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There was nothing that could have prepared me for this moment. Even in my wildest dreams, I could never have dreamed up the scene before me. She was lying there, arms at her sides, hooked up to wires and lines and tubes.
I pressed my hand against the cool viewing glass, yearning to be inside the room with her. Sitting by her side. There were a few things to take care of first, and I didn’t want the darkness I was about to unleash to taint her sleep.
Dante had to feed Kendra some platitudes before she was willing to give up my mother’s location. It was too bad she was pregnant. It would have been much more fun to hear her beg after I pummeled her plastic face.
“You honestly think he would have let her die?” she snarled. “Then you have no idea how far his obsession went. Just like Christian’s obsession with you.”
“Funny thing,” I told her. “We haven’t heard anything from your son. If he was truly obsessed, he would have been driven to pursue me, and since the bombing of the stables, he hasn’t been heard from.”
“Does a grand master voice his move before he strikes?”
Ugh, did she just compare her son to a grand master of chess?
“I’m not even going to dignify that with an answer.” My nose scrunched in disgust. “Where is my mother?”
Kendra scoffed. “Do you honestly think I’m stupid enough to just give up what I know without any assurances?”
“You’re alive,” Liam hissed. “That’s an assurance.”
“And how long after I give birth to this baby will that last, hmm?” She looked at me and then Dante. “I will tell you what you want to know, under one condition.”
I tapped my foot impatiently. “And what’s that?”
“I want to be able to raise my baby after it’s born.”
And here I was thinking I could put a bullet between her eyes. I was mildly impressed that she hadn’t just asked us to spare her life after she gave birth, but that she wanted to be part of her unborn child’s life. That was growth.
“And I want enough money to support myself.”
There it was.
“Why?” Dante asked coldly. “You won’t be leaving this house for a very long time, Kendra. Everything you need, I will provide.”
Kendra huffed. “I want my own income.”
“Get a job then,” I shrugged my shoulder. “I hear McDonalds hires washed-up trophy wife has-beens.”
“I will not—”
“Take it or leave it, bitch,” Dante snarled. The man had finally lost his patience with her. “I will allow you to live here and raise our child, but that is where my generosity ends. So choose. My generosity after our child is born or a bullet.”
Kendra sniffed indignantly. “If those are my only two choices.” She let out a dramatic sigh and rolled her shoulders. “He’s had her at a small care facility on Mercer Island called Rejuvenation.”
“She’s been in a coma for over ten years?” Would she even have brain function? What was the likelihood of her recovering from something like that? Slim to none was my guess.
“Off and on,” Kendra admitted. “He took her out of it a few times through the years for a month or two at a time.”
“For what?” Matthias asked curiously. “Does she not need the life support to survive?”
Kendra shook her head. “The original hospital she was at in Portland kept her in a medically induced coma until her injuries had healed enough for her to cope with the trauma,” she informed us. “I don’t know why he took her in and out of the coma throughout the years. Elias was about punishment and control.”
“Or he was hiding her,” I breathed as realization dawned.
“Why?” Vas’s brow furrowed.
“Succession,” my father growled. “If Marianne is truly Katherine’s twin—” I shot him a scathing glare. He held up his hands placatingly. “I’m not doubting you, but you have to admit that Sheila could be manipulating the facts. Instead of twins, they could simply be half siblings.”
That was a good point. If Marianne wasn’t my mother’s twin, she didn’t have a strong enough claim as heir. She was still a McDonough, though. But there was nothing to prove that. Right? I would have assumed Seamus and my great-grandmother would have removed all knowledge of a second baby being born.
