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But I couldn’t look away from her. I couldn’t take my eyes off the only threat in the room.
This woman—this monster—wasn’t my mother. I didn’t know who she’d turned into, but she was a stranger.
The Rosa Weatherall I’d known was dead.
This woman wearing her skin like an outfit was a psychopath.
The money she’d stolen was only the tip of the iceberg, the least valuable of it all. She’d taken my brother. She had his last memories. She had his final days.
And now he was dead.
Dad and I had grieved for them while she’d been off living in paradise.
Oh, God. Dad.
The fight drained out of me, and Ezra pulled me into his arms, lending me the strength I didn’t know I needed.
“I see you’re still following my daughter around like her shadow,” she sneered at them.
“Don’t you dare talk to them,” I hissed, disgust dripping from my voice. “How could you? You betrayed everyone. For what? Money? You bitch.”
She raised a brow and gestured around the room with open arms. “You and your father could have been right here with me. I planned on the four of us disappearing, but no, he had to work.” She spat the words like they left a vile taste in her mouth.
“Oh, that makes it all okay?” I asked, stunned. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”
She pointed at herself with her thumb and raised her chin in defiance. “I deserved that money. People gave it to me. It was mine.”
I blinked in disbelief, sure my ears were playing tricks on me. Was she serious?
“Then they wanted it back,” she huffed incredulously. “That wasn’t going to happen.”
“So, you took it. You made it look like you were investing the money and siphoned it into international accounts instead,” Tristan accused.
She smiled at him, the kind of expression a snake might make. “Yes, professor.” Her smile turned to a glare. “Yes, I know who you are. You’re a stubborn fuck too. Normal people back off after receiving one death threat.” She set her glass on the table and carelessly flicked her long hair over her shoulder before tapping her chin with long red nails. “Where were we? Oh yes, the accounts. I transferred the money, and then I covered my tracks.” She sat on the other couch, stretching out until she was comfortable.
My gut twisted, bile rushing up my throat. I sat like that too, spread out and acting like queen of the fucking world.
“Hiring the liquidator with a connection to my assistant CFO, his credit card, the accident… I orchestrated all of it.”
“Then you just hopped on a plane and left?”
She shrugged. Fucking shrugged like it was no big deal. Like she hadn’t abandoned her husband and daughter, her parents, in a giant fuck you to them, fucked over countless families, and disappeared, leaving us thinking she and my brother were dead.
“We went to Moreton Island, hopped on a charter flight to Cairns, changed our looks, and used fake passports to get out of the country without the authorities”—she gestured with a sneer to Ezra—“knowing a thing.”
“What happened to Asher?” I gritted out.
“It’s better now that he’s gone,” she sighed happily.
Rage exploded in my chest, and I saw red. She didn’t deserve him, not one single piece of his existence or memory from his time on this earth. I fought against Ezra’s one-armed grip, trying to get closer so I could claw the bitch’s eyes out.
“He complained so much,” she continued unperturbed, gesturing to Ry, who’d gone as still as stone. “He missed him, and you, and your father.”
“You killed him?” Ry whispered, my heart shattering into a million pieces at the anguish in his voice. Ezra tightened his arms around me, catching my weight and holding me up as my legs gave out, all the fury draining from me in a gush.
“How could you?” I asked. Tears sprang to my eyes, my chest tightening and my breathing shallowing out.
“I didn’t kill him,” she scoffed, like the concept was ridiculous. But I didn’t put anything past her. She was fucking insane. She waved her hand, dismissing my concerns, and my gut twisted. “He fell.” She rolled her eyes, and I didn’t recognize the roar that came from me. “His balance wasn’t what it had been before he had to lose his foot—”
