Just the thought of Eva saying goodbye made me crazy. I decided not to think about failure, because it wasn’t an option.
She’d stay. She’d never leave. She’d be mine fucking forever.
Maybe she’d fight the inevitable, but somehow I’d make her see that we belonged together.
And, in the end, I’d win.
I wasn’t as cocky about Eva as I was about business. She was more than business to me now, and she probably had been since the moment she’d boldly walked into my office.
But I would win.
I had to in order to save my sanity now.
Chapter Sixteen
Eva
“I’ve hated my daughter since the day she was born, but she’s finally going to pay for keeping me away from all of the things I should have had. I was born rich, and I should have always been rich. It was my birthright. She’s going to jail to pay the price for taking everything away from me. I’m happy. She’ll finally be exactly where she should be—which is rotting in prison. It doesn’t matter that I committed the crime she’s going to be doing time for. So what if I stole the jewelry? It belonged to my mother. It was mine to steal. The important thing is that Eva pays, and I’m pretty sure she’ll be convicted. I’m getting back what I deserve by marrying a rich man. I shouldn’t have had to marry him to get what I’m entitled to have, but I’ll take what I can get now. I wonder if it’s wrong to hope that my dead husband’s brat dies while she’s in prison. I don’t think it is, and I hope she never gets out of there alive after they find her guilty.”
I slammed my mother’s journal closed, unable to read another word of her crazy ramblings. It had been her last entry in her journal, a passage written right before her death. I swiped at my tears, wishing I’d never opened the notebook. My heart clenched in my chest, and I let the pain of my mother’s betrayal wash over me, wishing the book had stayed out of my sight.
What had I been hoping for when I opened it to the last entry? That she’d confessed that she really loved me, and that she felt guilty for what she’d done? No possibility of that after what I’d read.
The book had been out on Trace’s bed when I’d come upstairs to wrap his gift. I could only assume the cleaning crew had found it under the bed and left it on top of the quilt.
Curiously, I’d opened it and read several passages, including the one I’d just stopped reading. It wasn’t like Nora hadn’t warned me, but I hadn’t been ready for the complete and utter evil that had been my mother, the bitter hatred she’d harbored for me all of those years.
“I’m surprised she let me live,” I muttered softly, my voice still tearful.
Why she hadn’t killed me when I was young I’d never understand. Did she draw the line at murder? Or had she known that she’d never get away with it? She’d certainly wished I was dead. But apparently she’d never had the guts to off me herself. It wasn’t out of any sense of mercy. That was clear from her journal entries. More than likely, she was afraid she’d end up in jail for murder.
She’s not worth my tears.
In my rational mind, I knew she’d been crazy and I wasn’t responsible for her feelings. But the child that still lived inside of me wondered why she could never love me. I’d twisted myself inside out to gain even a tiny crumb of affection from her. When I was a kid, I hadn’t understood why she hated me, and I thought it had been my fault. As an adult, I knew better, but for some reason, her hatred for me still hurt.
“It was interesting reading…that little book.” The female voice sounded from the doorway.
Britney.
I tried not to gag at her saccharine sweet tone. I knew underneath her gorgeous, blonde supermodel appearance, there was a heart of a viper.
I turned to see her staring at the book in my hand. “What?”
She glided into the room with a conniving smile on her face that I instantly wanted to bitch slap off her face.
I’d avoided being near her when I could, and ignored her nasty jabs at me when I had to be in her company. I like Trace’s brothers, and my heart bled for Dane. They might be together, but Britney didn’t deserve Dane. Yes, he was scarred, but he didn’t deserve another thorn in his side or a pain in the ass like this woman. She was as cold as Antarctica.
“Oh, I hope you don’t mind, but I went in search of something to read, and I found that little book in your hands. It was very interesting reading. I think people would be fascinated to learn that Trace Walker is marrying a criminal, and that his father had been duped into marrying a psycho. The whole family story would be a total turnoff, I think. After all, he’s marrying his stepsister.” Britney’s expression turned into an evil smile.