Beautifully Decadent (Beautifully Damaged Book 3) (47 page)

Dad and I had been called down to the police station. The detectives were closing Nat’s kidnapping case; Alexandra had been in with the detectives fine-tuning the case against her dad and Nicholas. She asked to talk to Dad and me, wanted to explain. Jax gave us one of the interrogation rooms. Dad stood by the door, his thoughts his own. I sat across from the woman who was my mother and felt nothing except fury that her shit almost cost me Avery, but unlike Dad, I had questions.

“Who was Jeremy Paddington?”

“He was the man my father hired to run a phone tap on Nicholas’s phone. Dad wanted to get proof of Nicholas ordering the hit on Dominic Bennett, a partner in Morton Shipping who became a liability.”

“And Nicholas Titus?”

“My father needed his money to get the company off the ground. Marrying me off to the man was his attempt at keeping a measure of control over him. Nicholas only agreed to the wedding because my father had put a large portion of his buy-in for the company in my name for tax purposes. Married to me, Nicholas had access to those shares.”

“Jeremy ended up dead and I’m guessing that wasn’t a coincidence.”

“I wanted leverage, so I approached Jeremy sometime after he’d cut the deal with Dad. He was holding the disc in a security box, at the request of my father. I wanted it, so I paid him for it and he was all too happy to take my money. But then he quit, now floating on a sizable amount of money and since Dad had been holding the evidence over Nicholas’ head, it didn’t take much for Nicholas to put two and two together, especially after his source confirmed Jeremy had taken out the security box shortly before he quit his job. Nicholas had Jeremy killed and then he arranged the bank job.”

“Lucas approaching Dad, who set that up?”

“Nicholas. He was trying to keep me in line by coming at both of you. After Liam was sent away, he told me he’d focus on you if I didn’t toe the line. I tried to stay in touch, even got you into St. Agnes, but it was the most I dare do.”

“When did you learn the disc had been corrupted?”

“After I paid Jeremy for it, I hired Prescott and his security firm to help me expose my father and husband, they were the ones to discover the disc was useless. No one but the team and me knew that, so I kept my silence. Lucas and Jackson ended up dead, Nicholas tying up loose ends. He intended to kill you too, but then you turned yourself in. With the disc missing and the only other person involved in jail, Nicholas thought he was in the clear.”

“Then Dad gets out of jail and Nicholas resumes the search for the disc before Dad could use it against him.”

“Nicholas is arrogant and believes he’s invincible. I don’t think he’s even thought about that disc in years, however he learned recently that an arrest warrant was pending. My father is dying and for once in his life he’s doing the right thing. He’s a ruthless man but he loves his company and seeing it, year after year, pulling farther away from him, skirting and stepping over the lines of legal practices all pioneered by Nicholas, my father has agreed to testify against him. His motivation is selfish, because his ultimate goal is seeing the company publicly traded. I think he’s being naïve to believe that will still happen, but he wants to try even knowing his testimony will shine guilt on him as well. Unlike Nicholas though, my father won’t live to serve his sentence. Nicholas was scrambling to find the disc—why he took Natalie—so father’s testimony regarding the murder would be hearsay. He doesn’t realize the disc is useless. He really believes destroying the disc will save him from seeing the inside of a jail cell since he’s convinced the other charges won’t amount to anything. He’s very wrong about that.”

“What do you have on them?” I asked.

“Laundering, insider trading, a bevy of other white collar crimes. He’s going away for a long time.”

“Why did you send the disc to me, especially since it is useless?”

“It seemed the safest with you. Hindsight, I never would have sent it to you and placed you in the middle. I’m very sorry. I had thought to retrieve the disc, approached Avery that night at Clover with the intent of doing so, but I was afraid to draw more attention especially since we were getting so close to nailing Nicholas.”

“And yet when Nat was taken, you still didn’t step in. He was holding her at gunpoint and a call from you would have found us that disc sooner than later and yet you said nothing. I really need to understand why?”

She had the sense to look contrite and yet there was belligerence coming off her too. “I had lived in Hell for so long. I wanted them both to pay. And with the disc being useless, Prescott and his team had to build the cases against them. It took time and tons of resources, but we were so close to nailing them I didn’t want to risk screwing that up.”

My hands slamming down on the desk had her jumping back in her chair. “So you gambled with Nat’s life so you could get payback.”

“It wasn’t like that—”

Dad’s voice shook the room. “It was exactly like that, but even more disgusting is you were the one who led Nicholas to Rafe. You baited your husband by telling him exactly where that disc was, knowing it was out of his reach. You enjoyed making him squirm, and you put your son and his friends in harm’s way. And who’s next in line to take over the company with your dad and husband out of the picture?”

A sickening sensation soured my stomach that this woman, my mother, could be so calculating. “Is that true?”

Her non-answer was all the answer I needed. The apple didn’t fall far from that tree. Bad enough, worse that my dad had to learn the truth about the woman he’d spent over half of his life loving.

