Page 111 of The Tangle of Awful

My phone buzzes and I look down at it.

Tasha: Harold is threatening everyone’s jobs again.

I smirk, thinking about Aunt Tasha still all bandaged up and laid up in a hospital bed. I’ve been by just about every day to see her. Now that she’s stable and healing, she’s been her usual demanding self. And Harold, her doting old man husband, has been valiantly fighting her battles for her. For everyone who said she married him for his money, they don’t know the real Harold and Tasha. Those two love each other immensely.

Me: I’m surprised Harold hasn’t bought the hospital just to fire everyone on the spot for grins and giggles.

Tasha: Don’t tempt him. I’ll be able to go home soon, though. The hospital should be safe.

I send her a bunch of heart eye emojis. She’ll need plastic surgery once her face heals, but at least she’s alive. She knows I was abducted and hurt, but she doesn’t know it was Mom’s ex-boyfriend. Some secrets have to stay secret.

The doorbell rings and Hugo groans. Spencer huffs, pushing my feet out of his lap and standing. If it were a family member, it’s likely they’d let themselves in, hence why we don’t do anything in the living room for fear of being caught. If someone is at the door, it’s someone else.

A few seconds later, Spencer yells at us, “Dad! The police are here!”

Hugo and I bound to our feet. He races ahead of me. We make it to the front door where Spencer is glaring out the window beside the door.

“What do they want?” I ask, voice tight with fear. The last time I saw the cops, I’d been naked and a victim. The memory physically hurts and sends terror surging through my veins.

“I don’t know,” Hugo rumbles. “Let me do the talking.”

He pushes Spencer aside and unlocks the door. When he opens it, four officers are standing on the porch. The lights from two squad cars are illuminating the darkness with flashes of red and blue.

“Can I help you?” Hugo says, squaring his shoulders. “Is everything okay?”

“It’s about your missing wife,” one of the officers says, voice tight. “I’m so sorry, sir.”

She’s dead.

They found her body.

Oh God.

Bile creeps up my throat. I’d been perfectly content hoping she’d just bailed, leaving this town to go after her own desires. When Drew took me, though, I’d had real stirrings of doubt about my wishful thinking. Everything pointed to her death. I was too eager to step into her place and pretend it wasn’t true.

“Why are you sorry?” Hugo asks, voice husky.

“She was found at the lodge,” the officer reveals.

Spencer curses and kicks the wall beside the door. The officer’s hand goes to his gun. Panic rises up inside me. I clutch onto Spencer’s arm, attempting to calm him down. He seems angry, not upset or shocked.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Park, but we have to do this. We’re placing your son under arrest.”

Hugo gasps. “W-What? No. You can’t do that. He didn’t kill anyone. My son’s not a murderer.”

Except he did kill someone.

He killed Drew.

“Murder?” the officer snaps. “No, sir. We’re arresting him for the kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment of your wife.”

What?

“She’s alive?” I croak out, the world around me spinning and closing in.

The officer smiles at me. “They’re taking her to the hospital now, but she’s alive.”

I fall to my knees as the gravity of his words sinks in. Mom’s alive. She’s alive, but Spencer’s been keeping her in captivity and now he’s going to jail because of it.

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