Page 94 of Stolen Love

“What? I’m not good enough for you? You’ve been sleeping with your cousin all this time.” He tsks.

Dizzy appears behind him, a pink handled blade in her hand. She reaches around him and presses the sharp point to his throat. A drop of crimson wells at the tip and slides down his Adam’s apple. “Don’t move or I’ll bury it in your carotid.”

Alec stills, but his eyes are calculating.

“You’re considering how tiny I am and thinking you can take me, aren’t you?” Dizzy giggles.

Alec moves, but Dizzy moves faster.

He crashes to the floor, his head hitting the tiles and then lolling awkwardly as his eyes roll back.

“Stupid boy. You’re not stronger because you’re bigger. And you’re certainly not quicker.” Dizzy hands me her blade. “Get that tape off and let’s get him tied up. You stab him if he comes to and tries anything.”

I manage the pink duct tape around my ankles and chest while she strips him down to his singlet and boxers to ensure he doesn’t have any weapons. Then she heaves him onto a chair.

We work together to wrap duct tape around him so thick he’ll be lucky if he ever leaves the chair again.

“What did our dad leave you?” Dizzy asks as she collects two bottles of water from the fridge.

“Everything.” I glance at the file.

Well, almost everything. I’m still related to Alec. But I know why Nicole wanted my compliance so badly. She had a falling out with Robert years ago—I’m not yet sure why—and he cut her off. From her family’s wealth and their backing.

Financially, she bled out in less than six months. She’d been living off of Richard since then. Her charities and businesses spent more than they ever made. She made fraudulent business decisions and bad bets. She embezzled from her own husband. She dug her hole pretty deep from what I’ve been able to read through so far. I can only imagine how much worse it has gotten by now.

I twist the lid from the plastic bottle and take a sip. I rub at my chest. There’s always going to be a pang. “All of his money and property. All of his belongings. He left Nicole nothing. In a week she would have had nothing anyway. Unless I was unable to care for myself. But now that I have this file, she’s done… It’s all ours.”

“How do you feel about that?”

“About sharing it with you?” I shrug. “You have as much right to it as I do. And honestly… our dad was a good man, but our history is sordid. The money feels tainted by Nicole’s greed. Honestly, I don’t even need it.”

“I don’t want it.” Dizzy glances around her dollhouse. “All I ever wanted was my real family. And now you know I’m your sister… Plus dad gave me this place. I feel close to mom here.”

“I would give it all away to feel that.” I would do anything to have known my mother and Dizzy all these years. But all I can do is get to know my sister in the present. And learn about my mother through her.

“What about the rest?” Dizzy lightly prods Alec in the chest with the tip of her knife. A small red patch blooms on his white singlet.

His head tips to the side and he starts to snore.

“I haven’t had time to go through all of it yet.” But it seems to be every bit of evidence our father collected on Nicole’s misdeeds. Including correspondence that proves she and Robert both participated in our mother’s abduction. “Enough to put Nicole away for the rest of her life, I think.”

“I hope so.” Dizzy leans against my shoulder. “Do you ever think we could be real sisters?”

“We are real sisters.” The original forms Poppy filled out for my birth certificate, which Nicole somehow intercepted, are in the file too. “I believe you, you know.”

“I mean…” The hyper energy melts away, leaving Dizzy vulnerable and exposed. “Do you think we could be the type of sisters that hang out sometimes? And share clothes. And talk boys.”

“Maddox boys.” I laugh.

“Yeah.”

I bow my head as the idea washes over me, bittersweet. “I don’t know about talking about boys. But the rest I would like. We’re friends, aren’t we?”

Alec groans.

“He’s waking up.” Dizzy straightens. “Time for his confession.”

I take a deep breath and steel myself as I light up my phone screen. “Let’s make sure he never hurts anyone ever again.”

---