Page 114 of Jane Deyre

My hand flies to my mouth. I can’t believe what I’m hearing. She staged Bertrand’s death!

“Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I slipped Bertie, who was residing in the guesthouse, a sedative, unbeknownst to him, and dragged him up here. A secret room that only he and I knew about. I must say that part was not fun. He was quite a bit heavier back then and schlepping him up the steps took a lot out of me. But it was worth it... because Bertie was now my sex slave. At my beck and call if he wanted to live. Trust me, it wasn’t hard towhiphim into shape.”

I’m feeling sicker by the second. She’s a total psychopath. Both a deranged child abductor and sexual predator.

She smacks her lips. “Then another little problem arose. Edwina’s lesbo lover. She followed me one day and found us out. She threatened to tell Edwina. Well, I couldn’t let that happen, could I,Charlotte?”

Another tidal wave of nausea rises inside me in anticipation of what she’s going to tell me. I bite down on my bottom lip, afraid to open my mouth.

“Answer me, Charlotte!”

My head shakes as if I have a tremor. Finally, “N-no.”

An evil grin spreads her pale lips thin. “That’s right. She had to be eliminated. I thought I was going to slip her a high dose of her anti-depressants in a drink, but she spared me the time and effort. The lush conveniently passed out on the staircase landing and a brilliant new idea conjured in my mind. Wasting no time, I found a rope, tied it around her neck, and hung her from the staircase. Then pecked out a farewell note on Bertie’s typewriter. The perfect suicide! And so dramatic!”

Oh my God! She’s also a ruthless murderer! The image of Ward finding his mother dangling from the balcony overlooking the great room flashes in my head. All this time he thought his mother took her life when in fact this sick, depraved woman stole her from him. And from Edwina!

Hot tears spring to my eyes at the horror of it all. My anguish is bone deep, shock and grief permeating every molecule, every cell. The pain, both emotional and physical, is beyond any I’ve ever known before. Insurmountable. Surreal.

Clutching my stomach, my eyes watering, I watch as the sick sorceress steps in front of Bertrand’s bed and glowers at him. Venom pours from her eyes. “The sex was good then, Bertie old boy, but now you’re nothing but vermin. A worthless piece of shit.”

She smiles wickedly. “It’s time to put you out of your misery.”

Another excruciating pang shoots through me. Gnawing and clawing at me. I cry out in agony.

“Shut up!” She turns to me. “You should have been dead by now. God knows I put enough cyanide into that herbal tea you’ve been drinking to kill a herd of elephants.”

Her words come at me like a bucket of freezing cold water. I don’t have a flu. Or dengue fever.

She’s been poisoning me!

“It’s time to speed up the process.” To my utter horror, she reaches into the pocket of her jacket and pulls out a shiny metal object.

A gun!

Ward’s gun! She must have stolen it!

The air in my lungs freezes as she aims the weapon at me. Then at Bertrand. She brandishes it. Going back and forth between us. “Eenie, meenie, minie, moe... hmm, let’s see. Who should go first?”

My heart seizes in my chest as a cold rush of fear ices my veins. Oh God! She’s going to shoot us. The sick witchisa cold-blooded killer! A monster!

My heart races; my mind races. I need to stall her. “I don’t understand why you need to kill me.”

She sniggers. “It’s simple. One... you were going to find out sooner or later. And two... your twenty-first birthday is tomorrow.”

The birthday I grew up with isn’t until October. Two weeks away. Tomorrow must be my real birthday. “What does that matter?”

“Well, as executor of Edwina’s will, I modified it while she was mentally incompetent. That I would receive Charlotte’s—your—share of her estate if the child never reappeared by the age of twenty-one. While the rest is still going to her stupid foundation and her odious godson, five hundred million dollars is not exactly shabby. I can be a free woman, able to buy and do whatever I want. I’ve suffered enough in this oppressive household. Under that vain woman’s reign. Everything she’s ever had should have been mine. Old Bertie wasn’t enough.”

“W-what do you mean?”

“Her couldn’t-keep-his-pants-on father should have left me half.”

“Half of what?”

“Half ofeverything. I’m Edwina’s illegitimate half sister by way of his secretary. My mother. He abandoned me and left his precious other daughter his fortune and Thornhill. All he left me was a pension and a permanent job taking care of the household. Made me a glorified housekeeper for life... a job I could never leave or be fired from if I wanted to keep my pension.”

A stunned gasp leaps from my throat.Alice Fairfax and Edwina are half sisters?

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