Page 42 of The Sound of Secrets

“I’m not giving you the password to the account with the ransom money until you tell me where my niece is and I know that she’s safe. There will be no further negotiation on the subject. Mom, stop. I did what you wanted.”

“I need access to all your accounts. And you need to transfer all your property and your assets from Halliday Inc. into your mother’s name.” The lawyer kept pushing his luck, and I could see the gluttonous gleam in his eyes.

I scowled and tried to snatch the razor from my mom. She kicked back her chair and rose to her feet. I recognized the unhinged expression on her face. She was no longer in reality. It was anyone’s guess if she was still seeing me or the lawyer, or if she was envisioning us with monster heads breathing fire. She hadn’t had an episode this bad since Willow died, but I couldn’t blame her. The stress from this mess my father caused was enough to make me feel like I was losing my mind, and I was the only sane person in my family.

“I don’t have property. Or anything to do with that company.” I spoke flatly and kept trying to get close enough to my mom to grab the boxcutter.

The lawyer snorted. “You own a brownstone in the city. You own an apartment in Rome and a property in Spain. There’s also a condo on the beach in Hawaii. You own five percent of the shares in Halliday Inc., as well as several of its subsidiaries. You also have an as of yet unnamed business of which you have complete ownership, but is listed as a partner of Halliday Inc. You are also listed as one of the board members for a newly established charity directly headed by Winchester Halliday. None of these assets are included in your marriage agreement. I won’t tell you the lengths I had to go to in order to obtain a copy of that document.” He gave me a creepy grin and looked overly proud of his underhanded methods. “If you divorced today, you’d see a windfall. You’re an incredibly wealthy woman on paper, Ms. Harvey. At least you were.” He tapped the paperwork I’d scribbled my name on in a condescending manner. “We don’t need the password since we have this.”

Win.

The man gave me more than I deserved. More than I needed or wanted. Definitely more than I could ever give him back. However, the only thing he handed over that I was determined to keep was his heart. I was still shocked he trusted me enough to put it in my hands. The least I could do was let him hold mine for a little while. I needed to adjust to having someone close enough to touch my deeply hidden wounds so he could start to heal them.

I wanted to get the razor away from my mother. The trained professionals could do their thing and get Winnie’s whereabouts from the lawyer. He had to be guilty of something, and someone was going to jail today, even if it wasn’t my father.

Just as I grabbed my mom’s arm and called for the doctor to hurry, the sound of a helicopter blasted from overhead. I watched in horror as my mom’s expression shifted, and her face became a paranoid mask of fear. She screamed, “We’re under attack,” and lunged at me. I fended off her flailing arms and felt the edge of the razor on my cheek. I heard the federal agents and medical staff move from where they’d been stationed. It was a tangled rush of bodies trying to get into the room, all while my mother lost control at an alarming pace. I was worried the feds might take aggressive action to get her to drop her weapon, so even though I was terrified I kept my body between her and the excited swarm of people fighting to get in the room and screaming about who was in charge of the situation.

“Die! You need to die! Everyone should die so we can be with Willow.”

I didn’t want to hurt her, but dodging the flying razor was getting harder.

“Mom! Stop!” The helicopter sound got louder, and I heard more activity in the building. I yelled for the doctor, pleading with him to get a sedative to get my mother under control.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I wondered if there was another bride anywhere on earth who was nearly killed by both her mother and mother-in-lawwithin the first year of marriage. It felt like a particularly specific punishment for a crime I didn’t even know I committed.

The scummy lawyer did his best to slip away unnoticed, but my armed companion stopped him and started reading him a legal riot act. I watched him get handcuffed and hauled away as I rolled around on the floor. The razor skimmed over the top of my ear and a trickle of blood trailed across my cheek and into my mouth. I hated everything about this scenario. I felt guilty, but I was also enraged that she could come undone so quickly after all the effort and time I’d put into helping her figure out how to be independent and mentally stable. This uncoordinated wrestling match made me feel like all the care I gave to her over the years was worthless.

The doctor finally rushed into the room and did his best to subdue the older woman. I sat, panting, on the floor, my face bloody and my heart broken as my mother folded and deflated, the weapon in her hand falling next to her like a harmless decoration. Her eyes were glassy, and she stared at the ceiling like she was waiting for the now silent helicopter to burst through the building.

The doctor went to pick it up but was stopped by one of the authorities. When they said it was evidence, I realized how much trouble both of my parents had gotten themselves into. My mom might escape the charge of being my father’s accomplice, but she wouldn’t be so lucky when it came to her trying to take my head off.

Win dashed into the room, looking like a movie hero. He was very disheveled, and smelled like a pirate, but I’d never been so happy to see anyone.

Hetook one look at the blood on my face and the temperature in the room dropped fifty degrees. He pulled me into his embrace and whispered, “I found Winnie. She’s fine. Everything is going to be all right.”

I nodded because I needed to believe him. I trusted him. If he said things were going to be fine, then they were. I was so thankful that my niece was okay that my knees went weak. I would’ve fallen to the floor if he wasn’t holding me up. “My dad?”

Nothing would be okay until that menace was out of our lives forever.

Win shook his head as he searched around for something to hold against the slash on my cheek. He was pissed at the feds and the doctor that they let me get beaten up and did nothing to stop it because they were too concerned about which agency had the proper means and authority to contain the situation

“No word on where he is yet. I’ll get the lawyer to talk. He won’t get away with this. I promise.”

Someone found him a towel that he held to my cheek. He kissed me on the top of the head and muttered soothing words under his breath as he started to guide me out of my mother’s broken sanctuary. I couldn’t begin to wrap my head around what I was going to do with her and felt devastation flood my tired bones. I should have hated her, but I didn’t. Because when she was better, these recent events would be nothing more than a nightmare.

“Win, I lo –” The shaky confession was cut off by my mother’s weak voice.

“Your dad is hiding out at the old bakery where I used to work. He’s friendly with the new owners. They let him stay in the storage room when he needs a place to sleep. He’s waiting there until I transfer him some money, then he plans to stowaway on a shipping boat that’s headed to Costa Rica. If he did anything to my granddaughter, I’m going to murder him.”

I watched as her eyes drifted shut and the lucid words faded away. Win hugged me closer as he told her unmoving form, “Thank you.”

I wrapped my arms around his waist and pressed my bloody cheek to his chest without a care that I was leaving a mess all over him.

“Win. I love you, too. I loved you before I found out about the condo in Hawaii, the shares of that awful company. I love you despite all that stuff.” I felt his heart pound against my wound. “I haven’t figured out how to be your wife, but if you give me a chance to learn, I will. And for what it’s worth, I know you’re already the perfect husband. I just need to catch up.”

“I’ll wait for you.” They were more than just words. He’d proven more than once that he would stay while I found my way back to him. He gave me the home I’d endlessly searched for without me having to ask him to do it. He proved to me I was anything but common because he loved me, and he wanted me more than his family fortune. Win Halliday would only ever give his heart to someone as extraordinary as he was. I liked the version of myself I saw through his eyes, so much more than the one everyone else saw.

All along I’d given him the one thing I was never able to relinquish to somebody else. My trust. Ultimately, that’s how I knew I was in love with him.

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