Page 37 of Proof

“Have you been home since you were released?” I asked. “I don’t remember reading about any of your family members being at your appeals hearing.”

Cass chuckled. It was still ugly and unnatural, and I still hated it.

“Let’s just say the Ashby red carpet hasn’t been laid out for me yet.”

“They won’t let you come home?” I asked. I wanted real answers, and yet the man kept using sarcasm and twisted humor whenever he responded. “And no more beating around the bush, Cass. I want the truth. You didn’t have any problem exposing things about me that I didn’t want anyone else to know about.”

Cass pulled in a deep breath and released it. “Fine,” he said crisply. “I have no idea if they want to see me or not. My father is either too busy cheating on his latest trophy wife or snorting some kind of designer drug up his nose and drowning himself in alcohol to notice me or care. I can honestly say the feeling is mutual. I don’t even know what Chandler Ashby III looks like anymore.”

“Did you ever visit them when you were on leave from the military?”

“This is relevant how, Couns?—”

“Just answer the question, Cass,” I said. Itwasn’trelevant to the case, but he’d made sure to expose my personal secrets in great detail. I had the right to do the same.

“I only saw my grandmother those few times I came home,” Cass responded. His tone was lighter now. It felt like we were having an actual conversation instead of an interrogation.

“You were always close to her, weren’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Why?” I asked.

Cass had never been much of a talker when it came to his family, even as a teenager. He had, however, mentioned his grandmother more than once. Sully had always believed that Cass had turned down our father’s offer for him to live with us full time because of his grandmother. While I didn’t know everything about the prominent Ashby family, I did know theywere like a pack of jackals—always fighting each other over whatever scraps were left behind.

Cass had always tried to shield his gentle and kindhearted grandmother from the rest of the family. While he didn’t have any full-blooded siblings, he had a much younger half brother and had also had a half sister who’d only been a few years younger than Cass when she’d taken her own life. Beyond that, there were a slew of stepmothers, step siblings, and a shit ton of uncles, cousins, and whatever other vermin left their dens long enough to get their cut of the Ashby money before they slunk back to their holes.

“My mother died young. Leukemia. Radiation and chemotherapy were her only chance of survival. The first round didn’t take. She was given several weeks of rest before round two was set to start. One of the first things the doctors do before they start treatment is to run a pregnancy test. Doesn’t matter what the patient tells them,” Cass said quietly.

“She didn’t know she was pregnant,” I murmured.

“Six weeks along. My father had decided sex with his once pretty, young wife was more important than letting her body recover from the first round of chemo and radiation. Didn’t matter that she was bald. Didn’t matter that she could barely stand or that she couldn’t do something as simple as feeding herself. The fucker took pleasure in hurting her when she was at her lowest. He humiliated her, degraded her, and stuck his dick into as many other women as he could because his sickly wife couldn’t satisfy his needs.” Cass paused for a few beats.

I already knew his mother had passed away before he’d been old enough to remember her, but like everything Ashby, the ugly truth had been carefully kept locked away with all the other family secrets. The Ashbys were akin to royalty in California and across the country. The first Ashby had hit it big in the Californiagold rush and from there, the Ashby patriarchs had continued to grow their wealth and connections, both business and political.

Until Cass’s father had come along. He hadn’t lived by the same set of rules that his male ancestors had. There’d been rumors that he’d set his eye on a path that would ultimately lead to the White House, but for whatever reason the man hadn’t even tried to run for any kind of political position.

“Your mother chose to have you instead of continuing the treatment,” I offered.

Cass nodded and then fell silent for a while. It was all I could do not to reach across the table and offer my hand so that he’d have something, someone to cling to while he relived the past.

Another ugly chuckle fell from his lips as he shook his head slowly back and forth. His eyes were down but I doubted he was really seeing anything. “The doctors told her that they were certain they could get her into remission if they continued the treatments. Even if she hadn’t been able to live a long life, she could have had years left. Instead, she chose to have the baby who’d been fathered by a piece-of-shit man who hadn’t deserved her. She could have divorced him and moved on with her life. Started a new family with someone she loved and who loved her back.”

“She did have a family, Cass. Someone she loved and who loved her back,” I said pointedly as I kept my eyes on him.

Cass’s mental withdrawal was like watching the ocean tide being pulled back out to sea.

“Yeah,” he said unevenly. “Um, listen, can we pick this up tomorrow? It’s been a long day.”

Cass didn’t give me a chance to respond. He was up and moving toward the open door. I assumed he was going to close it but instead, he walked through it and put his hand on the knob so he could close it behind him. He paused long enough to say, “I’m just going to check the perimeter. If you want to lock thedoor, go for it, but I’ve got a key for the front door. I suppose you can try barring the doors?—”

“Go, Cass,” I said quietly. I didn’t like how much it hurt to see him like this. Waffling back and forth between using sarcasm to pretend he was unaffected from our talk and exposing slivers of pain that he probably hadn’t wanted me to see.

Cass left the kitchen, closing the door behind him. It was nearly dark out, so the fact that he seemed comfortable walking around in the dark meant he likely knew the area well. The cabin, as rustic as it was, probably belonged to his family. Unfortunately, none of that information would do me any good since I had no way of reaching someone from the outside world.

Hell, who would I even reach?

If what Cass was saying about Sully being involved in all this turned out to be true, then my big brother wouldn’t take action because he never acted without thinking. He’d been like that my entire life. Cool, calm, unfazed… always armed with a plan and the determination to follow that plan to the letter.

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