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“Who? Vaughn?”
“Yes, Vaughn!” she snapped. “If you’d just walked away after the first card was delivered, none of this would have happened!”
I shook my head, none of this making sense. “You knew about the cards?”
“Of course, I did.”
I narrowed my eyes at the tone in her voice. “You knew because you wrote them yourself, didn’t you? I knew it didn’t all add up. Why would Karmichael care about me? He wouldn’t. But you’re Vaughn’s mother…”
She didn’t say anything, which was how I knew I was right.
Bliss lifted her head, her eyes red with tears. “Did Karmichael even know what you were doing? That you sent those vile threats to the woman your son loves? Or were you so cowardly you just let your husband go to jail for you?”
Riva stormed across the room and smacked her palm across Bliss’s cheek.
I saw red at the sound of Bliss’s shocked gasp. I struggled against my restraints, fingertips brushing over the knuckle-dusters, forever in my back pocket.
They weren’t much good to me when my hands were tied, but I ached to have them on my fingers. “How dare you,” I hissed at Riva. “She’s pregnant.”
“Another bastard baby for me to sell.” Caleb laughed. He leaned down into my face. “How does it feel to know you and I are related by blood now, Rebel? Little Hayley Jade will make me a small fortune. If you were nicer to me, I might have made arrangements for the two of you to be sold off together.”
My heart stopped.
He shrugged. “But, since you’re a psychopathic little bitch, I decided not to.”
I spat squarely in his face because it was all I had left. “You piece of fucking scum. You won’t ever lay a finger on Hayley Jade. What kind of man sells his own daughter?”
Caleb slowly wiped my saliva off his face with a handkerchief from his pocket. His voice was low and deadly when he spoke again. “The kind who knows all too well that women are a fucking useless waste of space who only get in your way and hold you back. I never asked for a daughter. Nobody ever gave me a say in whether your slut sister had a child.”
The anger inside me was so hot. If I could have, I would have thrown myself across the room and clawed his fucking eyes out with my bare fingernails. “Kara never had a say in that baby either, Caleb. You took that away when you forced yourself on her.”
Bliss stared at the man she’d once loved. “I don’t even recognize you anymore. You were never kind or good, but hell, you were never…this.”
He turned his rage on her, grabbing a fistful of her auburn hair. “Shut up, you stupid fat bitch. Don’t you know you were never more than a pity fuck? Your opinions mean nothing to me.”
My anger soared. It was one thing for Caleb to call me names and get in my face, but it was a whole different ball game when he did it to Bliss. Despite everything she’d been through, she’d managed to keep her sweet softness. That was who she was at her core. I didn’t want anyone taking that from her.
But there was none of that to be seen right now. Bliss looked him up and down and then smiled. It grew into a grin, and then a laugh. “Your obsession with me is an embarrassment. You went after my friend, just to get back at me. You can say I was a pity fuck all you want, but we both know the truth. I was always too good for you, and you were just trying to keep up. You were always a pathetic excuse for a man who could never keep me satisfied. But don’t worry, I’m very fucking satisfied now. Every. Damn. Day.”
Despite the situation, I smiled so wide to hear those cutting remarks spew from her lips. The woman never even swore, but damn, that sort of attitude was good on her.
Riva folded her arms over her chest and stared at the two of us. “You’re as bad as your mother. Gutter trash Saint View whores, the lot of you.”
I glared at Vaughn’s mother, that hate finally seeping through to my shock and turning my heart to stone. “Is that why you killed her? Because she wasn’t good enough for the man you threw away?”
She shook her head at me. “I never threw Bart away. He was the one who ended things. Not me.”
Well, that made things a lot clearer. “And he was gentlemanly enough to let everyone think it was you who’d ended it? I barely met your husband, but I could tell he was one of the good ones. Shame the same can’t be said about you.”
She shook her head. “I never meant to kill them. It was just supposed to delay the wedding so I could talk some sense into the man! They moved so fast. She got her claws into him, and the next thing I knew they were talking weddings. He would have seen in time that she was so wrong for him, but your whore of a mother was so busy trying to get knocked up with his babies, she wasn’t giving him a chance. He was a decent, honorable man, so of course he wanted to marry her before she got pregnant.” She shook her head, staring at me. “I’m not letting my son fall into the same trap with a slut from Saint View who makes no secret of the fact she’s sleeping with three men.”
“He loves her, Riva,” Bliss said sadly. “You’ve seen them together and you know that. You’re too late to save him from anything. All you’ve done is break the only relationship you have left. Because when he finds out what you’ve done, he’ll never speak to you again. I can assure you of that. You’ll be as dead to him as if you were the one who was poisoned.”
Riva’s gaze turned nervous, darting between us, and then back to Caleb. “I need to go.”
I shook my head. “Go on then. But every time you look at your son, just remember me and the fact you stole his happiness. Clearly, you think yours is worth more. I hope you’re right.”
Ghosts haunted Riva’s eyes. Ghosts I’d put there. But I didn’t feel an ounce of remorse.
