Page 114 of Billionaire Lumberjack's Bride

Silas runs his hands through his hair and wanders over to the nightstand. “I don’t know.”

He pulls open the top drawer and rifles through the things in it, then shoves it closed and does the same for the drawer under it. Slamming it shut, he lowers himself to the bed, dropping his face into his hands.

“What the fuck was I thinking coming back here? I don’t know where he would put anything. This house has twenty bedrooms and dozens of other rooms. It could be anywhere, or it could be nowhere. What if he didn’t leave anything at all?”

The panic lacing his voice makes my heart go out to him even more.

I’ve been there myself—when the police took Joey into custody and said he was being charged. That feeling hung over me until last night, but the moment I told Silas everything and he promised to help him, it felt like a giant weight had been lifted from my shoulders.

And I want to be able to do the same for Silas.

Only I don’t know how when we’re twisting in the fucking wind.

Settling on the bed next to him, I rest my head against his shoulder. “Let’s just look anywhere we can in here, and if we don’t find anything, we’ll reassess, but we can’t give up. We’ve only been here for five minutes—”

The door clicks open, and we both jerk our heads toward it, tensing, prepared for a fight.

An elderly woman with white hair pinned up in a bun and heavy laugh lines on her face stands in the jamb, staring at us. Her eyes zero in on Silas, and tears start to pool. “Silas, is that really you?”

He rises from the bed and approaches her tentatively. “Ursula?”

She nods vigorously, wringing her hands in front of her. “I never thought I’d see you again.”

The corner of his mouth curves into a sad smile. “I never thought I’d be back.”

A tear slips from her eye, and she shakes her head. “I’m so sorry I could never do anything for you, that I couldn’t intervene, but your uncle would’ve had me deported, and I—”

Silas closes the distance between them and takes the old woman’s shoulders in his hands. “Don’t apologize. It was a long time ago.”

“But you were only a baby.”

“I’m not anymore, Ursula, and I’m going to make sure he pays for what he did to everybody, especially me.”

The woman sputters, her eyes widening slightly. “Your father…”

My spine stiffens as Silas narrows his eyes on her.

“What about him?”

“He was acting strange in the few days before he died, locked himself away in his office for hours at a time. I don’t know what he was doing, but I thought I would mention it with everything that’s happening. That’s where I found him.”

Silas raises a brow. “Youfound him?”

She nods. “He was slumped over his desk. Theysaidit was a heart attack.”

The emphasis she places on the word “said” doesn’t go unnoticed by Silas or me, and he cuts me a sharp look that tells me exactly what we suspect is likely true. Even the maid believes Marty had something to do with Silas’ father’s death, the same as he did Ronald’s.

“Do you think Uncle Marty could have done something to him?”

Her slim shoulders rise and fall. “They had been arguing for months. I don’t know what about, but it got nasty. Things were tense here, so I can only imagine what they were like at the office…”

“What about Ronald? Was he here before he died?”

She narrows her gaze on Silas. “Ronald? No…not that I can recall. I hadn’t seen him here in weeks.”

Which means, he didn’t leave anything here for Silas.

Silas’ shoulders slump as he comes to the same realization, but then he glances over his shoulder at me. “We need to go to my father’s office.”

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