Damien yearned to go to her, not only to wrap his arms around his wife and comfort her, but also to read the document himself. That feeling only grew when Caroline lifted her head and drew a haunting look toward Agatha.
“What did you do?” she whispered.
Damien’s gaze shifted down to Agatha, confused, but she was still glaring daggers at Lilian. Slowly, she shifted that rage to Caroline.
“Your father humiliated me! He needed to pay for what he did to me, but he was dead. So, I decided that his children would suffer instead,” she said through gritted teeth.
“Caroline,” Damien gently urged. “What does it say?”
Caroline’s eyes slowly shifted from Agatha to him, and he nearly stopped breathing when he saw fresh regret move through her gaze.
“George’s parentage...” she answered, her voice wavering. “My father’s will proves it. He is my father’s son. And he and I are who my father truly left his fortune to.”
Shock hit Damien’s chest so suddenly that if the air had moved, he would have lost his footing.
“George is your brother?” he rasped.
“How could you hide all this from me, Agatha?”
“Did you know, Caroline? Your father was already married when he asked for my hand,” Agatha explained bitterly. “He had a secret family no one here knew about in Scotland. When I saw his will, I knew that our marriage was illegitimate and that I would be ruined. So I changed my fate. Did you expect me to risk Lilian’s future because your father was an immoral, good-for-nothing son of—”
“George’s mother,” Caroline demanded, glaring through her tears. “Did you hurt her? Where is she?”
“I did not need to,” Agatha said with a careless shrug. “By a stroke of luck, she passed away from sickness right before I found him. I tucked him away in an orphanage for three years under a false name, thinking I would be rid of him, but I still feared that someday he would learn the truth. So I sent Polly here to go fetch him a few months ago. I had already planned to have Damien marry Lilian, and I thought keeping the boy close would be better insurance. Lilian was supposed to make the boy and Damien believe that they were father and son, but yourdoghere would not take her in your stead.”
As she said the last part, Agatha glared up at Damien with pure disgust.
“You just had to have your pathetic little mouse, didn’t you?”
Damien’s hand itched to slap her, but before he could even raise his hand, Caroline was across the room, delivering the strike with her own hand across Agatha’s cheek that echoed with force throughout the quiet room.
“I am not a mouse anymore,” Caroline seethed as Agatha’s face turned red. “And do notevertalk to my husband like that again.”
Agatha’s mouth and chin began to tremble as fat tears rolled down her already swelling cheek, but she said nothing.
“Caroline?” Lilian’s soft voice broke the silence again.
Damien and Caroline both turned to her.
“We do not deserve it, but please, let us end this quietly,” Lilian implored. “There is still much of your father’s fortune left. Now that you have your father’s true will, you can access it. My mother has somehow managed to earn her own money. We will repay what we owe you, just let us go. We will leave, disappear into a small town in the country, and I swear to you that you will never hear from or see us again.”
Damien glanced at Caroline, and she gave him a quiet nod. He could see in her eyes that she wanted nothing more than to be done with it all, and he was more than willing to ensure that she was.
“She does not need your money,” he stated coldly on Caroline’s behalf. “And you need to understand that if we do see you again, hear from you, even so much as a whisper that you are near us, I will have you both punished for your crimes,” he told Lilian. “You have done awful things, but in the eyes of the crown, aside from stealing our marriage contract, you have broken no laws. Your mother, on the other hand, has broken many, and she will be forced to pay for that if I hand her over to the constable.”
“I understand,” Lilian whispered, then walked toward her mother. “Come, Mama, we must pack. We are leaving tonight.”
She tried to help Agatha stand, but she pushed at her as she shouted, “No! After all I have done, I am not giving up so—”
“It isover,Mama!” Lilian exclaimed, pulling her out of her seat. She pressed her hands to Agatha’s cheeks and made her meet her eyes.
“Don’t you understand?” Lilian breathed. “You should have. I went along with this for far too long, but wewerewrong, Mama. And now we have a chance—onechance to walk away from it. And wearegoing to take it. I am sorry Caroline’s father hurt you. But our lives are more important than your hurt feelings.”
Damien watched as the glowing bitterness in Agatha’s eyes slowly burned out until all that was left was heartache. He would have possibly felt bad for her if she had not tried to ruin his and Caroline’s lives and had nearly ruined George’s. The fact that the poor child had been made to suffer through living in an orphanage because of her bruised heart disgusted him to his core.
“Come on, Mama,” Lilian urged, speaking softly again, and this time, Agatha followed her daughter.
“We will be gone by nightfall,” Lilian promised, throwing one more glance toward Caroline as they paused at the door.
