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The rest of our breakfast was enjoyed in good spirits. Afterward, I went back upstairs to retrieve my hoodie. I wanted to go out to the stable to visit with Derringer. Trey was right behind me.
“That was quite a performance you gave down there,” he said wryly.
“Trey, I meant all of it. Well, with the exception of the baby names.”
“I should hope so,” he replied, smirking.
“Did you really plan to stay with me or was that something you made up?” I asked.
He was thoughtful for a moment, choosing his words carefully. “Tylar, I’ve made arrangements to stay with you until the Christmas holiday break with my firm. I’ve several reasons for doing so. Please trust me when I tell you this and don't get pissed off and stubborn. Will you do that?”
I knew that Trey was serious and meant what he wanted to tell me. “Yes, of course Trey,” I answered.
He pulled me down so that I was sitting next to him on the bed. He was momentarily quiet, selecting his words carefully. “There’s a very good chance that the C.A. will accept Charlie Roberts’s plea bargain for giving us your mother.”
I wasn’t quite sure what that meant.
“If that happens, you won’t have to face being at his trial; he will simply plead guilty to a lesser charge. Now, I don’t want you to worry about that. Charlie will do time in prison, just not as much. My only concern is that the authorities haven't+ found your mother. I’ve had my own private investigator looking into her whereabouts as well.”
“You have?” I asked wide-eyed. Maybe that explained his constant phone calls.
“Your mother's been living in Indiana.”
“Indiana? Why would she move to Indiana?” Then it hit me—Daniel. Trey saw that I understood.
“Yes,” he said, “she’s been with Daniel.”
“Oh wow,” I said, although nothing about mom would shock me.
“He’s in college. He’s at Purdue.”
“Unfortunately he’s not any more, Tylar. For whatever reason, he was obsessed with your mother. It’s been going on for quite some time.”
Since my fucking senior prom!
“Your mom’s expecting his child. He quit school and has been working at a factory. Somehow she figured out that we were on to her after Charlie’s assault attempt went awry. By the way, the attack wasn’t actually part of their plan if it makes you feel any better.”
It didn’t. I pressed Trey for more details.
“According to Charlie’s sworn statement, the plan was to make it look like an accident.”
“Make what look like an accident?” I questioned. Trey shifted nervously beside me, wrapping an arm around me. His silence spoke volumes. “What? She wanted me dead?” I looked up at Trey and I knew the answer though he couldn’t speak the unspeakable.
What made her hate me so much?
I buried my face into his chest and sobbed inconsolably. When I finally raised my head, I'd drenched his shirt. Wiping my wet cheeks with the back of my hand, I raised my eyes to his.
“Why Trey?” I sobbed. “Why would she hate me like that?”
“I don’t know, Tylar,” he said, stroking my face with the back of his knuckles. “I don’t understand it either.” He kissed the top of my head. He continued in his smooth silky voice.
“Charlie was biding his time, hoping to get an opportunity to catch you alone, either in the stable or your cottage. The plan was to make it appear as though you'd had an accident with one of the horses. He thought he had a perfect opportunity the night he saw you going into the stable alone. He didn’t realize that I was there. When he saw us, he decided to cash in on a better opportunity.”
The video recorded session of Trey and me in the stable; the night our baby was conceived.
“So, explain this,” I interrupted, “was the plan to kill me nixed then in favor of getting blackmail money from the video?”
“That’s the story Charlie is sticking to,” Trey replied. “Your mother had a life insurance policy on you for $150,000. She offered Charlie $50,000 of it to arrange the…accident. Charlie saw an opportunity for more money by blackmailing me. He claimed your mother was still hounding him to complete the other…task. She wanted the $100,000 life insurance money on top of her portion of the blackmail money. Also, if you were gone, the house in Radcliff would go to her as natural next-of-kin.”
