Ms. Montgomery is an animal. She’s practically foaming at the mouth, pushing her way between Chloe and Vaughn. Her long manicured fingers grasp wildly at the accounts in Vaughn’s hand. My mother’s suicide letter tears. The sound is unnaturally loud in my head, and it rips at a piece of my heart. The two halves of her note flutter to the floor, landing face up. My eyes focus in on the words Goodbye, Mom and I pinch the bridge of my nose to stop the tears from coming. None of the Montgomerys notice the letter on the floor as they step on it in their fight to be billionaires.
I glance up and Vaughn stares at me with an expression I don’t want to see. I don’t understand it, he looks happy, relieved even. Does he think I gave him the money to try and make peace with him? Because that certainly was not my intention. I don’t want that money. I wanted to prove to him once and for all, all those things he said and thought of me were not true. Then I wanted to walk away and never see his perfect, beautiful face again. I just couldn’t go without showing him I was a good person, a better person than any of them. And even though he gets billions of dollars, he still loses, because he doesn’t get to have me. No matter how much I want to believe Vaughn’s promises of love, he’s burned me one too many times. He’ll never be able to prove to me he’s worth my attention or my thoughts. Never. Even if she spends a lifetime trying to make up for how he made me feel in the car on the way down that godawful mountain.
But then the shape of Vaughn’s eyes change as he stares at me. They become wider, rounder. His skin changes as well, blanching to a ghostly white. Fire erupts low, in the pit of my stomach, something doesn’t feel right. I don’t like the way Vaughn is looking at me. Something’s wrong.
My stomach sinks. Lower and lower, it drops, twisting and churning. I need to get out of here before I get sick in front of everyone. A sudden chill crawls through my bones and I grasp at the collar of my coat, pulling it tight to my chest.
Is it because I just gave away a shit-ton of money? Fifteen billion dollars is no joke. It would have made things easier, a whole lot easier, but there was not even one small moment where I thought about keeping it, it was their dirty affair money. Yes, it would have paid all my bills and more, but at what cost to my soul? It would have been like a cancer for me. In the end it would have ravaged my life, my soul.
A sudden flash of black moves across my vision, and somehow my feet are knocked out from beneath me. What’s going on? Did I trip over something? Someone hot and solid is at my back. Their body is damp with sweat and breathing heavily. A hand grabs my waist, hard, fast. I don’t know what’s happening. I squirm forward. That sinking feeling in my gut is spreading, racing through my heart and rushing through my veins.
Hard, cool metal presses up under the edge of my jaw. I strain my eyes back to see who’s grabbing me. It’s Matteo. Matteo has me. He’s holding me tight in his grip, and there’s a gun. He’s pushing a gun into my throat.
I let out a high-pitched whimper. “Shut up,” Matteo grunts, his breath hot and damp in my ear. “Hand over the money or I redecorate the room with her brains.”
Ms. Montgomery doesn’t budge, and I know without a doubt I’m about to die.
She’s going to let him kill me so she can keep the money. Of course she would, I’m not worth fifteen billion dollars to her, I’m not worth a penny to this stupid family.
Ms. Lowell’s hands cover over her mouth. Vaughn holds up his hands, his face is pure agony. Chloe drops to her knees and covers her ears. Everyone’s movements are stunted, slowed down. Muted. Just like you see in movies. My heart beats loud and thick through my head, and I’m very aware they are the sounds of the end of my life.
Suddenly all the anger I’ve held inside drains out of my body, all the bitterness, all the resentment, every ounce of hate. Warmth spreads over my skin, tingling my scalp all the way to the tips of my toes and all I can see is Vaughn, and how happy I could be if I just had a little more time here with him, if we both just let go of our past and only look toward the future.
“This isn’t the way, Matteo!” Maria Lowell’s voice pleads. “Please, Matteo. Please, no!”
“The way to what?” he asks, with a harsh laugh. “The truth?”
Vaughn’s eyes are locked on mine. “Matteo, please. Please let her go. Don’t do this. Take the money and let her go.”
Ms. Montgomery holds onto the papers tight as Vaughn grabs at them frantically.
“You’re all fighting over his money when I’m his real first-born son. That money belongs to me,” Matteo shouts. His spit splatters at my face and I dry heave.
“Just let her go, Matteo. Come on, man, listen to me, we can work out whatever you need. Whatever you want, just…just let her go,” Vaughn pleads, with a step forward.
Matteo drags me backward, his hand and arm digging into my stomach painfully. “Do you know how long I’ve wanted to be a part of this family, Vaughn? I envied you so much. You had it all. When we were kids, you had Claire, everyone wanted to be you, and why? Because you were a Montgomery. I got the scraps because I was the maid’s son.” He rubs the barrel of the gun up over the bottom of my jaw and hard across my cheek, pressing into the skin just under my eye. “But I’m not just the maid’s son. I’m Silas Montgomery’s son too.”
Vaughn’s hands stay held up in the air, in surrender. “Okay, Matteo, okay. What makes you think my father is your father?”
“Because he is,” Maria Lowell whispers, “I was Silas’s parents’ housekeeper before he ever met Margaret or Libby.”
Margaret Montgomery’s hands slap down at her sides. “How dare you! This is ludicrous, all of it.”
Maria Lowell turns to Mrs. Montgomery, “You know it’s the truth, Margaret. You knew we were together, but you saw dollar signs and got yourself pregnant.”
Mrs. Montgomery narrows her eyes.
“And then you went straight to his parents with an ultimatum,” Ms. Lowell says.
“What ultimatum? What is she talking about, Mother?” Chloe shrieks as she pulls nervously at her hair.
Mrs. Montgomery doesn’t say anything but turns up her nose and looks defiantly away.
If Maria’s glare could throw daggers, Mrs. Montgomery would be full of holes. She steps closer to me and Matteo, crossing her arms over her chest. For a brief moment, I think she’s getting close to help me—to get me away from her son—but she comes no closer. “She threatened to tell the tabloids and the authorities her real age. Didn’t you, Margaret?”
“Mom?” Chloe cries, “Mom, what is she talking about?”
Margaret smirks and shrugs, “I was fifteen, and in our state, statutory rape by a grown man five years older than me was punishable by ten to twenty years in prison. They couldn’t build a defense for him against that paternity test. It’s not my fault I was smarter than you were.”
Vaughn shouts in frustration, “Damnit! Matteo, take the fucking money! If you’re my brother then so be it, but just let Claire go. She has nothing to do with any of this, please.”
“But she does, though,” Matteo pushes his mouth against the side of my face as he speaks. “You want to be with her again, don’t you? And you don’t deserve to get everything you want anymore. I’m the real Montgomery heir, not you.”