Page 76 of New Blood

“What did you do with them after you saw them?”

She sniffled, her heart aching now. “I showed them to Mom.”

Flora stepped back and looked at her, her hands on her shoulders now.

“Is that why…”

Her aunt didn’t have to complete her sentence for Eve to know what she was suspecting.

She nodded. “Yes, that’s how she found out that Dad was cheating on her. She couldn’t take it anymore.” A sob tried to work its way up her throat, but she forced it back. She couldn’t allow herself to fall apart now, or Danielle would not only have been responsible for destroying her parents’ marriage and her mother’s subsequent suicide, but also her own future.

“I can’t let that little bitch win. She’s destroyed so much already. I can’t let her cost me my home, too.”

“I understand, honey. How can I help you?”

Lifting her head, she looked into Flora’s kind face. “Help me find those letters. They have to be among Mom’s things in the attic.”

“That is, if she didn’t destroy them. Or if your father didn’t take them back or burn them,” Flora interjected. “We have to consider both possibilities. Why don’t you start in the attic, while I go through your father’s things?”

Then Flora sighed. “I should have never asked Danielle to help me pack up your father’s things. If the letters were among them, she might have destroyed them.”

“Oh God, no!” That thought sent a shudder through her body.

Flora put a calming hand on her forearm. “We know nothing for sure. But we have to prepare ourselves.” She motioned to the door. “Now go and start in the attic. I’ll go through the storage room down here to see what’s in William’s boxes.”

“Thank you, Flora. I don’t know what I would do without you.”

“Of course. When I’m done with that, I’ll help you in the attic. Okay?”

Grateful for her aunt’s support, Eve left the pantry and headed to the third floor. From there, a door at the end of the old part of the house led to a set of steep wooden stairs into the attic. The smell of dust and mold greeted her, but she had to do this. Her future depended on finding the letters so she could prove what Danielle had done. Surely, once Jude saw the letters, he would realize that Danielle was nothing more than a gold digger and dissolve their bond by performing an ancient blood ritual and banish her from the pack, cast her out just like her father had been cast out. Then Jude would be grateful to her and free to mate with her.

42

Jude, accompanied by his brother, walked around the garage to the covered area where the ATVs were located. Austin had arranged to have Danielle’s car towed there so that they could investigate why the brakes had failed.

Heath and Parker, who both knew their way around cars, had been checking out the car for the past hour, and finally called him to meet them to hear what they’d found.

The two acknowledged his and Austin’s arrival with a nod.

“Right,” Parker started. “It’s not a wonder the brakes failed. The fluid in the hydraulic system was completely drained.”

“It was full of water when we pulled the car out,” Heath interjected.

“What caused it?” Jude asked.

“A hole in the line,” Parker replied.

“Wear and tear?”

Parker shook his head. “Nope. Cut’s too clean. Somebody cut it at a strategic spot.” He bent over the engine and pointed to an area. Jude had never been interested in cars enough to recognize the different parts but trusted Parker’s expertise.

“Well, here’s the spot where somebody made an incision in the line, just enough so that the hydraulic fluid will start leaking the moment the car is in motion. Then here—” He pointed to another spot. “—see that? The moment the brakes were engaged, the fluid drained even faster, so the more the driver hit the brake, the worse it got.”

Jude looked at Parker. “So you’re saying somebody did this on purpose.”

“Yeah, and it actually was pretty clever too, because had the person cut the line completely right away, the driver would have realized much earlier that the brakes weren’t working. Maybe even seen the fluid leaking.”

He pointed to the gravel path that led to the front of the mansion.