Page 76 of Seal My Fate

“It’s over, Dad!” I interrupt, getting angry. I don’t have time for any more of his lies, not when every minute keeps Tessa at risk. “We know everything. It’s time for you to confess and come clean. It’s not too late to do the right thing,” I add, urging. “I know you never meant to let it get this far. But these are dangerous people you’re working with. You know what they did to Valerie. Do you really think they wouldn’t turn on you, too?”

My father shakes his head, looking bewildered. “But Valerie… That was an accident.”

“It was murder!” I exclaim, frustrated. “They killed her to stop her from revealing the fraud. Don’t you see? They’ll stop at nothing to keep this secret hidden.”

“No!” my father protests again, pale-faced. “Maybe the first test results needed a little…massaging, but the rest of it? She was drunk driving. The roads were wet—”

“Honestly, Alexander. Don’t be a fool.” My mother’s voice cuts through his excuses, icy calm. “The bitch got what she deserved.”

What the fuck?!

I turn to my mother, shocked. She meets my eyes defiantly. “She brought it on herself, getting greedy, threatening to report the whole thing. As if morals mattered to her. She was happy enough to take the money and falsify the data to begin with. It was her fault the drug didn’t work in the first place,” my mother purses her lips in distaste. “If she’d been better at her job, then none of this would have happened.”

I gape at her in disbelief. “You knew?”

“Of course I knew,” she spits back at me, glaring. “Who do you think has been stuck cleaning up your father’s mess? The company has everything riding on this new drug. Everything,” she vows. “Our fortune. Our reputation. You think I would just sit back and let us fail? The Ashford name would become a joke. We’d lose it all,” she adds, with a quiet fury. “Five hundred years of history. Our family’s legacy, down the drain. Well, I won’t let that happen.”

I can’t believe it. All this time I assumed my father was in over his head, swept along with someone else’s evil plans.

He was.

I just never imagined it was my mother who was the one calling the shots.

“No,” I tell her, the betrayal hardening to steely determination in my veins. “This ends.Now. I won’t stand for it. We don’t want this fucking legacy of yours. Do we, Robert?” I add, glancing over at my brother. He’s been standing there silently through all of this, and I know he must be reeling from the revelations, too. “We’re going to do the right thing.”

But Robert puts his hands up, trying to calm me. “Just wait a minute,” he says. “Let’s talk about this.”

“What the fuck is there to talk about?” I explode. “Didn’t you hear what I just said? This is massive fraud. Conspiracy. Murder!”

“Which means we shouldn’t be hasty,” Robert says, looking nervous. “Just think of what happens if word gets out. There’ll be consequences.”

“You mean like a faulty drug going to market, fooling millions of innocent people who think it’s their last hope of a miracle?” I shoot back, remembering that poor man outside Ashford HQ the other day. He was desperate for a cure for his wife, and my family would go right ahead and sell him one, knowing full well that it wouldn’t make a difference.

“The team is still working on the drug,” Robert argues. “We’re testing new formulations, we’ll get it right soon enough, but not if we’re just shut down.”

“You can’t be serious,” I stare at him, confused. “You know this is wrong. People are getting hurt!”

“And who’s fault is that?” Robert explodes suddenly. His face is red, shameful and frustrated. “If your girlfriend hadn’t started digging around, if that sister of hers had just stayed dead, then none of this would be a problem!”

I stagger back, stunned at the anger in his voice. And that’s when it hits me…

He knows Wren is alive.

Instinctively, I pull out my gun, and level it at my brother. I already fixed the silencer to the barrel, back at my house, and now it gleams a dull grey in the cathedral lights.

My mother gasps. “Anthony, what on earth are you doing!”

“Put that thing away!” My father adds, outraged.

I ignore them. “How did you get that shoulder injury, Robert?” I demand quietly.

“I… I told you. It was a squash match,” he blurts.

“No, you said rugby.” I flip the safety off, my grip steady. The pieces fall into place. Fuck, it’s been right under my nose all along.

Phillip gave up Wren’s location. He told his higher-ups at Ashford about the cottage in the country, and they sent a man there to kill Wren and Tessa. To stalk them through the dark woods, to terrorize and hurt them.

The gunman was someone they trusted. Someone athletic. Someone with everything to lose.

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