The NSC Boxset: Heart of Stone (253 page)

“There is one thing, sweetheart.” Kade started and I turned to face him as his guilty tone filled me with worry.

My jaw dropped when I scanned the room, “Holy Shit.”

Stood behind Kade were Mason, Ava, Greg and Sam, all with wide smirks on their faces and each dressed in black with guns attached to their sides. “You don’t do this alone.” Kade finished and my heart swelled as I glanced from one of my ally’s to the other.

“I can’t let you do this” I said to each of them but Mason shook his head.

“Kade means a lot to us, Grace, therefore so do you. If anything happens to you then . . .” he swallowed harshly and blinked. “Then we lose Kade and I’m not prepared to let that happen.”

“Okay, but I go in alone.”

“That’s fine but we remain right outside the door. Any shit and I take her down, you do understand that?”

“Yes.”

He gave me a single nod as they all filed out of the room and Kade took hold of my hand. “Listen to me, Grace. I know she is your Mother and when faced with the task of taking her life, you will falter. I want you to picture Marcus when that happens. That boy suffered his whole life because of her, she took his life away before she’d hardly given it him and now he needs justice.”

I nodded as I swallowed the pain back. There would be time to grieve Marcus later but now I needed to be strong. “He knew he was loved, whatever happened Kade. He knew.”

He smiled at me and kissed me tenderly.

“Fuck, I love you.” He whispered as his mouth hovered over mine.

I gave him a quick kiss and ran my thumb across his cheekbone. “Shit, I love you more.”

His chest heaved and my eyes watched the bob of his throat as he too swallowed back the emotion. “Impossible,” he finished.

I gave him a simple nod before I turned and left, refusing to look back and telling myself that I would see him again.

That was the promise I told myself. I just hoped God was listening.

* * *

“Hello Grace,” my Mother said as I walked quietly and slowly into the room.

I didn’t return her greeting; I just stood silently taking in the familiar features and wondering how a mother’s love could turn so easily into hatred towards her children.

“You took your time, I expected you earlier.”

She perched delicately into a chair and opened her hand towards the other one for me to take as she demurely crossed her legs. She tipped her head and regarded me, her eyes scanning my body as she pursed her lips reverently. “You grew into a beautiful young woman. I always knew you would be stunning. You take after me for that.”

I sat immobile and quiet as I waited for her to come to the conclusion I was there to kill her, but I think she already knew that.

“Would you like a drink?”

I shook my head still muted by the shock of seeing my Mother sat in front of me after nearly eighteen years of thinking her dead. It was quite surreal and I frantically fought against the relentless thump of my heart as it also tried to take stock of what was happening.

She sighed and rolled her lips in thought. “Despite what you may think, I do love you.”

It was laughable really. Of all the things I expected her to say, it wasn’t that and I scoffed and then laughed in astonishment. “Always the surprise aren’t you, Mother.”

“Oh come on Grace, if anything I was always a good Mother.”

I stared in shock at her, “I think your idea of good parenting and mine are vastly dissimilar.”

She shrugged then reached to pick up her glass from the table in front of her and swirled the amber liquid around before she downed the contents in one. “I suppose you want answers before one of us dies tonight?”

“Yes.”

She drew in a large breath and then nodded. “Shall I start at the beginning?”

“Always a good place,” I mocked sweetly and smiled inwardly as her face faltered with my tone.

“Robert was a bastard, simple.”

I snorted but remained silent as I waited for her to continue.

“Kelly, Will’s Mother, was my best friend, that’s how I met him. I was their chief bridesmaid but she suffered with severe post-natal depression after she had Will. Basically, she couldn’t cope and turned to drugs, which then escalated and before long she was addicted to heroin. Robert tried to help her, we both did, but she was too far gone to come back from it and Robert left her. But she had an ace up her sleeve . . . Will.”

I stood and walked over to the sideboard to retrieve the vodka when I realised I did need that drink after all. She continued when I sat back down.

“She demanded one hundred thousand pounds from him in exchange for Will. What sort of Mother can put a price on a child’s life?”

