Page 92 of Sins or Secrets
Baby…
My damn head always swells when he calls me that.It’s so silly though. It’s just a little endearment nearly everyone uses.It just sounds sexy when he says it, as does the way he looks.
He could be calling me an idiot but look at me the same and I’d melt right in his palms like hot butter.
And I told him I want us to be professional.How am I supposed to do that if I keep thinking everything he does is sexy?
Now that the truth is out, I don’t even know if that’s what I still want.But it’s probably for the best at this time.My head is still all over the place and the truth is I’m not ready for anything.
I also still plan to leave for New York.It's not going to be wise to get involved for a few months.
Deciding to focus, I glance down at the document and look over my mother’s address.She lives in Charlotte.
“She’s three hours away from me.”
“Yeah. She did move away like Lilly said.She moved to West Virginia, where I’m guessing she thought she’d be safe.There’s some stuff we need to talk about before we do anything else.Because it’s a touchy subject.”
“What?”
“You know how Lilly said in her letter that your father killed Heather's brother?”
My nerves spike and my heart speeds.What am I going to hear now?It can’t be good and I think I might already know.
“Yes.”
“Heather's brother was Mark Vaughn.”
The name sounds familiar. I’m about to ask more questions but the name suddenly sets off warning bells in my head louder than a siren.
I bring my hand to my mouth. “He worked for my father,” I rasp, and Logan nods.
“He was the guy who washed up dead on the beach with a bullet to the head.”
I have to stand, but standing makes my already lightheadedness worse.I walk over to the window to get air and gulp it in.
Logan comes up behind me and rests a hand on my shoulder.
“Dad killed him.” I turn back to him and meet his wary gaze.
“Lilly said he did, and at the time I had a gut feeling he did.”
“Mark came to my house a week before he turned up dead.I saw him arguing with my father, but I didn’t know what it was about.It was bad, and Dad threatened him.But then Mark threatened to expose Dad.”
“That's what Lilly said.”
“Yeah.”
“So maybe that was about you.He found out about you and threatened to expose Peter.Heather would have been fifteen when your father was with her.A scandal like that would have ruined him, and messed up the family man image he had going.”
“That would have definitely ruined him.Dad was starting to climb up the ladder of power and if Mark Vaughn had exposed him that would have been it.When the reports came in that he’d gone missing, I knew then that Dad must have done something to him.When it was confirmed that it was him who washed up on the beach I knew.Similar things like that happened before Logan, but that was just the worse.Or rather the time when I had the strongest suspicion.”
“Jesus Quinn, why didn’t you tell me?”
“No… there was no way I could have done something like that.And with no proof.” That event shaped many things for me.It was two years before I broke up with Logan but I remembered it well.It’s not exactly the kind of thing you forget.
“That was why I lied to you. My suspicions about that incident was why I believed my father when he said he’d kill you.That’s what he said to me, just like that, as if it was the natural solution.Lilly was there too and she heard him.I think she knew what he was capable of.She didn’t stop me or try to intervene when I left to break up with you.I count myself lucky he didn’t follow through on his threats.”
No matter what I think, or what regrets I have now, I know I did what I had to do.
