“He wasn’t a good person.” Edward spat the amendment.
“Go on.”
“This was years ago, and don’t push me for an exact time because I don’t remember.” Edward took a few breaths. “I snuck into his office one night and got into the filing cabinet where he kept the good scotch.”
Wretched drink…“Keep going.”
“I found a file folder. It was full of contracts.”
“About what? Just spit it out!” His mind was spinning, and the delay was torture.
“NDAs. Do you know what?—”
“Of course I do. I’m not an idiot.”
Edward glared at him. “Most of them were with women.”
“Do you remember the name Susan Crawford from the file?” If there was one it would give him more understanding of why his mother had let Timothy get off for violating her. The thought alone increased his respect for her. Some. Not fully. She still should have stood up to him, a victim herself or not.
Edward drifted.
“Wake up!” Ryan cried out.
Edward winced, and his eyes opened. “Don’t remember. They’d still be in the cabinet.”
“Here, in the home office?”
“No. In Dad’s place. Nothing’s been touched there yet.”
“Why the NDAs? Tell me.”
“To ensure employee confidentiality and protect intellectual property.”
“Bullshit. Your father raped my mother, got her pregnant, and abandoned us. Then he came back and tried to kill both of us. How many others did he hurt or kill? Those women who signed NDAs could all be his victims.”
“No.” Edward wildly shook his head, letting out the odd wince of pain. “My father was not a killer.”
“Really? Why should I believe you? You’ve sat there all day telling me you didn’t know anything, yet you did.”
“Not that he… But if you say he killed your mother, then, fine, he did.”
Ryan narrowed his eyes, not believing this man for a second. He was saying whatever he felt Ryan wanted to hear now.
“Leave him alone, please,” Ashley pleaded. “You told the FBI you’d let him go. He’s told you everything he knows.”
“You said the NDAs are in a filing cabinet in your father’s office? Tell me which one.”
“The one closest to his… desk.” Edward’s eyes rolled back.
“Daddy!” the girl cried out.
The boy sucked back on his inhaler.
The woman remained silent and still, eyes wide.
“Fine, you can go. But remember I still have your family’s fate in my hands.”Just like your father had mine and my mother’s…Before coming here today, he didn’t think he’d be able to take a life to make his point. He thought he was nothing like Timothy Hanson, but being here proved he was only lying to himself. As the woman reminded him twice now—and he couldn’t forget—Hanson blood ran in his veins. He was capable of horrendous atrocities. He looked over at the children, then back to Edward. “Go before I change my mind.”
THIRTY-FIVE
