Page 84 of Stolen Love

“What did he say?”

“At the time I was worried he was having a breakdown. Nicole was in distress. She kept begging me to help convince him to seek help. I don’t know why I let her fool me.”

“Get to the point.”

“He said Nicole tricked him way back when. That he never would have married her if he’d known the truth.” He shakes his head. “He acted really cagey at the time. Wouldn’t go into detail when I asked how she tricked him. He said he needed to find her, but then wouldn’t explain who ‘she’ was. Only that everything would have been different if he hadn’t let his own fears get the better of him. And then he said he should never have let Nicole be Ivy’s mom.”

“Let her?” That’s an odd thing to say. Unless…

“Almost as though he picked her to be Ivy’s mom after the fact.” His brow creases. “Which leads me to think that perhaps Ivy isn’t—”

“Nicole’s daughter.” It would make sense. I never could understand how her mother could treat her this way. Or why she would turn a blind eye to the pain Alec inflicted.

“But it’s Nicole’s name on the birth certificate,” Nathaniel says. “And I have yet to find anything that suggests Richard and his first wife had a baby. Perhaps she was born by surrogate? I’ve devoted two years to this and all I have is a hunch that Nicole is not her biological mother. Without knowing how Nicole tricked him I’m not sure where else to look.”

“If she’s been planning this for twenty-one years…” I thump my hand into the door. Then Nicole has her claws dug in so deep, she’ll never let go unless we find evidence. Truth she has had two decades to bury. “How could he have not realized?”

“I think… he was grieving the love of his life. By the time he could deal with the pain, Nicole would have been ingrained so deeply in Ivy’s life that he probably thought keeping her around was the lesser of two evils,” Nathaniel says. “He probably convinced himself she needed a mother.”

“That’s one mother she would have been much better off without,” I say as the tires crunch on gravel. Marty had mentioned Richard was married before Nicole, but this scenario didn’t cross my mind once. “Is Alec really Ivy’s brother?”

“I don’t know. There was a one night stand. It’s possible that part is true. Perhaps could be the reason Richard stuck with Nicole.”

“That could be how she tricked him.”

We pull into the small courtyard of the motel and the GPS announces that we’ve arrived at our destination.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Ivy

I must have lost consciousness, because when I wake it’s dark. The only light is from the dashboard. The stars overhead. And our high beams on this quiet stretch of road.

Dizzy is singing offkey to the radio. She bounces and wiggles in the driver’s seat. Every now and then she throws in an arm movement and her voice gets louder.

“Dizzy?” I’m groggy and my throat is like sandpaper.

“Hey, you’re awake.” She turns to beam at me and the whole car turns with her enthusiasm. She corrects course with a giggle. “Oops.”

“Where are we? Why won’t you let me go?”

She flattens her foot on the pedal and the brakes screech as she pulls onto the shoulder. Big blue eyes sparkle at me over the seats. “Just in time. You need to take your meds.”

“No, Dizzy, I…” My head hurts so much. My vision swims. “Tell me why you’re doing this. Why are you working with Alec? I know you were there that night.”

“You keep saying that, but you don’t know anything.”

“Are you taking me to him? Are you going to let him kill me? Because that is what will happen if you take me to him.”

“You ask a lot of questions, you know.” She slithers over the seats and pokes around in the bag of supplies she stole from the ambulance. I try to kick at her, but my ankles are bound with neon pink duct tape. “But you still aren’t asking the right ones.”

“Alec?” I insist.

“I sent him an invitation.” Her eyes light up as she climbs onto my lap to pin me in place. “I really hope he comes to our party.”

She runs her fingers along the line in my arm, up to the almost empty bag. “You could use another one of these.”

“Jackson poisoned me with something. I need a doctor. Do you even know what you’re playing at?”

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