AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Nora pursed her lips. “It was our only option.”
“Of course you’d see it that way,” I mumbled. “You’re sick in the head. All of you.”
Nora ignored me and went on. “We had a lot of help with the plan from the others, but Ted and I were the ones who actually carried it out,” she said. “After all, she was our problem. A monster we created by failing to raise her correctly.”
“So you stabbed your own daughter to death.” Sickness rose up my throat again. “Howcouldyou?”
“As I said before, she wasn’t our real daughter.”
“But shewas!” I shouted, jumping to my feet again. “You took her in as a baby. Raised her as your own. She was your child! Yourrealchild!”
“We would’ve been happy to keep her alive and treat her as one of our own if she wasn’t so damn ungrateful,” Nora said. She let out a contemptuous sniff. “But she couldn’t manage that. She hated us and planned to ruin our lives. Everyone else’s lives, too. Even her brothers.”
“Right,” I said, fixing her with an icy stare. “So why did you frame me for her murder?”
“Two reasons. One, we needed someone to pin it on so that no one would begin to suspect the truth. Secondly, you were already a problem for us, so we wanted to get rid of you anyway.”
“What? How was I a problem for you?”
“You and Jax took down George Kingsley for his activities, and that almost took down the rest of us.”
I frowned. “How?”
“George is one of us,” she said. “Once he was arrested, we were all terrified that he’d talk to the police about our scheme in return for a deal. But luckily for us, he knows something about loyalty. He kept his mouth clamped shut. In return for his silence, we figured out a way to get him released and discredit your story about him.”
“We figured it was like killing two birds with one stone,” Mr. Blythe added. “Cerina’s mouth would be shut permanently, and you would be discredited and disbelieved forever while you rotted away in prison for her murder.”
“As for Jax,” Nora went on. “We thought about punishing him for his role in it too, but we decided to give him a pass. He’s still a Kingsley, after all. We think he’ll fall in line eventually. Especially after George threatens to take away all that money. Or threatens to exile him like his mother.”
My eyes widened. “His mother?”
Nora smiled again. “I suppose you’ve heard the story about her running off to Croatia with a toy boy?”
“Yes. Is that not true?”
“No, it’s not. See, Rebecca Kingsley was a stupid little gold-digger. Unfortunately, she was a gold-digger with a conscience.” Nora rolled her eyes. “After Jax was born, George informed her of the PTO’s practice and told her he wanted them to adopt a baby so they could contribute. She reacted with disgust and horror.”
“And that actually surprises you?” I said, upper lip curling with revulsion.
“No. She and Cerina aren’t the only ones who’ve reacted poorly when they learned the truth about our source of money.” Nora lifted a shoulder in a casual shrug. “Usually, the way it works is like this—the biological children of the families are informed of the practice anywhere between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five, depending on how their parents think they’ll take it. It’s the same with the husbands and wives who marry into the families. Some are never told as it’s clear they wouldn’t approve. It’s just hidden from them forever. Rebecca should’ve been in that category, but George thought she would come around to it eventually. He was wrong, and she didn’t. So we dealt with her.”
I furrowed my brows. “You mean you killed her?”
“No,” Nora replied in an ice-cold tone. “As I said earlier, weexiledher.”
“So that wasn’t a euphemism?”
“No, she’s well and truly alive. But we systematically wrecked her life here in Crown Point once we knew she wasn’t on our side. Spread rumors to discredit her and took nearly every cent she had. Then we sent her packing to Europe and had her added to the no-fly list so she could never return.” Nora raised her brows. “If she ever breathes a word, wewillkill her, and she’s well aware of that. But she’s always been good. For Jax’s sake, I think. See, we told her we’d kill him too if she ever said anything. We didn’t mean it, of course, but she has no way of knowing that.”
“So she’s stayed silent all these years,” I said in a low voice. “For Jax.”
“Yes. He thinks she abandoned him, as I’m sure you’ve heard.”
I slowly shook my head. “You won’t get away with this. Someone will figure it out somewhere along the line.”
Nora scoffed. “The founding families have been getting away with some variant of the practice for over eighty years now,” she said, voice dripping with condescension. “So I think we’ll take our chances.”
Mr. Blythe looked down at his watch. Then he leaned over and whispered something in Nora’s ear. Her brows lifted, and she returned her attention to me and smiled.
