he could betray Mum so easily. I certainly wasn’t going to admit the truth and ruin my life.
I thought I'd taken care of it all, so maybe spank me twice when I realised it was all her. I could have stabbed her in that fucking small skull of hers when I read that stupid book. That idiotic dribble I only read so that they couldn’t talk over me about it.
Written was every detail about my mother’s death, therathad displayed her admission. No one that night could have known about the alcohol I smelt on her when she kissed me goodnight. She was wet, meaning she hadn’t used an umbrella on the stumble from the car to the house, so how did our little Robbie describe her fallen victim so similarly, if she hadn’t been the one to push her? She frequently stayed over with Phin, they'd have sleep overs in his room. She fell from his bedroom window and there, in printed lines, was the details I needed to know the truth of my mother’s death.
It wasn’t suicide.
That little snakehad killed her.
I was going to make her regret the day her mother brought her home from the hospital, into our lives. I’d make sure she had no one.
I don’t want to give all my secrets away, but Robin should count herself so lucky he intervened with my plan to gut her whilst she slept. No. Jimmy suggested we could be a little more theatrical than that.
There's something different about Jimmy. I’ve never had to bat an eyelash or give him empty promises, he lets me tell him what to do and actually enjoys it. I see the gleam in his eye when I let him act out my revenge, allowing him to wreak havoc on anyone I point the finger at.
He was meant to just be a great lay I met in a nightclub, but when I saw he got off the same way I did, I let him stay. Let him plan and act on my schemes, the best sex always following when he got his knuckles bloody for me. He actually helped me come up with the idea to destroy my brother and get my full inheritance. After this week, they'd all blame her and finally Phoenix would hate her. He’d release her disgusting claws from his flesh and I could have my brother back. I only needed one and I’d much prefer the sibling that didn’t try to control my every hour.
It was all just so easy that I think I might actually be better off with none of them in my life. They’re too much like waddling ducks, sticking together this entire time so that I could easily move around the hotel with my two worker bees. Jimmy makes for a delicious detective, but his friend–the drug dealer one–is so lower class and probably illiterate. I banned him from speaking when he nearly messed up. The fucker nearly ruined everything. Who forgets their identity on a job? Those little ducks might as well have been dolls with bobbling heads, who nodded along to everything they said like good little citizens. No one freaked out about their missing phones, which Goldie dumped in the lake because he couldn’t figure out how to hack any of them. Imagine having the gold on someone's phone like Willow or Wren Hastings? I bet he has a folder of his conquests just waiting to be leaked.
He’s lucky they freaked out over the murder and not the phones; we might have needed them later on for blackmail purposes. At least he made up for his mistakes by taking out that guitar tech, who walked in on Jimmy bending me over the wine rack downstairs in the cellar. Goldie is a brute, but at least he can kill someone quickly.
He’s so beneath me really, they all are.
I like Jimmy’s idea. Killing them all, pinning it all on Robin and going abroad for a fresh start sounds perfect.
Chapter thirty
Robin
MY breaths are unsteady as I battle against the dizziness. “You’re insane.”
Was this really all happening because she thought I had killed her mother? I wasn’t even five when she fell from Phin’s window, but those young memories were all hazy.
“Big words from the psycho who wrote a murder she committed for the entire world to see, like some sick trophy.”
Shaking my head, I want to explain the truth about the backstory to that plotline of my book, but Lil points the gun right at my chest and I try not to whimper. Wren’s grip on me is painful, but he keeps positioning me like he’s ready to throw my entire weight out of the way if she shoots. I can’t let anyone else get hurt, especially not him.
“Lil, you need to let me—”
“Question time! Anyone? Darlings? Get it off your chest before we start letting the bullets fly.”