My eyes widened and I choked slightly on the trickle of alcohol that was currently being swallowed.

Was she fucking serious?

“Of course, Robert didn’t think twice,” She continued, completely unaware of my shocked amazement to her statement. “He just dished it out like it was small change.” She barked out a laugh but I didn’t join her. I just shook my head at her and sipped at my drink. I was sure she had gone slightly crazy since I had last known her.

She scratched at her nose and sniffed. I narrowed my eyes on her but let her continue.

“I was there just to help him out with Will at first but eventually we fell in love and married. I loved Will like my own but Robert made me promise to never tell him about his mother. Something like that could be hard for a child, knowing your mother is a dirty drug addict.”

I ran my tongue across my teeth to stop myself from voicing my opinion about my Mother’s current drug status.

She leaned across and took the bottle then filled us both up before she settled back in the chair and stared at the fire, lost in thought until I coughed to remind her I was there.

She rolled her eyes. “You always were impatient as a child, Grace. It seems you never grew out of it either.”

“Will you just get on with it instead of acting like the caring Mother we both know you are not.”

She blinked at me and even had the grace to appear hurt by my words but she tutted and tipped her head. “I had you and Robert started to spend more and more time at work, developing that damn program for the government. He completely forgot he had a family. He started screwing anything with a skirt at the office and just left me to bring you up. It’s hard you know, dragging your sorry life through the daily routine of being a Mother with no reward.”

“Jesus Christ Mother, we . . . Will, Marcus and I were your bloody reward.”

She reared back and laughed loudly and heartily, “You tell yourself that when you have children, Grace.”

She narrowed her eyes on me when I flinched and cocked her head but then the cruellest of smile twisted her lips. “Oh my poor Grace. You’ll never experience motherhood, will you?”

My mouth dried as an intense hatred for this woman started to simmer deep in the pit of my stomach but she seemed unaware as she smirked at me. “What are you now Grace, thirty one? I bet that clock is ticking loudly isn’t it?”

She laughed again as the hatred now started to seep into my veins and poison my bloodstream, its heat starting the boil of rage that I knew would soon turn into the wrath that always haunted me since the reason for my barren body.

“Well,” she shrugged casually. “Just think yourself lucky. I’m not too keen on being a grandma anyway.”

“Oh, you don’t need to worry about that.”

She blinked at the sinister tone to my voice but then shook herself off and smiled. “I brought you up single-handedly. Both of you were little buggers but I did it and did I get any thanks? Did I hell!”

She took a deep breath and stared into her glass again, “Will received a letter from his Mother when he reached eighteen. God, he was furious with Robert for keeping it secret. I’d never seen him so . . . strong. It was quite the turn on, I’ll tell you Grace. Your Father was a timid man, could never take control of any situation.”

She shook her head and grimaced as if remembering her sex life with my Father was something of great disgust. “Will was amazing in bed, he showed me what it felt like to be desired, Grace. I hope you get to experience that at least once in your life, because every woman deserves that, even you.”

I scoffed at the ‘even you’ part. Little did she know Kade made me feel that way every time I caught him watching me, every time he would just touch me or each time his mischievousness shone through in his eyes.

“And?” I encouraged when she seemed lost to her past.

“And . . . I got bloody pregnant! I didn’t have a clue whose it was but somehow Robert found out. He kicked Will out and removed me from the will. How—fucking—dare—he? After everything I had done for him.”

“I know! It must have been terrible for you.” I mocked as I lit up a cigarette and blew the smoke across the space between us, directly at her. She pouted but slipped an ashtray across the table towards me then glared when I flicked the ash onto the floor and smiled sweetly.

Another cruel smile marred her face, “I was entitled to that money, Grace. But he just left it to you, Will and Marcus. Luckily, I hadn’t given birth at this point but as soon as I had Marcus, I sent for a DNA test and he actually turned out to be Roberts, of all things crazy.”

I frowned as her story seemed to get more and more surreal but she carried on regardless. “Well I wasn’t having that! I needed him to be Will’s to exclude him from the will so I put Will down as the Father. That was one less thing to worry about.”

