Page 89 of What the Wife Knew

“I’d already lost your father.” She dropped the rest of the unpaid bills on the table. “His family had money. They could have taken care of us. We wouldn’t have had to live like this, but I had to run to save us.”

Zach Bryant. My dismal existence grew out of his premature death and the destruction of Mom’s dreams. My job was to recognize her loss.

“This wasn’t the plan.” She gripped the back of the kitchen chair. “Working two jobs and scrounging for scraps? That’s not how I saw my life. That’s not why I sacrificed so much. Things should have gotten better when I got married the first time, but you destroyed that, too.”

She never let me forget.

“But you can fix it. You can step up and clear that debt.”

This was new. And scary as hell. “How?”

“I thought you were too young but, as you pointed out, you’re an adult.” Her voice sounded lighter.

I could barely hear her over the crashing sound in my head.

“You, my dearest daughter, are going to destroy Richmond Dougherty.”

The guy she hated and taught me to hate. “I don’t even know him.”

“You will.” She smiled. “You’ll be my greatest weapon, and he won’t see you coming.”

I finally identified that crashing sound. It was my hope of breaking free from her shattering into pieces.

Chapter Fifty-Eight

Her

Present Day

“You really think Richmond married his own daughter?” I managed not to choke on the horrible words.

“I think he didn’t know who you were when you tricked him into marriage.” Kathryn switched the bat from one hand to the other but didn’t put it down. “You and your mother are just sick enough, depraved enough, to try to get his money that way.”

Saying anything risked all my mom’s plans and both of our lives, so I just stood there, letting Kathryn spew and hoping she’d answer some of the questions I’d had for years about Mom’s life in Annapolis.

“You supposedly know all this information about Richmond. You had a vendetta against him, and for what? You had intimate knowledge about how to weasel into his life. And your mother...” Kathryn’s words came to a crashing halt. It took a good minute before she spoke again. “I don’t think you have any idea of who she is or what she’s done.”

She wasn’t wrong about that. Mom was a mystery. Before I could come up with a way to poke around in Kathryn’s thinking her expression changed. She scanned the office and wariness replaced satisfaction.

Yeah, she’d made a mistake. She’d steered us into a confined area.

Watching that online video about turning household items into self-defense weapons had not been a waste of my time. There were plenty of lamps, desk supplies, and books to throw. The marble paperweight with the medical symbol on it would do just fine. The goal was to lull Kathryn into dropping her guard while I calculated the best way to aim and fire.

“Richmond wasn’t my father.” I said it with certainty. My mom was twisted but not quite that twisted. She had terrible secrets, some she’d only recently shared, but not this.

“Of course he wasn’t. Why would you even say that?” Wyatt’s voice boomed through the room as he moved into the doorway.

The whole damn family had shown up today. A visit from Detective Sessions would have been better. I listened for Mom. For police sirens. For any sort of help. Instead, I got Wyatt.

“What are you doing here?” Kathryn asked.

Wyatt eyed the bat. “Portia called. She’s frantic. Now I see why.”

I abandoned any form of subtlety. “Your sister needs to stay outside.”

“Stop acting like you know anything about my children. You mean nothing to them.” The last of Kathryn’s usual refined veneer fell away as she lashed out. She didn’t weigh her words. Her sole focus was on wreaking havoc on those who she believed wronged her.

Unlike my mom, Kathryn never blackmailed Portia and Wyatt into doing the unthinkable. In theory, Kathryn knew better. She had to understand that letting the kids see her like this, soout of control, would burden them in a way that changed how they viewed themselves and the world.

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