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Her cheeks were flushed, sweat dotting her skin. She blinked a few times, her blue eyes pointed at me. Our girl was beautiful, even all disheveled and tired and ready to pass out.
I didn’t realize something was missing from my life until Alex filled that void. Turns out, she was the one person I needed the most.
As I held our daughter, I slipped my fingers between Alex’s. She glanced up at me with a tired but happy expression on her face. I mouthedI love you, something she often did to remind me I was worth loving.
Afew months after I killed my grandfather, I received a call from his attorney. Apparently, the old bastard had left me something in his will. No one knew exactly how much he was worth. He’d hid money in offshore accounts and had shady business affairs. There wasn’t a pot he didn’t have his hand in over the years.
Alex had never been to The Hamptons. It was Sofia’s first time seeing the beach. We spent the weekend at our house in Southampton, which wasn’t far from my grandfather’s house in Sagaponack.
The last time I was at his house, Damian couldn’t speak, traumatized from the past. Even before we confronted Fitzy and forced the pills down his throat. Every time we came back here, it dredged up all the bad memories. But this time, it didn’t feel the same. Because taking his life gave us back pieces of ourselves.
The heirs gathered in the ballroom. Two dozen of us sat on wooden chairs facing the front of the room. Mr. Bollinger, my grandfather’s attorney, stood in front of a podium with a microphone raised to his mouth.
Alex sat between Damian and me, with Sofia on her lap, bouncing the baby on her knee to keep her from crying. Our daughter looked just like Damian, with black hair and pale skin, her blue eyes as big and wide as her mother.
“Thank you all for coming,” Mr. Bollinger said in a deep tone. “Before I read the will, Fitzgerald wanted me to give each of his heirs a letter. But he requested you wait to open it until after I call your name.”
He lifted a stack of envelopes from the podium and stepped out from behind it. With each name he spoke, someone rose from a chair. I took the envelope from his hand, wondering what the fuck he could have to say to me. We only spoke when necessary when he was alive.
My father sat beside Luca and Marcello on Alex’s right side. Even Carl Wellington received an invitation, which made zero sense. Fitzy had Alex kidnapped, so he could get his hands on Wellington’s black book. And after seeing the book for ourselves, we understood why men would kill to get their hands on it.
Grace Hale, my cousin on my mother’s side, strolled into the room several minutes late. Just like her biological mother, she had long, blonde hair, sun-kissed skin, and big blue eyes. She walked down the aisle with Cole Marshall.
Grace waved, a gesture I returned, and sat a few rows behind us with Cole. We’d officially met for the first time when Alex was kidnapped. We didn’t need to use Grace anymore to trade for a meeting with The Lucaya Group. Everything we’d thought about our parents and their deaths was a lie.
I turned toward the front of the room, waiting for Mr. Bollinger to continue. Alex tapped her fingers on top of my hand and gave me a reassuring smile. This woman could make even the darkest days seem bright. Every time I looked at her, I wondered how I got so lucky. How could someone like me live long enough to deserve her?
Mr. Bollinger read the will, rattling off the names of my grandfather’s business partners. He divided the shares in each company between them. I had expected the old man to cut all of us out of his will. Do some crazy shit like leave it to charity or someone he didn’t even know just to spite us.
When Mr. Bollinger got to Carl Wellington, his eyes widened, cheeks reddening as he said, “To Carl, I leave my late wife’s vibrator so you can go fuck yourself.”
Gasps echoed throughout the room. Most people had too much class or decency to laugh. Carl was furious, but fuck if I didn’t want to burst into a fit of laughter.
“To my dear friend, Arlo,” Mr. Bollinger continued, “I leave my shares in Atlantic Airlines.”
As usual, my father remained expressionless, as if he’d inherited a penny. The stock was worth upwards of two hundred million dollars. I was dying to know what was in his letter and if my grandfather had explained why he’d left him so much money. And why he didn’t leave the stock to me.
It was my fucking company, after all. Well, our company. Damian should have gotten half of those shares. Or at the very least, he could have left them in a trust for my future heirs.
“To Damian, I leave you the contents of my basement.”
Alex lifted an eyebrow, hoping for an explanation. Damian clenched his hands into fists, his anger shaking through him. Even before he opened the letter, which he read with gritted teeth, he knew what Fitzy left him.
He handed me the note.
My hand shook as I read the letter, crumbling it in my hand. “That fucking bastard!”
Dirty. Disgusting. Animal.
He had repeated those words to Damian every day for the month he kept us locked in his basement. Damian wasn’t right in the head before our parents died. But after our time in this house, he completely fucking lost it.
Monsters are made, not born.
My grandfather left Damian the chains he used to shackle us to the wall. I knew it without stepping foot into the basement. Just thinking about those days, where we sat in our own piss and filth, made my stomach twist into knots. If it were possible to resurrect him, I would have dug him up, so I could find new ways to kill him.
I slid my arm across the back of Alex’s neck and tapped Damian on the shoulder. “Don’t let him get in your head,” I whispered. “You’re not that boy anymore.”
Alex gave me a perplexed look.