His pain was masked behind rage when he continued, “I tried to make allowances for you, giving up your son, leaving me, staying away, but you are a grown-ass woman. Your father may have played you, your husband as well, but you’re not stupid. They’re both behind bars and you’re sitting on top of an empire. So don’t try selling either of us the bullshit that you didn’t have a choice, that you feared for Rafe so you stayed with your husband. You had the choice; you made the wrong one. You wanted revenge more than you wanted your family. What little you did do for Rafe is totally canceled out by the harm you brought to Natalie and Avery.” He moved closer to Alexandra, his hand fisting as he struggled to control his rage. “I sought you out, asked you what was going on and if Rafe was in any real danger. You assured me he wasn’t. And you fucking knew it was lie, but it slid off your tongue with remarkable ease.”

“What?”

“The accident at the garage. I was distracted because I was talking to your mother. Josh got me a number because knowing the link this had to her family, after the break in at your place, I called her and asked her if we needed to be concerned and she lied. It’s a real kick in the ass to learn the woman you’ve spent your life in love with doesn’t even exist. At least now, I can put you where you belong, in the past and move on with my life.”

Dad’s eyes shifted to me. “We’ve spent enough time in the sewer son, let’s go home.”

Mom was hovering and as much as I loved my mom, I really could do without the hovering. I was back at Rafe’s, settled on the sofa. And like when Nat had been taken, the house was filled with people and food but unlike then, this was all about family and love and just exactly what we all needed. Well, all but Mom’s hovering. I was to rest, the doctor said I should slowly introduce walking, but considering I had someone playing around in my head, the side effects from the surgery were minimal. And still Mom hovered.

“I’m fine, Mom.”

“I know, but I need to do this. Need to be close until it sinks in that you are here and fine.”

“I was lucky Nat had been in that room with me.” And I had been because when I started to crash, it happened really fast. Had Nat not been watching me like a hawk, I wouldn’t be sitting here with my mom doting on my every need.

Mom stopped fluffing pillows, teary eyes looked into mine. “I know.”

I already knew the answer but I asked it anyway. “Did Dad come to the hospital?”

“No.”

Mom looked about ready to level the house, she was furious. “Does he know?”

“I called him when you were in surgery, left a message since I couldn’t get through.”

“Nat was kidnapped, I had brain surgery. It’s been over a week and the man hasn’t visited or called?”

“The man is an asshole.”

As hard as I tried to see more in him, there really wasn’t more to him. He and Dolly deserved each other.

“Nat and I are lucky we have you and Harold.”

“Family doesn’t always have to be blood, sometimes the strongest bonds are forged from those not at all related to you.”

Looking around the house, to the family we were lucky enough to be pulled into, she wasn’t wrong.

“Where’s Nat?”

“Walking Loki with Tyler.”

“I like Tyler.”

Mom smiled. “I like him too.”

My cell buzzed and reaching for it, my heart leapt because it was my dad. “Hello.”

“Avery.”

“Dad.”

“I heard you were in some kind of accident. Are you okay?” And though I was happy to hear from him, despite knowing better, he also sounded distracted like he was doing something else. Maybe I was being selfish, but when one of your daughters was kidnapped and the other needed brain surgery it deserved a father’s undivided attention, even if that attention only lasted a few minutes.

“Are you busy?” I asked.

“I’m always busy and since I have to now arrange a baby shower, I’m even busier.”

Oh my God, he did not just try to guilt me because I wasn’t planning his wife’s baby shower in the same call he was apparently showing concern for my ‘little accident’. I couldn’t make this shit up if I tried.

“I’m sorry, are you implying that I am somehow responsible for the fact that you have to plan the shower of the woman you got knocked up?”

“Avery, don’t be rude.”

“Do you realize that your one daughter was held against her will at gunpoint and your other daughter was tossed off a pier that resulted in an epidural hematoma that would have killed me if Nat hadn’t been there?”

“What the hell are you talking about? Nat was held at gunpoint? Your mom didn’t mention that.”

“Did she mention the hospital?”

“Yeah, but—”

I hadn’t realized I was now shouting and had gained the attention of everyone; I was too flabbergasted by my father’s callousness to even care. “I’m sorry, let me just make sure I have this right. Mom called you, even though she was experiencing the worst moment of her life, and because she didn’t detail it out for you why I was in the hospital, the fact that I was in the hospital didn’t warrant a visit or, dare I say, a phone call. I’m happy to hear that if you knew about the kidnapping that might have instigated a phone call, but it’s been eight days since my surgery and you call, distracted with something else, and being very half-assed about your concern for me while laying guilt on me because I don’t wish to be played by your social climbing, white-trash wife. Do I have this correct?”

He was mad now, but not at himself. “I don’t like you speaking about my wife that way.”

“And I don’t like that you weren’t here, didn’t drop everything to be with your children in their time of need. I don’t like your wife and I don’t like you either. I have spent my life trying to get you to notice me, but Nat’s right, I have to scrape you off because you will never notice me. I really do hope you get your head out of your ass for your new baby’s sake because you suck as a father. Harold has been way more of a father to Nat and me than you ever were. Hell, even Liam has been more a father to me and I just met the man. Get your act together because your new kid isn’t going to have the fabulous mother Nat and I did. Do it for that innocent baby who doesn’t ever need to know that her father is worthless and selfish because you and me, Dad, we’re done. Have a nice life, don’t call again.”