Page 30 of Falling For The Enemy (The Gilbert Curse)

If only the person in question wasn’t his dead brother.

“Are you going to be home tonight?” Kit asked his aunt. “I want to look through some of dad’s old papers.”

“I’m playing bridge with my friends but I’ll tell the housekeeper to let you in,” she said. “Kit? Do you think the Gilberts have made up this story about Declan to make themselves feel better about him dying in the car crash?”

Kit didn’t know what to think. “I’m not sure. I just want to see if Dad has anything in his belongings that I missed.”

“That makes sense. I hope...well I hope Declan didn’t do that to the girl,” Aunt Mallory said quietly.

“Me, too.”

He ended the call after saying goodbye. He wasn’t sure that he would ever really know what had happened that night. But he still needed more information.

Rory deserved the truth from him. He couldn’t just say, “Oh, hey, that guy who attacked you was my brother and sorry I didn’t say it before.” He needed to make sure he knew what had happened so he didn’t hurt Rory. Knowing her the way he did, he knew that she was going to be upset that he had...lied.You lied, dude. There were no two ways about it. But he wasn’t going to be the one to traumatize her again.

He was beginning to think he was going to have to come clean with both Rory and Dash. Dash might be the only one who could provide the answers he needed.

He called his office and checked in and then went to work for the rest of the day, not leaving to head to his aunt’s house until almost eight. When he got there the housekeeper let him in and Kit went to what Aunt Mal called “the library,” where she kept all of his father’s journals and records.

Kit grabbed a beer from the fridge before he sat down at the large writing desk in the corner and started opening the files that had been stored in an old, ornate-looking, leather-covered wooden chest. He pulled out some journals and notebooks as well as a bunch of business records.

Flipping through the pages, he found a few notes in Dec’s handwriting. He ran his finger over the writing. There were so many questions he had for his brother. He remembered playing in Gilbert Corners at the factory on Saturdays while their dad was working. Running up and down the stairs that led from the floor to his father’s office.

Smiling when he thought of his father draping his arms over their shoulders and telling them one day they’d run the factory. Those had been good times—before his mom had gotten sick and died, before Dec had left for college and his father had started drinking.

He rubbed the back of his neck, not really sure he wanted to keep digging. Then he saw the Gilbert International logo on a letter. He pulled it out of the stack and saw it was addressed to both his father and brother.

Dear Will and Declan:

I’m sorry to lead with bad news but the factory in Gilbert Corners in no longer viable. We’ve been losing money there for months and many of the local workers we relied on are leaving the town. The decision has been made to close the factory effective December 31.

The jobs offered to you both to buy a controlling share of the factory and take over running it is no longer an option. I’d like to offer you both new roles at our offices in Boston. Your salaries will have a fifteen percent increase and we will cover the relocation costs.

I know this isn’t the news you’d hoped to hear, but I think this will be a good opportunity for both of you.

Looking forward to seeing you at the winter gala.

Sincerely,

Lance Gilbert

Kit let the paper fall from his hands, leaning back in his chair and locking his fingers behind his head as he stared up at the ceiling.What the actual fuck?Did Aunt Mal know about this? Kit figured she didn’t, as she’d been the one encouraging him to make the Gilberts pay.

But his father had. Why hadn’t the old man ever mentioned this?

He still wasn’t sure that his brother had done anything wrong the night of the gala. But this clearly showed that his father and brother knew they weren’t going to buy and run the factory. More than that, they still would have had jobs even when the factory closed—their family wouldn’t have been ruined like he’d been led to believe.

What else had his father been hiding?

Rory was having fun drinking white zinfandel and sitting in the cozy corner of Indy’s Treasures. Elle was getting ready for her wedding to Dash. So she had been showing them pictures of potential wedding dresses. She had her mother’s veil, which she intended to wear.

“Though Dash has seen that,” Elle said.

“He has? How exactly?” Indy asked, picking up a pretzel bite that her friend Lulu had made and popping it in her mouth.

“On our first date I had gone to pick up my parents’ stuff from my stepmom’s house. It was in there and I put it on.”

Rory had long gotten over her feelings of upset at Dash and Elle for lying to her about being married when she’d first gotten out of the coma. “I love this. So you guys were going on dates behind my back?”

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