Page 74 of The Wife Deception
Aire continued to nurse me at home even when I felt I no longer needed her help. I wasn't one to complain and she would crush any rebuttal I had to her nursing with one phrase, 'the doctor said.' It felt nice to be pampered. I knew this new reality differed from our previous life before the shooting, but I didn't care. I liked life like this and we would be better off if we continued like this.
I still hadn't gone back to the office. Kelly had become more and more of my right-hand man, coming by together with my assistant to brief me on company matters. One day, he came alone while Aire was out taking a walk in the park. She had been doing plenty of those ever since she got pregnant.
"You better have a good reason why you came on Saturday," I said to Kelly as he walked in on me playingStreet Combat.The grave look on his face made me pause the game and drop the controller. "What is it?"
"Can we speak in your office?"
I nodded and led him to the office. My hand was still in an arm sling, making movement difficult, but I was getting used to it. Kelly began sweeping the room as soon as he entered, searching for what I can only assume to be a bug. I let him do his thing and when he was satisfied; I went to the side of the desk where the chair was, but did not sit. "What do you have that’s got you so paranoid? A rival is trying to steal our designs again?"
He shook his head, serious as ever. "I think I know who did that." Kelly pointed to my shoulder. "Your wife tried to kill you."
39
Aire
The place was quiet when I got back. I hadn't been gone for long. When I left, Nolan had been playing video games, but now there was no sound coming from the living room. The thirty-minute walk I took had me feeling a lot more energetic. It was good to breathe some fresh air and have the wind blow on my face.
That was odd. Nolan had left the game on pause, which he rarely does and wasn't in the living room. I called out to him, having that same trepidation I felt when he collapsed in my arms. That day was like living through a nightmare. I thought he had died. The thought alone is what made me realize I had been suppressing a longheld feeling. I love Nolan Hawthorne. It was seeing him lose blood on the concrete city sidewalk that shocked me into that realization. I loved him, flaws and all. The confidence to speak my feelings into existence was what I lacked. He didn't want me. He hated me and was probably only keeping me by his side for the baby.
While we were waiting for Nolan to wake up, that's when I decided to come clean and tell the Hawthornes who I really was. They were shocked at first. Carey was livid and wanted to throw me out of the waiting room, but it was Ivy who helped them see my side of the story. They came around when I told them that my grandfather had practically blackmailed me into marrying Nolan and that Nolan already knew.
I can't deny the way my heart leapt though, when Raine told me his brother was calling my name when he woke up. Had Nolan been thinking of me, or thinking of the baby inside me? He was shot after finding out we were having a son after all.
"Nolan?" I called out to him. I heard voices coming from his office. He rarely had work on weekends. It must be urgent for Kelly to come here if it was him Nolan was speaking to. I was about to walk past when I saw the door open. I popped my head through the door and the two men froze mid-sentence when they saw me. My smile faltered. They looked like they had seen aghost. No. An enemy combatant. Nolan had a deep scowl marring his face.
Kelly's face was harder to read, and he didn't give me time to assess before bidding Nolan goodbye and walking past me as though I didn't exist. "What's the matter?" I asked Nolan as soon as I heard Kelly leave.
"Why don't you take a seat, dear wife?" He motioned to the settee in the corner of the room. His steely voice was commanding enough for me to do as he said without asking. Nolan got out of his chair and went to lean on the corner of the table, facing me. He was imposing. Menacing. I felt like I had done something wrong and was in the principal's office.
"What's the matter?"
"You hold a lot of secrets, don't you?"
I didn't know what he was talking about. I had told him everything. Whatever Kelly told him, it was not true.
"Nolan."
"Are you working with your grandfather against me?"
"Is something wrong? What did Kelly say?"
"What he said doesn't matter. What I want to know is if you're working with your grandfather or not."
I shook my head.
Nolan nodded, but he didn't seem convinced. "And my son? What about your plan to get his inheritance after I die?"
"Nolan I don't know—"
He grabbed a tablet that was on the desk behind him and flung it across the room. I caught it and turned it on. A video popped up. An interrogation room video like the ones I had seen on true crime shows. Only this one had a person I had seen before. The man who stood next to my grandfather for years. His bodyguard. He was in a small room with white walls and wearing jeans and a t-shirt. It was odd to see him out of his black suit. He was sitting on a metal chair welded to the floor in front of a metal desk, also welded to the ground. On the other side of the desk was a man in a leather jacket and jeans with a file open lying flat on the desk. I played the video.
"You said you were paid to kill Nolan Hawthorne," Leather jacket man said. He sounded like a cop. "Who paid you?"
The man clasped his handcuffed hands on his lap. "A woman called Aire Taylor. His wife's cousin."
I looked up at him. Nolan was impassive. His blank expression offered zero comfort. I continued playing the video.
"Can you describe this woman to me?" the officer said.
