Page 46 of Rage's Solace
“I don’t know for certain what happened, but just over ten years ago Ashton got sent to a psychiatric institution. It was all hushed up, some private place. I think he’d attacked someone, a woman. Unlike the other times, Malcolm’s money couldn’t make it go away. That was around the time that Conrad married Priscilla.”
“What are you saying?” I demand.
“I’m saying I think Ashton did something to Priscilla, that was why his father got him locked away and that was why he made Conrad marry her.”
“Why marry her though?” I ask.
“Because of the baby—”
Harold groans, “For the love of God, shut the hell up. You don’t know what you’re doing by double-crossing the Whitmores.”
She frowns at him. “I know the Whitmore family dynamics far better than you do, and they can’t be allowed to ruin people’s lives. Conrad wasn’t a nice man but he wasn’t cruel, when his brother was released last year, something changed.”
My mind is spiraling with all this information, and suddenly I have an awful thought. Mia. I was convinced she was mine, but what if she was Ashton’s and that was what Priscilla was trying to hide? Her parents getting a monthly payout from Whitmore—was that hush money? My poor Prissy, has she lived all these years with her attacker’s family? Did Conrad shoot her as some sick attempt to make sure his brother couldn’t have her?
I realize in this moment that it makes no difference to me who Mia’s father is, I want to be there for Priscilla and her daughter. I want to be the father that little girl deserves whether she is biologically mine or not.
I look at Emily, “So what happened when he was released?”
Harold issues one last warning, “Emily don’t.”
Siege backhands Harold, “Priscilla may be in danger. Someone’s been stalking her and leaving dead animals on her doorstep, a mother and baby rabbit. Both decapitated.”
Emily’s hand flies to her mouth. “Oh dear God.” Turning to Harold who is nursing a bloody nose, she says, “This has gotten out of hand, we have to stop them.”
He looks resigned, “Yeah, maybe it has, Em.” Reaching out across the table he takes her hand in his. “From what we could tell, Ashton was a troubled kid. It’s one reason his own parents never bonded well with him.”
Emily sighs. “That’s an understatement. Tell them the rest, Harold.”
He curses under his breath. “They caught him doing unspeakable things to animals when he was a kid, that’s how psychopaths start. He got released last year, the hospital said hewas rehabilitated, but you can’t rehabilitate someone like him. It wasn’t even a recognized clinic his father had him in, just some private place to shut his son away. The whole out of sight out of mind thing. I doubt he ever got any treatment. I never knew him before he went away, so I can’t say if he changed. But I can say he gave me the creeps, you know how with some people you never turn your back on them? That was Ashton. I certainly didn’t want Em to be alone with him.” Wiping his nose on his sleeve, he continues, “He started trying to hang around Conrad’s place. As well as Priscilla, he’d gotten obsessed with her daughter. Mia always wanted a pet, but Conrad was afraid it would be too much temptation for Ashton to resist. He likes hurting animals and would probably really get off on doing something awful to Conrad’s pet. Conrad tried to get Ashton readmitted, but because he was classed as mentally competent it was impossible. That’s when Conrad’s drinking got worse. I think that was his way of escaping the situation.”
Conrad was an asshole who tried to kill Priscilla. I couldn’t forgive him anything, but on hearing this I wonder if he was as much a victim of his brother too?
“Why was Conrad’s house, cars, and every damn thing else he owned in his father’s name?”
Harold speaks up, “I didn’t know that. But I’m guessing it was a way for his father to control him, or maybe it was another payoff, you know? Like, here son, marry this woman and I’ll give you a comfortable life.”
Emily adds quietly, “Always having to be on guard against Ashton drove Conrad to the brink of insanity, it drove him to drink.”
Rigs asks, “Didn’t the parents ever try to get his brother help when he was younger?”
She responds, “From what I remember hearing from Conrad, they put Ashton in therapy several times, once when they found him abusing Conrad when he was a baby. They saw him on the baby monitor holding his hand over Conrad’s face until he passed out and put Ashton in a residential treatment program for three months. He was four at the time, as the years went on, he just got better at hiding what he did.”
Rigs looks from Emily to Harold, “Ashton is the one you’re afraid of, not the old man, right?”
Harold sniffs loudly. “Yeah, you have no idea what Ashton is capable of. We have a good reason to be concerned for your lives.”
Emily says in a hushed tone, “We think he had something to do with his mother’s death. Even his father fears him deep down inside.”
I voice my earlier thoughts, “Do you think that maybe Conrad never loved Priscilla. He was just protecting her in some warped way and cracked under the pressure from Ashton, which led to resentment and him killing her as some sick form of protection?”
Emily looks really worried. “Who knows? Maybe there isn’t a good guy and bad guy, just a bad guy and a worse guy.”
Siege tries to clarify, “So, you think that Ashton is still after Priscilla and that he’s the one who left the dead rabbits on her doorstep.”
“Yeah, I don’t see him giving up now that Conrad is dead, if anything he’ll see it as his chance. There’s no one left to stop him finally taking her.”
Emily glances at Harold in a way that makes me think she didn’t really put the last piece of the puzzle together until just now.