Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 57983 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 290(@200wpm)___ 232(@250wpm)___ 193(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57983 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 290(@200wpm)___ 232(@250wpm)___ 193(@300wpm)
He shakes his head and stands to pace the room. Pop always did think better when he was on the move.
“Uncle Carlo, you did what you thought was right.”
“I did what was easy,” he disagrees with an impatient swipe of his arm. “I had three sons to see to and a family to take over. My sister and her husband were dead. But none of that is an excuse.”
He turns to Elena and cups her face in his hand. “You very well might hate me after I tell you what I have to tell you.”
“I won’t hate you,” she promises and presses her hand against his. “You can tell me.”
I can count on two fingers the number of times I’ve seen my father look so sad. One was the day my grandmother died.
The other is right now.
“Until yesterday, your mother was very much alive.”
Elena gasps and listens intently as Pop relays the entire story from start to finish. He doesn’t leave anything out. He doesn’t try to spare her from any of the details.
Except for the part when Claudia called Elena a cunt. He keeps that to himself.
“She would have killed me,” Elena says as Archer rubs circles over her back. “I always knew that she didn’t like me. She didn’t care enough about me to be mean to me. She just ignored me. And I was so used to it, I didn’t really care. I had good nannies, and I always had all of you.”
She stands to pace the room. She always did remind me of my father.
“Should I have known, somewhere deep down, that she was still alive?”
“Why would you?” Carmine asks.
“She was my mother,” Elena says. “Then again, I never felt a connection to her, so I guess I wouldn’t have known. My father was evil. She did the world a favor by having him killed, but my God, Uncle Carlo, an innocent man has been in prison for years for something he didn’t do.”
“I already have his release in motion,” Pop says. “He’ll be set free soon.”
“How did you manage that so quickly?” Shane asks. But Pop just winks at my brother.
“I have connections, son.” He turns back to Elena. “And Danvers will be taken care of for the rest of his life. That’s a wrong that we can correct.”
“Good. That’s good.” Elena looks out at the storm and then back at Pop. “She killed Gram?”
“Yes, honey.”
“I thought Gram died of natural causes?” Carmine asks. “I sat at her bedside. It wasn’t a quick death.”
“Poison,” Shane says shortly. “She made Gram suffer.”
“I want to kill that bitch all over again,” I say and push my hand through my hair. “She lived too long. She was happy for far too long.”
“I won’t disagree,” Elena says. “I also can’t believe that I had a half-brother from the time I was five. That’s unbelievable.”
“I think all of this is pretty unbelievable,” Archer says. “It’s like something from one of Luke’s movies.”
“I wish it was fiction,” I reply. “I wish you’d known our grandmother. She would have liked you.”
“Are we going to bury Claudia?” Elena asks, not referring to the woman as her mother.
“No,” Pop says. “Absolutely not. We left her for the cleanup crew. The entire house was burned to the ground with her and that little piece of garbage son she loved so much inside. She doesn’t deserve to be buried alongside my parents. I won’t mourn for her a second time.”
“You absolutely shouldn’t,” Elena says. “I have to say, I’m relieved that the apple fell quite far from that particular tree in this case. I’m nothing like her.”
“You’re one of us,” I reply. “You’ll always be ours.”
“And mine,” Archer says with a smile.
“So, it’s good that Gram hid me away.” Elena sits and hangs her head in her hands. “I always wondered if it was necessary, or if Gram was overreacting. She didn’t tell me who she was hiding me from, you know? Just that someone had killed my parents, and she was afraid they’d come for me, too.”
Elena’s head shoots up, and her eyes go wide.
“Oh, God. Did Gram know that Claudia was behind it all? That Claudia was alive?”
“We don’t think so,” Shane says. “I thought of that on the plane. We’ve been through every piece of paper that pertains to the case. More than once. We can’t ask her to be certain, but she never mentions in any of her notes that she knew about Claudia. She hired many investigators over the years. If she knew about Claudia, she wouldn’t have needed to do that.”
“Good.” Elena swallows hard as tears fill her beautiful, bi-colored eyes. “Because that would have just tortured her all those years.”
“This chapter is now closed,” Pop says and reaches for Elena’s hand. “There’s no need for you to look over your shoulder anymore, Elena. You can truly put it all behind you and live your life as you wish.”