Page 25 of Summer Shivers
“No, I’m sorry.”
“I’m heading to Martin’s, the guy we’re meeting tomorrow. Have a couple things to go over with him and I’ll be back.”
“Thank you, Ty. I appreciate it. You have—”
“Yep.” I end the call before she starts crying over the phone and going on about how thankful she is.
twelve
GENEVIEVE
I decideto go through the paperwork that we pulled from the safe. I know Ty’s been through it all twice and would have told me if there was anything that lead to a suspect or anything else involving his murder. But I still want to see it all for myself. Just in case. There are a few news articles about Harrison from early in his career. Funny he has them in here and not up on a wall with so many of the others. The prenup that was signed the day we got married. I never argued it, I'm the one who said I wanted to sign it. I didn't want people to think I was marrying him for his money, didn't want his daughters accusing me of anything.
Paperwork for his business holdings, which I never got involved in. Plans for the Lake Oswego house from way back when he had it built. The mortgage for the beach house, and a bunch of legal paperwork that I don’t want to concern myself with just yet. Files for movie rights and options for his books, things that seem better suited for a filing cabinet than a safe. But who am I to say? As I near the bottom of the pile, one jumps out at me. I pull it from the stack and settle in to read it: a file titled Tyler Presley.
What the fuck?
Why would Harrison have a file on Ty?
And why wouldn’t he tell me about it.
I leaf through it: reports, pictures, cell phone records. The reports look periodic reports, like maybe Harrison had someone checking on Tyler or following him. From before Harrison and I were even married. Each time he spun up, where he went, how long he was gone. Where he lived, how much he made, surveillance photos, pictures of Ty and I, most of which are in chronological order. How the hell did he get all this?
And then—
Oh my god!
My hands shake as they pick up the next item.
A receipt for a ring.
An engagement ring.
Ty bought me a ring before his brother died and Harrison has a copy of the receipt. Why?
And, during a time when I thought his job meant more to him than I did, he was going to propose.
And Harrison knew.
He knew Ty intended to propose the whole time he encouraged me to break it off for my own sake. And when I found out I was pregnant, it was Harrison who convinced me the right thing to do was to keep it from Ty and stay away. So my child would not have to suffer through life with their father leaving at any given time, for any length of time, with little to no contact in between.
It was Harrison who showed me statistics on the success of children raised in stable environments. Playing on my own insecurities of being raised in the foster system.
How he could provide that stability for me and the baby. Assuring me he didn’t care that I was still in love with Ty. Just having the baby and I in his life would be enough for him. It makes me sick remembering how easily I bought into it all. Especially when he pointed out the importance of keeping it all from Ty, even if I could reach him, so that his focus could be on his mission and not split between there and here. For his own safety. Knowing all the while where Ty was and what he was doing. Coaxing me into marrying him, how that would solve everyone’s problems.
My chest burns with the betrayal.
“Oh, Harrison.”
Tears fill my eyes, only this time in anger and deceit instead of guilt and grief.
And it just gets worse from there. Tyler’s undercover work, drug addiction, injury, rehab, and release from service. Honorable, but still. Pictures of the damage to his knee are devastating. The numerous surgeries, the pins and brackets that now hold it in place.
Ty was back in Seattle at about the time the baby would have been born, had she lived. By then, Harrison and I were married, and he’d whisked me off to Lake Oswego. All the while knowing Ty had returned, with me none the wiser.
How did Harrison have access to this information?
It doesn’t stop there; he even has reports of what Ty has done with his new company in Seattle. Changes of address, random surveillance photos seemingly pulled from other sources. And, of course, detailed accounts of each time Ty came to Seaside. Where he went, who he talked to, and for how long. Did Harrison think Tyler would reach out to me while here? Or I him? Harrison had so little faith in me that he thought I’d cheat.
