Page 33 of Forever Found
“I always wondered why she didn’t just leave him. Maybe she was trying to,” Eli added.
“Maybe,” Ash nodded. “I guess we’ll never know now.”
“How did she die?” I asked tentatively, I didn’t want to upset them, but something was bothering me.
“Suicide. She hung herself. Eli found her,” Asher told me sadly.
“I’m sorry,” I sighed as I turned to Eli and grabbed his hand in mine. We were silent for several moments, but I couldn’t hold back what I was thinking. “You don’t…” I hesitated. Asher and Eli had already been through so much. Bringing up what I feared, could only add to that.
“Spit it out, sweetie,” Eli encouraged.
“Well, I just…what if Joseph found out she was planning to leave? Do you think…would he…?”
Asher and Eli looked to each other over my head and I saw them both pale as realization hit them.
“Fuck. I never even thought, but I wouldn’t put it past the old bastard. He needed me to take over his empire. He couldn’t have mom taking us away,” Asher ground out and I saw how tense he had become.
“He’d never allow her to leave him, would he? It wouldn’t have looked good, his own wife fleeing in the night with his kids? Jesus, Ash! Did he…did he kill our mother?” Eli gasped.
“He was capable of it, we know that now,” Asher said.
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to make things worse, but I just…it makes sense, doesn’t it? I looked between my brothers as I spoke and took in the shell shocked looks on their faces.
“She didn’t leave us, Eli,” Asher spoke first, after several moments of silence. “He took her from us. She didn’t leave us.”
“She didn’t leave us,” Eli uttered as tears filled his eyes. I turned and wrapped my arms around his waist, holding him as tight as I could. Asher followed, wrapping himself around the both of us. We all remained there, clutching each other as we took in the conclusion we’d come to – that our father had very likely killed Asher and Eli’s mother.
Eventually we pulled apart, Eli and I both swiftly swiping tears from our eyes. I was happy that they could now believe that their mother never took her own life without thinking of them, but I was also so devastated to be giving them more world-crushing news about their parents and the possibility that their father was even more of a cold blooded murderer than they already knew..
“Christ.” Eli let out a huge breath. “I honestly don’t know how many more of these bombshells I can take.”
“I’ll have someone look into mom’s suicide so we can know for sure, but it makes sense. I always struggled with the fact mom did what she did that way, knowing one of us could walk in and find her. She wasn’t the best mom in the world, but she loved us and cared about us. She’d never have wanted either of us to see her like that,” Asher said.
“We need to know, Ash. Either way I have to know the truth,” Eli almost pleaded.
“I’ll get to the bottom of it,” Asher promised. “Come on. Let’s go inside and see how things look. We could stay here if it’s in a suitable condition, if that’s what you want, Addy?”
“You guys…don’t you have to get back?”
“All we have to do right now is be wherever you need to be. We’ve stood back for long enough and let you pretend to be okay. It’s not happening anymore, sweetheart. We’re here for you.”
“Just like we always will be,” Eli added. They both wrapped an arm around my back and we turned from the lake, heading up the wooden steps to the cabin together.
***
“That feels better,” I announced as I arrived at the bottom of the beautiful, wide, sweeping staircase. The inside of the cabin – if you could call it that – was beautiful. Most of the walls had been boarded and painted warm tones of cream and Autumn colors. One large wall against which sat the imposing real log fireplace, had been left in it’s rustic log style and it fit perfectly with the rest of the space. There was a living room filled with welcoming and homey looking furniture, a huge television and shelves filled with books. Beyond that was a dining area with a long table to seat six, and behind that was the vast kitchen, filled with hand made oak cabinets, shiny countertops, and modern appliances that had obviously been updated some time in the last few years.
Ash had told us that the company employed to upkeep the entire property had been paid in advance to maintain and update inside and outside as often as needed for a considerable number of years, by Ash and Eli’s mother – Claire. She had obviously wanted this place to remain a sanctuary for her boys and she had the means to always ensure it remained a secure and comfortable place that they could go to, whenever they needed to. I
Of course, they hadn’t even known the place had been left to them after they lost their mother. They didn’t even know it was still here, just waiting for them until that old, sick bastard hadpassed. Now it felt right that they got to be there, finally – in a home their mother always wanted them to have, and possibly a safe place she had planned to bring them herself.
Upstairs there were five large bedrooms, three of which had en-suite facilities, a huge master bathroom and a second lounge area that had the most stunning view over the lake.
I had excused myself to clean up as soon as we walked in, feeling Eli and Asher needed some time to process being back in that place, and to take in what their mother had done for them both.
An hour later, I arrived back downstairs, having taken a soak in the huge claw foot tub in my room, and changed into the warmer clothes Asher had picked up for me. Now I was away from the crushing weight of everything going on with the guys at home, and the memories that place now haunted me with, I felt better. As I had left the room upstairs clean and changed, I had been able to take the deepest breath I had gotten in, in weeks.
“Enjoy your soak, shortcake?” Eli asked as he looked up at me from where he sat on one of the plush cream sofas.