Deception (Infidelity #3)(24)

I shook my head and reached for the glass. “Jane, forget you saw this. I promise it’s for the better. I just… I-I…”

She wrapped her arms around me, her embrace swallowing my shoulders.

“Ma’am, no. You can’t do this. Not to you. Not to Miss Alexandria.”

My head continued to move back and forth. “You don’t know. You don’t understand.”

“I do.” For the first time since we’d hired her, her voice grew angry. “I do understand.”

“No, Jane, you don’t.”

“Ma’am, I don’t know what you thinks we see or what we hears. But we see everything. Ma’am, Miss Alexandria, she needs you.”

“She doesn’t. I’ve tried, but this is the answer.”

“It ain’t.”

My neck straightened as I took a step back. “It is not your place to argue with me.”

“You can’t fire me from heaven.” Before I could respond, she continued, “And you can’t assure Alexandria’s future from there, neither.”

“I can.” My hand fluttered to my throat as I glanced around the master suite bedroom that I hated. “It’s the answer I should’ve seen years ago.”

“No, ma’am. There’s a codicil.”

I turned back toward Jane.

“Mr. Fitzgerald know it,” she said. “Mr. Montague, he told him to tell you. He didn’t, did he?”

I stared into her dark eyes. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying…” She stood taller. “…I see. I listen, and, ma’am, I know.”

“A codicil? To my father’s will?”

“Yes, ma’am. Mr. Montague, he do it, just before he die.”

“Do you know what it says?” I asked.

“I never read it.” She shook her head. “That’s not my place, but I do know it made Mr. Fitzgerald mighty angry.”

What didn’t make Mr. Fitzgerald angry?

I exhaled as my knees gave out and I sank to the edge of the bed. “I-I need to read it.” My mind, which only moments ago seemed clear, now muddied with this new information. “W-why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t know that he didn’t tell you.” She crouched down, until our eyes met. “And that ain’t my place neither.”

“He didn’t tell me.” I reached for her hand. “Thank you, Jane.” I had three days before Alton’s return. Air filled my lungs, giving me determination I’d thought was gone. Holding tightly to Jane’s hand, I started to devise a new plan. “First thing in the morning, I need to go into Savannah. I need to pay a visit to Ralph Porter’s office.”

Jane smiled and stood. “Yes, ma’am, I tell Bentley to be ready by nine.” She picked up the cup of pills again. “You going to need these?”

I shrugged. “It depends on what the codicil says.”

“How about I hold on to them, so no one finds them?”

I nodded. “Thank you, Jane. Leave the wine.”

“Yes, ma’am.”





CHARLI AND SILVIA both turned at the sound of my voice. Mindlessly, I scanned Charli’s beautiful frame—unscathed and unharmed. My mind knew it to be true, but the need to confirm it was almost unstoppable.

“Come here,” I commanded.

Charli didn’t question the demand as she stepped toward me, her feet bare and her golden eyes wide and swirling with a kaleidoscope of emotion—fear, concern, and anxiety all vied for top billing.

“Silvia, please give us a few minutes,” I said as I reached for Charli’s hand.

“Anything you need. I can prepare lunch.”

I nodded as I led Charli through the house. The pool house had too many windows for my liking. I didn’t know what Silvia was thinking by bringing her out here. Yes, the windows throughout the house had been constructed with bulletproof glass. Nevertheless, that didn’t make them less transparent. Anyone with the right equipment could see directly into the interior. Hell, they could read the time on a watch if they had the right zooming capability and the desire to do so. We passed through the kitchen, living room, and halfway up the stairs before Charli spoke.

“Where are you taking me?”

Without answering, I opened the doors to the bedroom where I’d slept for the last four years. The interior was crisp, clean, and relatively austere, decorated in muted tones of brown. It wasn’t as large or as ornate as the master suite, but that room contained too many ghosts. We had enough to battle without thinking about any of that.

While Charli halted near the door, I silently walked to the windows; like the master suite, they faced the sound. After confirming the lock was secure on the balcony door, I closed the thick wooden blinds. With only slits of light infiltrating our world, I walked back to Charli, or did I float? After the morning we’d shared, having her here, safe and in my arms, felt like a dream.

I cupped her cheek as my normally sure voice cracked with emotion. “I’m so sorry.”

Though her face had inclined to my touch, she shook her head. “Don’t be sorry. You kept me safe.”

The fury I’d unleashed on Deloris, the same rage that refused to stay at bay during my conversation with Oren, bubbled in my gut, the acid burning my throat. “You shouldn’t have to live like this.”