Page 116 of Corrupted Pleasure
Killian and Juliette Cullen.
I read the next document. It was a Brennan family tree. And sure as shit, Juliette and her brother weren’t on it.
The next documents were about Aisling and Wynter. Legal name change. None of it made sense. Then another document. The will of Liam’s father, leaving it all to his son and his biological children. In the event, he had no biological children, he was to get none of it.
Good God! How many secrets lurked in the dark?
“What are you doing?” I whirled around at hearing Liam’s voice, all the documents in my hand flying through the air.
“I-I… it was open,” I stammered, looking at him. He was only in his pajama pants, his chest and torso bare.
He took two steps and was right in front of me. He took in the chaos of the scattered paperwork on the floor. I knelt down, surrounded by his secrets, and I rushed to collect them all and stuff them back into the drawer with haste.
“I’m sorry,” I apologized. “I-I had a bad dream and then… “ My voice trailed off. Because what could I possibly say. I was snooping? It was clear that I was.
“What was the bad dream about?” he inquired and I sighed. Maybe he’d let go of the snooping part.
“I remembered something,” I rasped in a hoarse voice. “I think it’s the reason I’m scared of heights.”
Surprise flashed in his eyes. “What was it?”
I described my dream, the memory from my childhood. Every single part I remembered. I didn’t expect to pour it all out.
“It’s stupid, but I think that woman… I think she’s my mother,” I blurted out.
I didn’t know what I expected from Liam, but it wasn’t his next words.
“There is a file in the drawer about you. The last folder, right on the bottom.”
“What?” I gasped in shock. “You had me investigated?”
He didn’t move, holding my gaze. He was silent for too long, his shoulders visibly tense. My eyes flashed to the drawer.
“What does it say?” I whispered.
“Are you sure you want to know?”
My heart drummed against my chest wildly, like a bird in its cage. If he was asking me that, it must be bad. Right? Yet, I didn’t want to be ignorant. I finally understood my fear of heights. It was time I knew it all.
“Yes.”
“You’re right. That was your mother that day on Oak Island.” My heart sank with his confirmation. The little girl in my dream didn’t understand it, but the adult me did. My mother purposely sent me into the lighthouse, knowing Grandpa wasn’t there. “She pushed you down the stairs. Your grandfather wasn’t the only witness. The lightkeeper saw it all too. She was convicted of attempted murder.” A little hiccoughing sound escaped me. “Attempted murder of you. She had another daughter before you. The scenario was similar to yours, except that little girl didn’t survive. They couldn’t prove it, not until she attempted the same with you. She’s still serving her sentence, scheduled for parole in another two years.”
I blinked. A dull ache traveled through my system, but surprisingly it didn’t shatter me. It fucking sucked but I never really had my mother. You couldn’t mourn something you never had.
“Why?” I choked out. “Why would she want to kill me? I was just a kid.”
“She was crazy. Selfish. She thought if she eliminated you, your father would take her back.”
The explanation didn’t make me feel better.
His big palms cupped my cheeks, holding me captive. “Her loss.”
I blinked. “It still kind of sucks.”
He nodded. “It does. Sometimes life sucks. And people we love hurt. But it makes us stronger.”
I exhaled a shaky breath. “Is that supposed to make me feel better?”
