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I grind my teeth and swallow the words on the tip of my tongue.
Graham continues. “And I don’t know what happened to her.”
“Someone fucking killed her.” The words rip from me, and the image of my mum’s body flashes before my mind. Boner is officially gone. “That’s what you’ll have to tell her. That she comes from a family of killers and someone murdered her granny because of that.”
If Graham’s stunned by my vitriol, I can’t hear it.
“Yes, but why?” he asks. “Why the fuck would anyone kill her? How did they even know she would be in the greenhouse at that time of day? There were guards all over, Alex. To this day, there’s no trace of the man you saw.”
Yes, the manIsaw.
The manIcouldn’t stop.
“Why are you bringing this up right now? It’ll be years before Hyacinth will even realize that her granny is dead." I bark. “You’ve got a wife and a fucking daughter. Enjoy that.”
“I want answers for Cinny,” he retorts. More like answers for himself. “I want to know who did it. I’ve buried it for so long, Alex. Now I have to face it.Wehave to face it and make sure that our mum’s killer gets what he deserves. That I can tell my daughter her father and uncle took care of it.”
I scoff. “So this is an ego trip for you? I was the one who was there, Graham. I fucking found her. I don’t want to relive that just to come up without any answers. Do you forget that father burned down half the city looking for her killer after she died?”
“I remember more than you do, Alex,” he says dismissively. “You were twelve, but I was twenty when she died. I was with father for all of those reprisals.”
I’m struggling to breathe. Graham doesn’t understand.
Nobodyeverfucking understands what I went through—what it was like to have the light snuffed from your entire world in a single moment. To hear it all happen and be too scared to do anything. It’s my fucking fault our mum died, but somehow I don’t remember enough?
No, I remember too much.
The man who killed her used her own gun. If I hadn’t been there to witness it, everyone would have thought she committed suicide.
Sometimes, I wish that was what we believed.
It would make it easier. A man like my father could drive any woman to that.
“What the fuck are you going to do, Graham?” I hiss, rising to my feet. “You’re fucking wanted. If you set foot back in the UK, you’ll be dead before the jet engine’s cool. What the fuck is Cinny going to think then?”
“I wasn’t calling to ask you for permission," he says, his voice low. When he talks like this, he sounds a lot like our father—cold, calculating, heartless. “I was calling to tell you that I was going to investigate and give you the chance to help me if you want to.”
I want to tell him no.
But I don’t because deep down I know the truth—Idowant to know. For years, the faceless man with the cryptic tattoo on his hands haunted my dreams. Half the reason why I want to become a part of the Kingmaker Society is to have enough power to unearth the truth.
“I can’t fucking get over the fact that the day she was killed the CCTV was down for that part of the estate. I might have a lead to figuring that out, so we can at least ID him. I’m not sure. But I wanted your support before I dig into it.”
The chance that Graham can find anything after all these years is slim.
I heave a sigh. “Keep me in the loop.”
“Of course, baby bro.” There’s triumph in his voice.
Then the line goes dead. I’m left raw, as if he’s just sliced me open. The cigarette has burned down to the butt, so I take another from my slacks. My hands are shaking so much it takes me a few attempts to light it.
But when I do and take a drag, the feeling is worth it.
I float to the edge of the railing, looking down at the three floor drop beneath me. It’s not high enough for me to die if I jumped. Maybe I’d end up paralyzed. If I wanted to die, I would have to jump from much higher—maybe from the french balcony in the attic.
I turn to look up at the window in question.
Just then, the doors that lead inside burst open. Standing in the frame are Ezra and Vance. They wear panicked expressions. I can’t seem to catch a break, can I?
