Page 57 of Inevitable Inheritance

“Anyway,” Taylor said, blowing over anything Derrick was going to say, “I couldn’t tell my grandfather how crazy Cedric was because he was sick. What good would that stress do for him? And the no-phone thing was making me nervous. I had a cell phone, but he got rid of it, or someone did. It was gone one day. So I went to him and said I needed at least one phone that I could call someone in an emergency, and he just walked away from me. So I realized that was a lost cause, and I went out and got another phone.

“And when he found me on it one day, with Poppy’s hospice nurse about his meds, he went nutty. He took it and started shouting. It was scary, really scary. I had never heard him speak higher than a whisper, so just the boom of his voice was upsetting.”

“What did he say?”

Taylor groaned. “All kinds of things. ‘There are no phones here becauseIwant it that way.’ And that if I didn’t like it, too bad. That we didn’t need to call anyone because soon Poppy would be dead ‘just like the rest of them.’ And that it was a curse—all the deaths were a curse, and one of us was the cause, and he was going to find out who.

“So one of the staff got me a pay-as-you-go phone, and I hid it. I didn’t need it for long because Poppy died a few days later. And then I was so busy with the funeral that I didn’t care what Cedric was doing. I just pushed through it all, getting the arrangements made and then the actual funeral. I was so numb from it all, and I just wanted to focus on what I needed to do because I had no idea what I was going to do from there on out.

“The night of the funeral, after I got home I was in my room when I heard these loud bangs from somewhere in the house. By this point there were only like three people still employed, and no one was there but Cedric and me. So I huddled up in my room, and I just kind of waited and hoped it would stop. But it didn’t, and I could hear it coming closer.”

Taylor swallowed as she remembered. “So, finally I opened the door to look out, and Cedric was coming up the corridor. He had no shirt on, and he was covered in blood, and behind him on the floor were smashed pictures. He was ripping them off the wall and smashing them, then digging through the glass, getting the actual pictures, and ripping them—just shredding all the pictures. Ones of the family, paintings, awards. Everything. And then when he was done shredding it, he would punch into the wall and pull it apart and grab inside, like he was looking for something.”

“Fuck, Taylor.”

“Yeah.” Taylor shuddered. “And then he saw me. He just suddenly stopped and turned to me, and his eyes got all wide. So I went to shut my door, but he was there and there was blood all over him.” Taylor felt tears slide down her cheek. “It was so fucking scary. It was like a horror movie, and I tried to push the door shut. I really tried, but he just pushed it open, and I couldn’t hold it—” Taylor was talking through sobs now as she relived the night.

Derrick went over to her and picked her up, holding her to him. He brought her to the bed. He didn’t say a word, and Taylor knew that he wouldn’t push her to go on, but she felt like she needed to. She wanted it out.

“So, he grabbed me by my arms, and he just stared at me, and then he said, ‘The curse needs to end.’ He said it so quiet and then he shook me and said, ‘Do you understand what I am saying? It will end tonight!’ And I, I think he was going to kill me. I think he thought I was cursed. That I was making everyone die, and he was next. I don’t know, but he was grabbing me so tight … so I kicked and pushed, and he let go of me, and then I, I grabbed this vase thing, I hit him, but he kept coming, and I kept swinging and hitting, and finally he fell. And I didn’t know what to do.” Taylor said, shaking her head. “I thought he was dead, and I just grabbed a bag and stuffed some clothes in it. I had this stash of money I had been keeping under my mattress, and I grabbed it, and then I stopped and realized I was going to have to call the police. And I was sick because of the scandal and bad press it was going to bring to the company, and the people who believed in us … and then he groaned. And then I was just scared he was going to come around and be even crazier and kill me, so I left. I left.”

Derrick pushed back Taylor’s hair and kissed her forehead as he pulled her tightly to him. “I’m so sorry, Tay,” he murmured against her forehead. “I’m going to take care of you from now on. That stuff is over,” he promised, pressing another kiss into her forehead.

I can take care of myself, Taylor thought. In fact, she opened her mouth to say it but clamped her lips together before it came out. It was nice to be taken care of, to have someone want to take care of her. It had been a long time, and she just wanted to be cared for now. Instead of fighting against it, she absorbed it all: Derrick rubbing her back, kissing her forehead, and just holding her. She wasn’t scared at this moment, she felt safe and relaxed.

“You wanna lay down, Tay? Try and get some more sleep?” Derrick asked, and Taylor thought she might melt. When he was holding her, it was easy to forget their past, and how he had hurt her, and how much she didn’t want to rely on him. It was easy to forget that she was taking on a business she knew nothing about and that she was in a world she had never felt like she belonged and now had to fit herself in. Right now in Derrick’s arms, she was safe.

Derrick slipped his fingers under her chin and tilted her face up to his. “Tay? You okay? You wanna talk more?” he asked her softly, his chocolate gaze coated in concern.

“No,” she whispered. She wanted to look at his lips, she wanted to lean in, but that was taking it the direction she was trying to avoid. She could feel her heart race and her body respond to him. “No, I’m tired,” she said as she sat up and slowly pulled from Derrick’s arms. “Thanks for letting me vent, Derrick,” she said as she slid back under the blankets.

“Anything for you, Taylor,” Derrick answered softly and slid in next to her.

Chapter Fourteen

Derrick slept like crap.

He’d had trouble falling asleep after Taylor’s revelations of horror about Cedric.

She had been stuck there, and he had done that to her. If he hadn’t turned her away, then she would have been able to come to him, to get help.

He watched her sleep for a while, not even hiding the fact that he was holding her as she slept. And it had nothing to do with her maybe needing comfort and everything to do with him needing to hold her so he could know she was safe.

Finally he did fall asleep, only to jostle wide awake every time Taylor moved or murmured in her sleep. He was so afraid she would fall back into her frenzied panic from earlier that he was on alert to everything she did.

And now he was awake because Taylor had shifted her leg against his. Derrick looked her over: she was fast asleep, her face relaxed, and she had her hand wrapped around his forearm, holding it to her. She was here, and she was safe. Derrick closed his eyes and let out the breath he had been holding since waking, and then he heard a beep.

His phone meeting. These goddamned meetings were starting to drive him mad, especially since they had yet to yield what he wanted. But this was his project; this was the one thing besides Taylor that he wanted the most, so he had to push through.

Derrick slowly unwrapped his legs from Taylor’s, slid his arm out from around her, and pulled his arm out from her grasp. Taylor furrowed her brow in her sleep as Derrick distanced himself and made a noise of discontentment. Derrick kissed her forehead. “I’ll be right here, Taylor,” he whispered. Taylor sighed and rolled onto her stomach.

Derrick moved silently around the room, throwing on some clothes and grabbing his phone. Then he kissed Taylor on the forehead again and left the room. He was slowly closing the door, doing everything he could to not make any noise, when he heard Marty’s door open.

“Oh, good, you guys are up. I was just headed in there to talk to Taylor,” Marty said through a yawn. Her hair was stuck up on one side, and she looked like she wasn’t sure if she was really awake.

“No way,” Derrick said, blocking the door with his body. “She’s asleep. Leave her alone.”

Marty rolled her eyes and yawed again. “Fine, fine. But as her stylist, I am going to need her soon.”

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