Total pages in book: 143
Estimated words: 132834 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 664(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 443(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132834 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 664(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 443(@300wpm)
I nodded, unable to bring myself to thank him for doing the bare fucking minimum. He said what my father and Ford had done was beyond the pale, but it hadn’t been bad enough for him to stop doing business with them. Prentice had been a shit father, but he’d been great at making money. For a lot of people, people like my brother Ford and Cole Haywood, getting their hands on some of that money outweighed any pesky ethical concerns. Like having your own son killed to get an edge in a deal.
“Did my father know where I was?” I asked.
“No. I told him I tracked you as far as New York, and then you connected with a friend who gave you a ride out of the city. The next thing I heard, he was telling everyone you joined the army. I figured you knew where your family was. If you wanted to reach out to one of your siblings, you knew where to find them. After everything that had happened, I didn’t think you’d want to be found.”
I digested that, rolling Cole’s words over in my head, feeling vaguely guilty. After Mexico, I’d never wanted to see any of them again. I’d had plenty of rage to go around. It focused on my father and Ford, overflowing to envelop my whole family. I got on that plane to Paris and didn’t look back. At the time, it was the only way I could survive. But later? Later it never occurred to me that I could come home. I’d sent that letter to my father as a final fuck you and wrote them all off.
I’d never been convinced the rest of them had known, but I also never questioned it. They hadn’t known where I was, but I’d known where they were. I could have gone the rest of my life never seeing Prentice or Ford again, but the rest of my siblings were innocent, and I’d left them too.
Royal broke into my thoughts. “I’m sorry we didn’t try harder to find you. To reconnect. We meant to, but then it had been so long, and we didn’t know if you’d want us to—” He shook his head. “I’m sorry.”
Royal had been working at the Inn back then. Tenn had been in his last year of college. We hadn’t been close before the kidnapping. I was involved in college life, too happy to be away from Sawyers Bend to think much about my family except to be glad they were far away.
“You don’t have to be sorry,” I said, realizing as the words came out that I meant them. “If you read my letter, I’d have been shocked if you reached out.” With a glance at the others, I added, “I’m pretty sure I said something about hoping the Sawyer line died out, Prentice being poison and as good as a murderer, and that I never wanted to see any of my family again.”
I’d been so viciously angry. So alone and filled with rage about it. But within months, I’d settled into a new life, working in kitchens, living with roommates who showed me the city, and my anger had slowly drained away. I was free, living the life I’d always dreamed of. I would have been fine never seeing my father or Ford again, but why hadn’t I ever tried to see any of my siblings?
“I didn’t want anything to do with Dad or Ford,” I told Royal. “But I wish I’d figured out a way to stay in touch with you.”
“Well, you’re here now,” Cole said with forced cheer. “Maybe your father actually did something right for once with that ridiculous will.” Every eye in the room landed on Cole, none of them in agreement. Reading the mood, Cole said, “Granted, it was another asshole move, but at least the whole family is under the same roof again. You can finally work all this out.”
Still no agreement. Cole shifted from one foot to the other, the silence stretching.
Griffen broke it. “These notes of Ford’s.” He tapped the file folders. “Is this what Dad meant in the will?”
I knew what he was talking about. Our father had left behind a video will. A new one, made six weeks before he died. In it, among other gems, he accused Ford of killing him, saying he knew we were all plotting against him, but that Ford was at the root of it.
Hope closed her eyes and, with perfect recall, repeated my father’s recorded words. “I knew what he was up to. Never expected the way he’d screw me over, though. He got me good.” Her eyes snapped open, landing on Griffen. “How did Ford get him? Did he uncover something?” She looked at Cole. “Could it have to do with this?”