Page 58 of Hers To Keep
Her solemn scowl turns to a wide grin, and all the earlier glimpses of empathy are instantly gone. “So, what do you have to lose?”
“Everything!” I cry out, not able to contain myself any longer.
“Oh please, those worthless kids from that foster home. They don’t care for you. They’d throw you under the bus the first chance they got. Just a brief glimpse of some cash they so desperately crave, and you’re a goner. Not to mention thatsisterof yours. She’s just as pathetic as her mother was––”
“How can you say that? I thought you never met Jade’s mother. Or was that just another one of your blatant lies?” I ask, interrupting her.
“I didn’t have to meet the God-awful bitch to know what she was like. It’s all Chaz ever talked about. He was pathetic. Couldn’t stand to look at his daughter because she reminded him so much of his precious Amelia.”
“You’re worse than I thought, hating a man for loving his dead wife, a man you couldn’t care less about.”
“You sound surprised, dear,” she says, raising her eyebrow as she tucks a strand of her dark hair behind her ear. “Well, I’m bored, so I’m out of here.” My mother walks around me, stepping toward Ace, a small smirk escaping her. “Ace darling, it was nice seeing you again. Careful with this one, she’ll suck the life right out of you. Oh and Maxwell,” she says, turning toward my father, his body immediately stiffening as she approaches him. She reaches a hand to caress his cheek, but he pulls away grabbing her hand before she reaches him. “I will always love you.”
He drops her hand back, and just like that she walks out of the room, leaving my boyfriend, my father, and me.
Terrific.
I look back and forth between the two of them, for a fleeting moment none of us speak. I mean for one, what would we say? Hey, I’m the daughter that psycho bitch forced you to father. I’m the father you never had, you’re the daughter I never knew existed. And Ace, well, there’s nothing he could say to make this any less tragic than it is.
To my surprise, it’s Maxwell who breaks the silence first. “Scarlett,” he utters quietly, but I stop him before he says something neither one of us means or wants to hear.
“Don’t!” I raise my hand to halt him from coming any closer to me. I close my eyes as I try to calm myself before I fall apart further before him. “Don’t you dare say you’re sorry. That you wish none of this had happened, that you wish I hadn’t found out this way.” I slowly open my eyes, gazing into the pain written in the depths of his gaze.
How dare he look like he’s the one whose life has just turned inside out?
Maxwell watches me impassively, knowing better than to push me on this, and as I watch his gaze move from mine to Ace’s behind me, I know he’s the one to thank for that.
The air in the room slowly dissipates, none of us wanting to inhale any more of its toxicity than we already have. The guilt I see in my father’s eyes only further proves that my worst fears are true. This isn’t the end. This world, my world, my life, there is so much more darkness to come.
“I know there’s still something you’re all not telling me,” I mutter serenely as I edge in closer to him, his frown hardening as I stop right before him. “I can imagine it has to do with whatever happened to Gianna, or whoever she was. Trust me, I am not expecting you to want to talk to me. I honestly don’t even think I want to talk to you,” I chuckle nervously as I gaze straight into his eyes. For the first time I don’t expect any answers. I don’t need to know the entire story. I don’t think I’d be able to handle it. There is just one thing I need to know in order to think clearly. “Just answer me this one thing.” I pause, not sure if I’m being dramatic or because of the knot lodged in my throat. “Have you known this entire time?”
Without clearly saying what I mean, I know he understands and the frown that appears over his face is the only answer I need. “I only found out about nine months ago.”
His confession stings, but it’s not as bad as I had expected. “I assume that’s when the blackmailing started?” I ask.
He nods again. “I came home for a weekend, the first time I had since I left over eighteen years ago. I didn’t even come for my father’s funeral four years ago, but I came here to look for a letter I left behind. It was a letter left for me all those years ago. I was hoping it would still be exactly where I left it.”
“But it wasn’t?” I ask, intrigued by what he says.
“No, it wasn’t. So I snuck into my father’s old study to look for it, and that’s when I overheard my brother and Wesley in his office. I heard them mention your mother’s name, and the daughter of mine she had. I heard Wesley tell Malcolm how he was planning on bringing you here.”
“Did you hear why?” I ask eagerly, not surprised to know Wesley brought me here for a reason. I’d always known there was one. I guess I’m just finding out why.
“He said it was to lure out whoever was blackmailing him. He told Malcom he’d received some vague threats about his illicit businesses that implicated them all, the founding four. But the one thing the blackmailer knew, the way you were conceived, only a few others knew about. It’s one thing they’re threatening to expose, which is why Wesley thought of me.”
I stare at him blankly even more confused than before, but as I turn to look at Ace I see for once he’s as clueless as me. “I don’t get it, how would exposing me as your daughter change anything? What is the threat in that?” I ask, my mind reeling with all the perplexing information continuing to unravel.
He reaches out to grab my hand looking down at me, silently asking if he may. I don’t nod or give him the okay, but I also don’t pull away from him when he does. “You, Scarlett, are a Smoak, a legitimate heir to my father’s multibillion-dollar fortune. A fortune my brother and Wesley have had their eyes on for many years. You see, my father put a clause in his will that we discovered only when he died. It stated that his fortune went solely to histhree surviving grandchildren. My father knew about you, Scarlett, my brother has only Alek and Drea. You are the third grandchild of Silas Smoak.”
“He knew about me,” I whisper, taking in the new information as he nods in agreement.
“And they murdered him for it.” Silas Smoak was murdered because he knew Wesley’s secret. Because he knew of my existence.
Could he possibly be the one who was threatening to expose it?
My mother’s words from that night, the night they executed Chaz for murdering Silas, ring in my head.
A colleague informed me Silas was selling information about The Gallows to the mayor of Providence. He had a black book of all the clients and was using it to fund his reelection campaign. He knew that the Servites and the Silvers were hoping to get him to step down in order for you to assume his place, but being the arrogant bastard that he was, he refused to step down. So, he needed a little push.