The Winters(84)

“I’ll wait.”

I headed to my dressing room, my heart racing so fast I thought I’d pass out. I pulled a fleece off a laundry pile and went back out to the bedroom, making a casual beeline for my phone. Max beat me to it, gently lifting it off its dock.

“I’ve got this. You have your hands full.”

“Max, my phone.” I put my hand out.

He looked at it, his eyes sad. He seemed unsure how to proceed, what to do next, how this would go. “I’ll keep it safe,” he said, and slid it into his other pocket. “I promise.” He stood so close to me I could feel his breath on my forehead.

“Max.”

“Yes, my love.”

“Why?”

I already knew the answer.

He shrugged. “When you have something like this”—his arm took in the room, the house, the island itself—“you have to protect it from anyone who might destroy it. Even if it’s family.”

“Did you ever love me?”

He sighed deeply, then bopped me gently on the nose with the tip of his finger. “From the moment I laid eyes on you,” he said. Then he glanced over my shoulder. “Oh, look at the time. Shall we?”

Without waiting for my reply he turned. I followed behind him, my vision blurring. He didn’t take my hand. He stared straight ahead and walked, my jailer leading me to the gallows. We passed beneath the oily painted faces of his ancestors and I finally saw these men for who they really were: pirates and criminals, men who kissed up to kings and did business in the shade. That one kept bound boys. This one fought arrows with cannons. And him, the original Lord Winter, he stole this island in exchange for blankets full of diseases he had survived. How many crimes did these men commit to keep this land? How high a price do you have to pay to earn a place on this wall? How close had I come to paying it?

Tears fell freely down my cheeks now. There was no hiding my terror. As we passed through the foyer, I eyed the gun cabinet. Were any of them loaded?

Max turned, catching the tail end of my longing gaze. The front door wasn’t locked. I could make a run for it. How far could I get on foot? If I made it to the causeway, would he mow me down on that narrow road?

In the kitchen, hunger hit me hard. When had I last eaten? Was it the cold buffet? Our wedding cake? How apt.

When he opened the door of the greenhouse, the air smelled extra sweet, helped along by the flowers that still stuffed the space, clinging to life in their vases. It wasn’t unpleasant, the smell, but still, I covered my nose and mouth.

Then I saw her, or what must have been her body, lying under a blue tarp. Max peeled it back.

“It’s actually not that bad to look at,” he said. “Turns out four feet was deep enough. And two years is plenty of time for a body to decompose. Mind you, the conditions in here were perfect. Helped to keep the door locked.”

I hated how he sounded, cheerful, pleased with himself. I couldn’t bear it. My legs gave way. I collapsed to my knees.

“I can’t, Max. I can’t look.”

“Come on. An hour ago you were Lady Macbeth in there, all ‘I’m not squeamish. Let’s do this, we’re a team.’ And now you’re choking? When I need you the most? You’re my wife. What changed?”

“Dani!” I screamed. “Dani is what’s changed! I know what you did to her, Max! The dress, that . . . that account. The kitten, Max. I know what you did. And I know why.”

He bowed his head and closed his eyes for a moment. Then he looked at me. “Are you saying you’re taking her side?”

“Side? She’s your daughter! She’s a kid!”

“A kid who has done nothing but make our life a living hell, don’t forget! I may have set her off, but she is a danger to herself and others, and if I don’t get a handle on that goddamn money, she’ll bring it all down around her, just like her mother almost did. Christ, the both of them.”

“She’s a kid, Max,” I said, still crying, pleading for him to wake up from this nightmare and become the man I knew.

He fussed with the zipper of the garment bag. “But here’s the thing. She’s not my kid. She was Rebekah’s. And that was your only job, your one gift to me. That’s all I wanted from you, a baby, an heir, a real one, so we could challenge Dani’s inheritance. And in exchange, you’d get this wonderful fucking life, which you’re now throwing away.”

His words doubled me over.

“Now what do you want from me?” I asked, terrified of the answer. I knew everything now. And he was right, I was on Dani’s side. Which meant there was no one on mine.

He shook open the garment bag. “A little help would be nice. Oh, don’t look at me like that. I didn’t want to hurt Dani. I just wanted to prove she is in no way fit to inherit everything. I mean, my God, Rebekah left her everything. Or, rather, she left the heir to Asherley everything. And that should be our kid. I was hoping you’d understand that. Now let’s get this done. It’s not so bad, I promise you.”

I sat up, wiping my nose with the back of my hand. “Are you going to kill me?”

He laughed. “I’m not a cold-blooded murderer,” he said. “Everything I did, I did because I had to. And everything we’re doing now is because we have to. You’re in this now, too, babe. After all, the boat was your brilliant idea. Now give me a hand.”