What? My mother had an affair with Nate? It makes sense, but I can’t focus on that right now. She’s trying to distract me. “Brady will never believe you.”
“Oh, he will when he hears how you attacked me when I wouldn’t agree to pay you to stay quiet.” Her grin is sinister. She pulls a knife from the block, and swipes it across her cheek without even flinching. Blood trickles down the side of her face. She slides the knife across the island. Reacting, I stop the knife from falling off the counter. I pick it up in my hand and then drop it back on the counter. She smiles, relishing her victory and pulls a gun. I have no idea where it came from, but she’s pointing it directly at me. My hand reaches for the knife and I pick it up again, as if will do me any good. “You came after me with that knife, and I had no choice but to defend myself.”
Brady
I’ve never driven faster in my life. As I wind in and out of traffic, I try to put things together in a way that proves Harrison’s just paranoid, but the more I think about it, the more it all begins to add up. If anything happens to Tori, I don’t know how I’ll go on. We’ve finally gotten to a place where we can have a future, and I can’t live without her.
I throw the front door open, storm into the kitchen, and confirm my worst fears. Tori is standing across from Sheila, obviously in the middle of a confrontation. Tori looks terrified. Her mouth is flat, and her eyes are wide. She keeps nodding to the door, as if wanting me to leave. She’s holding a kitchen knife in her hands. I’m unsure of what is going on, but I’m positive it’s not good. Sheila is on the other side of the island, and she looks surprised. Her hands are at her side, and I can’t see them. Her face is cut open, and blood is dripping down her cheek. I look from the knife in Tori’s hand to the cut on Sheila’s face. What the hell happened? Harrison comes in the door behind me, nearly running into me.
“Oh, Brady…thank God you’re here.” Sheila starts bawling hysterically. “Tori, she’s crazy. When I got home this morning and entered the kitchen, she had a knife. She explained to me that you told her everything. She wants money, Brady, a lot of money. I refused her, and she came after me with a knife.” She points to her cheek. The gash runs from her nose to her ear, and fresh blood is seeping from it. “Oh, God, Brady, if you hadn’t showed up, she would have killed me.”
“Brady, she has a gun,” Tori shouts.
Sheila interrupts. “No, Brady. She hates our family. Her mother had affair with Nate, remember? She doesn’t love you. She only wants revenge for her mother’s affair and money. She’s just like her gold-digging mother.”
My brain struggles to accept what Sheila’s saying. I knew Nate had an affair with Tori’s mom years ago, and Nate and Sheila had ne
arly divorced because of it. Tori knows her mother had an affair, but did she know it was with Nate? I don’t think so. Is Sheila right? Was all of this for revenge? Did Nate perhaps tell Tori’s mother about my real father? Could what we have mean nothing more to her than money and revenge? I don’t want to believe it.
Having been played and manipulated by Sheila for most of my life, a fraction of a second passes where I almost believe her. When I turn to Tori, my heart falls to pieces as tears cascade down her cheeks. She saw my reaction and thinks I believe Sheila. The betrayal on her face is excruciating, and there is only one way to fix it. I’ve never stood up to the woman standing in front of me, but somehow I muster the courage to do so now.
“Sheila,” I shout. “Tori loves me. You’re the greedy bitch here.”
“Brady,” she shrieks, obviously appalled and suddenly not tearful at all.
I step up to the island next to Tori and glare at Sheila threateningly. “You killed Vanessa. How could you do that?”
“I didn’t, Brady. You’re mistaken.” Of course she denies it. Her eyelids are heavy and pleading, and I want to believe her. I want to think she has more in her than greed, and that she could never take a life.
“Liar,” Harrison roars. It’s the first thing he’s said since we arrived.
“She did it, Brady,” Tori yells. “She confessed before you got here.”
“Shut up,” Sheila shouts. “Fine! You want to know? The little bitch came to see me. She said you told her everything. How could you do that, Brady? You killed her the moment you decided to share our family business.”
My eyes don’t leave Sheila. “Tori, call the police. My mother has a confession to make.”
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Sheila lifts her hands above the counter and points a gun at me, then at Tori and Harrison. She keeps moving between the three of us. Honestly, I knew she was power-hungry and crazy, but I never thought she was capable of murder.
“Are you going to kill all of us, Sheila?” I ask her coldly.
“If I have to,” she snarls. “That company is mine, Brady. No one is going to take it from me.” She’s seething mad, angry about losing the company and devoid of any remorse for her family or the irrevocable damage she’s done.
The door linking the garage to the kitchen suddenly swings open, and the two people I'd hoped would never have to know Sheila as anything other than the cookie-baking mom of our youth stand in the doorway, gaping. My heart is bleeding, and there’s nothing I can do about it.
Tears leave Shelia’s eyes as she sees Liv. Sheila is a selfish, cold-hearted bitch, but Liv – like Mona was to their mother – is Sheila’s world. Liv and Tug are the sole reasons I’ve put up with the charade that has been my existence for over a year. Finding out Sheila and Nate were not my parents crushed me. I vowed Liv and Tug would never have to go through anything so devastating, and now I’m powerless to stop it.
Liv enters cautiously, and glares at her mother. “Mom, what is going on?” Harrison slowly crosses the room toward Liv.
“What are you doing here?” Sheila cries, nearing a catastrophic meltdown. “I thought the two of you were going to Coronado for the day.”
“Things fell through.” Liv’s voice cracks. “Mom, why do you have a gun?”
“Brady, what the hell is going on?” Tug shouts.
I don’t have a clue how to respond. My words are stuck in my throat, and I can’t dislodge them.
“Your mother is crazy. That’s what the hell is going on,” Harrison shouts, and Sheila points the gun at him.