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Simon winced. He knew that sound. Knew it from his own days of not knowing where to put the rage. How many nights had he been beaten and bruised by his father and left without an outlet for the anger? How many fights had he gotten into with other kids? With Nick?
He swallowed at the broken speech. The one-sided conversation with Ian and the woman who had given birth to them.
“He didn’t know where you were or even if you were still alive! You wanted everyone to think you were dead. Just vanished into the ether so when I pulled off this ridiculous scam, it would seem more real. But it’s not reality. You know what’s reality? I’m a fool. A puppet. Because even if I do this, even if I steal from your son—your own goddamn son—you still won’t love me. You don’t love me any more than you ever loved him.”
Ian’s voice was ravaged and broken.
Simon wanted to shut it off. To slam his hands over his ears.
“No, you’re right. I just know what you told me. You said he was your favorite. That it hurt you so much to leave him, but you’d done it for love. And then the man left you because of me. Because you were pregnant with me. I was the cause of the loss of all your great loves…your son, the man you wanted to be with. But I was always there, wasn’t I, Mum? I always kept fucking trying.”
The noises that came from him reminded him of a dying animal. Such loss and so much pain.
Simon didn’t want to know any of this.
He lifted his gaze to Donovan’s impassive face. The older man stared him down—daring him to continue to listen.
Simon fisted his hands.
“You’re right. It’s my fault I agreed to any of this.”
A door opened and shut in the audio then it changed once more. Jesus, just how lit up was this fucking building? Everything was under a microscope.
“I should’ve just taken my sentence. At least I’d be free now. At this rate, I’ll never be free. You’ll both see to that, won’t you?”
The shocking laugh was like an icicle scraped over Simon’s spine.
“And I still won’t have a mother who gives a shit about me.”
“I didn’t have a fucking plan! Except to somehow come here and make the impossible work. He was never going to pay for your return, and I was the idiot who couldn’t see how flawed this thing was from the start. He would never throw good money after bad. Wiser than me, he is. But I can learn.”
The one-sided conversation made it a little difficult to understand all the nuances, but there was one truth. Either he was the best fucking actor Simon had ever heard or he was having an epic awakening.
“It means I’m done. I’ll pay Jerry back every cent I owe him, and I’ll do it as fast as I can. But I’m not going to be his toy any longer. Or yours. I’m not going to lie to my brother. Not any more than I already have.”
“I already am. If Jerry wants to talk to me, he knows how to find me.”
“No!”
Simon jumped at the vehemence and panic in the voice. It filled the room and made all of them lean back. All but Donovan. Because of course he’d already listened to this. Already had his cards close to the vest.
“You fucking stay away from her. I’ll fucking kill you. Kill him too. If you even think about—”
There was a crash, then the audio was abruptly cut off.
Nick scrubbed at his hair. “He set that up.”
“I’m not sure he’s that good of an actor.” Donovan picked up the phone and slid it back into his pocket. “Unless you’d like to listen to it again to make sure.”
“No.” Simon’s voice was a croak. He couldn’t listen to that again. He didn’t want to know about the whys. They didn’t matter. Nothing mattered but getting his wife back. “He still brought this to our door. He’s to blame.”
“There’s little doubt that Ian made poor choices, but I wanted you to see that he may not be the soulless viper you want him to be.”
“I don’t care.” Simon met Donovan’s gaze, then swung to where Lila had turned into Nick’s arms. She was just as shattered as he felt. He locked eyes with Donovan. “I don’t care if he saves fifteen kittens from a five-alarm fire every fucking day of his life. Nothing makes up for what he’s done.”
Donovan nodded. “I just wanted to give you some perspective.”
“Since you have everything being recorded in this place, were you able to gather any other information that would help us?”
