Crush(122)

A shake of the head.

“Then why?”

Michael averted his eyes.

“Why?”

He sighed, resigned. “After his son delivered flowers to you, and saw you with Logan, Seamus was worried you were going to walk away from me. Believe me, I had no idea he’d taken you. I even went to the police.”

My breath, coming faster, blew the first word away. “But who I choose to love isn’t Seamus’s concern and I wasn’t doing anything wrong.”

“I know that,” Michael whispered. “But now he’s resorted to threats against Clementine to keep us together.”

“We were never together.”

“In his mind, we should be.”

“Tell him to find you someone else.”

“I’ve tried. Presented my secretary, the nanny, a few others, too. He had me run them through a few of his loyalty and faithfulness tests; none of them could pass. Since they wouldn’t say yes to my first order, the second test could never even be administered.”

The website. It made sense. Pick one. Show loyalty and obedience. I felt a little sick. “I must have failed too, then.”

He nodded. “He wasn’t testing you; to him you were the perfect match for me. He just needed to instill his family values in you.”

I threw my hands up. “Fuck him. Why does he care so much about who you end up with?”

Resolve seemed to overtake him and he spoke like he wasn’t talking to anyone. “I already told you, Seamus’s political aspirations for me were bigger than even my own. Mayor. Senator. White House. He saw his ability to rule more than Boston through me. To show my father he could be so much more than my father had thought he could be. However, if I was going to climb the political machine, he knew I needed a woman by my side and he thought, no he thinks, you are the perfect woman to fill that role. I’ve already told you this. You’re the key. Say yes and Clementine will remain safe.”

I stood open mouthed. Was Michael playing me? “I’m not going to say yes, Michael. But you have to be able to stop him from doing anything to Clementine. She isn’t a part of this. You have to talk him out of it.”

He was shaking his head.

“Talk to him!” I screamed.

“I have.”

“Then go to the police.”

“I can’t.”

“Why can’t you?”

He shook his head violently as if he wasn’t going to tell me.

“Michael!” I was hysterical now. “Why can’t you? She’s your daughter, it’s your job to protect her!” I screamed even louder.

As he spoke, his shoulders began to shake. “I know. I know. But my choices have been stripped away from me, Elle. You don’t understand.”

Everything I saw was red. “No, Michael, your choice is to keep her safe, no matter what you have to do. Go to the police. Tell them everything.”

Kill him, I thought.

“I can’t.”

“Then I will.”

He shook his head. “You can’t.”

“Why not?”

“He’ll know I told you and then he will go after Clementine.”

“He almost killed me.”

“Elle, he’s obsessed with having connections. He thinks that’s how he is going to grow his empire. Nothing is going to stop him.”

“You have to turn him in,” I begged.

His laugh was dry. “Like I said, you don’t understand.”

My fists balled at my sides. “Then tell me.”

His eyes closed again and minutes passed before he spoke. “That Saturday morning that your car was at the mechanic’s and I went there, that was when I found the note Elizabeth had left for you folded on the visor in the Mercedes. That night I didn’t go out of town like I told you, but I went to the address on the slip of paper.”

My stare was one of complete anger.

“I didn’t mean for it to happen. She was threatening me. Blackmailing me—the drugs for Clementine. Was she kidding me? She couldn’t take care of Clementine. She had no idea what that even meant. But yet, she kept taunting me, threatening to steal her away, and I lost control. All I was doing was trying to shake some sense into her. To calm her down. She wasn’t thinking clearly. Clementine needed stability and she couldn’t provide that. She insisted she could. She kept threatening me. She was hysterical.”

My stomach lurched.

“She didn’t like what I was saying about her relationship with Clementine and she started clawing at my coat. Clementine’s rattle fell out of my pocket and she picked it up like it meant something to her. Like she really was her mother. Biologically she might have been, but that’s as far as it went. I tried to make her see that, but then she went wild, denying what I’d said like it wasn’t fact, she started hitting me, punching me, screaming at me. I had to defend myself so I shoved her back. That’s when she fell and hit her head. She was dead instantly and there wasn’t anything I could do. If I called the police, I’d go to jail, I knew that, so I called Seamus to help me get rid of her body, and now he owns me. You see, there’s nothing I can do. He owns me.”

My entire being was shaking. Inside and out. Tremors rocked me. Anger tore through me. I shoved him. “Killer.”