I nodded in amazement. Was all this about money? It seemed too farfetched to be real but there was more.

“I managed to struggle through another few years with him but I hadn’t stopped seeing Will. He loved me Grace and after years of being unwanted, I needed that. Anyway, one day Will came up with an idea of how to get our hands on Roberts money.”

“Kill him and stage your death so Will would be in line to the fortune.” I answered for her and she smiled proudly at me.

“Yes! Will hated his Mother and we decided to use her as she was roughly the same in looks and size as me, she even had the same hair.” She laughed at this as though it had all been put in place just for her plan. “And of course it would have worked until we discovered Robert had written Will out of the bloody will as well.”

She turned to me and regarded me deeply. “We of course had to wait before bringing you down. It would have looked too coincidental if we did it right away.”

I nodded in agreement then frowned at myself. What the hell! I shook my head to clear my thoughts. “Why if you named Will as Marcus’s Father, didn’t you tell Will that Marcus was his?”

This was the part I was struggling with. To live a lie you have to carry it through in all areas. Her eyebrows rose and she tutted loudly, “Because Will was a fool where children were concerned. Look how he was with you. If he thought for one second that Marcus was his then all our plans would have changed to include him. I couldn’t have that; it took us bloody years to get closer to the chip. Speaking of which, you can hand it over now.”

I remained seated and stared in amazement at her. “You really are utterly insane.”

She shrugged and pursed her lips, “Insane or clever, take your pick.”

I barked out a laugh and shook my head in exasperation, “Bloody hell!”

She smirked at me, “I was clever where Marcus was concerned though. The stupid little boy really thought it was his Mummy getting beaten to death outside the closet door. His story to the police helped no end, even though we had already bribed the coroner to falsify the records. But Marcus, he was more useful than I could have ever imagined.”

The wrath that had been smouldering now erupted into a fire of the greatest degree and I flung for her, pinning her back in the chair as I brought the tip of my knife to her neck just below her right ear.

“Do you even realise what you did to him you heartless bitch? He suffered more than any of us.”

She didn’t relent, the stupid cow just wouldn’t back down and my heart clenched when she smirked at me. “Something you don’t know Grace, is that I have followed you and Marcus through your entire lives. I know what you did for him. I know he didn’t need me. Why would he when you were there for him, spreading your legs like a little whore just to save your brother’s sorry ass.”

I closed my eyes and relished in the calm that enveloped me as she continued. “You would do anything to save him wouldn’t you, Grace? Including sleeping with his dealer to pay off his drug debt, a debt that was chasing his tail and threatening his life. And you look at me like I am a whore because I slept with Will. You slept with someone to pay a debt, Grace. I’d say that makes you a first class whore.”

The rhythm of the pulsing in my veins took control and settled my turmoil as the tranquil aura descended around me and soothed all the anarchy my mind was struggling with. My stomach warmed, feeding me with a sense of inner solace as my breathing levelled out and my heartbeat slowed.

She had a death wish and I knew she was awaiting death as she kept goading me.

“And just like me, you got pregnant, didn’t you. I knew you terminated but really Grace, a backstreet baby bin? Even I wouldn’t stoop that low.”

“You bitch!” I hissed at her and pressed the blade deeper against her throat.

“Do it! End it Grace.”

My hand shook violently as I compressed the knife deeper, her eyes widening slightly but then she laughed at me. “You are pathetic, you can’t do it can you!”

I stared at her, willing my hand to push that bit extra and finish the nightmare I had lived in.

“Do it,” she goaded further as her eyes glinted manically. “You need to spend your days in a cell, rotting and festering. END IT!”

My chest was heaving as my whole body strummed with the need to kill her but my heart beat savagely against it, arguing and wrangling against the hatred that ran through my soul. It was too intense and the clash was bringing me to my knees, swallowing me whole as I fought against each conflicting emotion and demand.

“No” I whispered finally but as I started to move away the knife she wrapped her hand around mine and smirked at me forcing me to close my eyes so I didn’t witness the corruption and depravity inside her.