AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You know your five year old was gonna be in the house at the time?” Flynn asks calmly, his blue gaze sharp as knives from his place on the other side of the kitchen island now, his bloodiedforearms resting atop it, hands laced together, crimson on his knuckles.
I can’t help thinking of a tiny Poppy closed inside one of those cabinets at his back. The front hall can be seen from here, where we’re all crowded in the dining space. She must have been able to hear every single thing that happened to her mom.
He grunts, but it feels exasperated, like he doesn’t care enough to attempt an explanation, it just is what it is.
This man is pure evil. The way he corrupted so many, organizing the killing of his own wife. Selling his only daughter. All in the name of money.
But we’re not the police.
Our dad’s only got a few years left to serve.
Our mom’s happier.
I’m better.
Bennett saved us.
We only came here for our girl.
So we can save her too.
“I want you to sign this document,” Rex says from the head of the table, sliding over a small stack of crisp white papers, his thick, black framed glasses on his nose, little green stickers poking out of the pages. “Sign at each marker.”
“What is it?” Michael asks, already taking the pen.
“It’s a conservatorship, among other things. Each document is already signed by a judge, multiple doctors.” Flynn smiles as Rex explains. “This overrides and dissolves your deputyship. Placing Poppy into Bennett’s care. She will be his ward, he takes full legal, medical responsibility for her.”
The only thing he doesn’t have any say in is her monetary assets that she inherits from her mother at twenty-one. He doesn’t want to take power over any part of her, but if we want her out of that fuckinghospital, we needed something drastic.
“And you think I’m just going to sign this?” Michael scoffs, his dark hair a mess.
“I know you’re going to, Michael,” my brother chuckles, “because if you don’t, I’m going to ruin your entire fucking life just like you did mine.”
“Yeah? What about Mathews?” he laughs, like a challenge.
Bennett, leans back in his chair, rocking on the back legs of it, the creak of wood loud in the room.
“Firstly, Matthews is your fucking problem, not mine. I’m sure you’ll find some cut-throat way of dealing with him. And secondly, I’ve got video evidence of all your little rendezvous with some very powerful people, Michael. I know many don’t think The Cartel has any presence here in good old England, but you and I,” Bennett lifts a dark brow, “we know differently, don’t we, Michael?”
Michael swallows, staring at my brother in challenge, sweat beads along his temples, and then he lifts the first page, signing at the first green marker.
I hold my breath the entire time, watching with sweat rolling down my spine as Rex taps at each line and Michael signs beside his finger.
I feel dizzy when it’s over. Heart hammering in my chest when Bennett slides his cell across the wood of the table. Rex retrieves the documents, passing them over his shoulder to Flynn to look over once more, pushing his glasses up into his ashy-brown hair. We can’t afford any little slip ups.
Michael stares at the phone, the dial screen pulled up, a frown pulling at his lips.
“What’s this for?” he sneers, King’s hands tightening painfully hard over his shoulders.
“You’re going to call Briarmoor and tell thatDr.Soren that he’s about to lose his favorite patient.”
Chapter 49
POPPY
Fingers pinch my upper arms even though I’m not struggling. Fingerprint bruises are already forming over my light skin in just the small number of hours I’ve been here. My bare toes catch the grout between the tiles as they haul me down the corridor. Rain lashing the roof so hard I can feel the vibration of it in my bones.
Mouth dry, I try to swallow, the powdery dryness at the back of my tongue, caught like thick sand in my throat, almost chokes me. It’s the first thing they did to me, Dr Soren. Feed me a fistful of pills that’ll have me hallucinating or vomiting, perhaps both, in next to no time at all.
