“Ignore her. She’s lying,” he snaps.
“Oh, I’m not lying. And it’s easy to prove it if I am. Show them the will.”
“What does it say, Drew?” Fiona says, her voice growing dark with menace.
“I can tell you. It says that once I get married, any money I may have inherited goes to him,” I say cheerily.
“Is that true?” Fiona bellows, her face growing florid with anger.
“Of course not,” my father growls, but his agitation is obvious.
So, I press my advantage.
“You’re a fool Fiona. He’s played you both. And he’s probably planning on killing you as soon as I sign whatever it is,” I say, making it up as I go along.
Doubt flickers on Fiona’s face and then she glares at my father, hands on her hips. “I want to see it. Now.”
“Oh, and even if the will didn’t say all that, female heir, marrying me wouldn’t help you anyway. Because I have DNA proof that Drew Wolfe isn’t my father. And so, any claim you might have , would be null and void.”
“What?” Duke says acidly.
I look to my father, his face has gone pale.
He didn’t know. I don’t know why that surprises me, but I don’t spare him another thought. I needle Fiona some more.
“You went to all this trouble to get me here and I’m no one,” I say and hold my breath, and pray I was convincing.
It only takes a second to know that I hit the nail on the head.
Fiona, shut up,” my grandmother says.
“You shut up,” she shouts.
“You are an evil fucking liar, Drew. You will pay for this.” Fiona screeches.
My grandmother stands Her diminutive frame, rigid with anger as she stalks toward Fiona with her finger stabbing the air in front of her.
“You’re lucky we let you step foot in the house, and you’ll be grateful for whatever we decide is yours to keep,” she snarls.
And then, so quickly that it’s like a blur, Fiona pulls a small black pistol out of her purse aims it at my father and says, “Enjoy hell, you limp dick Viagra popping asshole,” before she pulls the trigger and shoots him in the middle of his chest.
My father’s eyes widen in shock before he slumps over in his chair.
My grandmother starts to scream, a blood curdling sound that makes the hairs on the back on my neck stand up.
“Shut up, you old bag of bones,” Fiona snaps at her, walking over to where the old woman is crouching next to her son. “I’ve been waiting for you to keel over and die like a regular old person, but it looks like even the devil needs a little motivation before he’ll call you home.”
She aims her gun at the woman’s head and I look away just before the sound of the gun firing explodes in the room. My ears ring, but I’ve got a surge of adrenaline from the commotion.
I struggle with my wrist binding again, my mind hyper focused on Cameron and getting away.
Duke stalks over to Fiona and screams at her.
“What the fuck are you doing?” he shouts at her.
“What I should have done a long time ago,” she bellows in his face. “That little girl if we’re going to need to prove her paternity to get any money out of her.”
My heart stops, and I freeze in place as I realize they’re talking about Cameron.
And then I force my mind back to getting out of here. Don’t panic. Focus on staying alive. Focus on getting Cam out of here.
“Fiona, she’s a baby,” Duke whines.
“She’s probably better off dying now…the planet’s melting. It’s a cruel world to raise children in. This will be kinder. And I’m his widow, I’ll get the money and you’ll share it with me.” She purrs and I watch, disgusted as they kiss.
My hands come free and I take advantage of them being distracted to stand up and run toward the open door.
The gun’s loud report pulls a scream from my lungs, but I don’t stop until blinding sears my leg and I fall, unable to support my own weight any longer. I fall onto my stomach, landing on my elbows and a terrible pain rips through my arm. My head swims, but I force myself to move and manage to run over. I look down at my leg, and whimper at the sight of a small hole in my calf, where blood pours out.
Pours, not gushes. If I can get out of here, I might be okay.
“Oh, Beth. I’m sorry, you can’t leave,” Fiona’s sinister sing song voice draws my eye over to her.
She standing next to Dina, pressing the gun into her hand and curling her fingers around it. She stands, her expression full of smug victory.
“You will not get away with this.” I promise
She chuckles. “When they find you, they’ll think you came here to get revenge on your friend for stealing your man. And that she, in a fit of greed and rage, shot your father and your grandmother, and then you before she set fire to the house.”
“Of course, she wasn’t able to get out before it burned down around her.”
“Fiona, come on, let’s just get her to sign and get out of here. They’ll think she did it.” Duke cajoles.
“Duke, shut up. We can’t let her leave here.”
“Fiona we didn’t talk about killing anyone.”
She turns to him, strokes his face soothingly “Shhh. Calm down. Remember, we’ve been planning this for a long time. We are so close to having everything we want. And if you decide you don’t want to do your part, well, just look at Drew over there and imagine that as your future.”
He pales and draws back from her. But he nods, “Fine. Let’s just get out of here.”
“As you set that fire,” she says and shoves him out of the door.
She walks over and stands over me.
“I wish I could say it was nice knowing you, but it would be wrong for the last words you hear to be a lie.” She smiles unpleasantly.
God, I hate her I want to tell her to eat shit and die, but Cameron is upstairs and if seeing me crawl, will make her do the right thing, I’ll do it.
“At least take Cameron. She won’t know anything that happened here. She’s your daughter.” I plead in a scream when her face remains unchanged.
“I’ll weep for her when they come to tell me the news of how she was caught in the fire set by this diabolical woman who everyone saw steal her best friend’s man,” she informs me.
“Please don’t do this. Phil will take care of Cameron if you don’t want her.” I scream again when Fiona just looks dispassionately me.
“I have goals, Liz. You wouldn’t understand that. Your sentimentality is a weakness. Too bad you lived just long enough to learn that.”
“I’ll kill you. I will. You will not ever breathe free air again after today, Fiona. I swear to God.” I rage.
She laughs.
My heart, which has broken more times than I can count in my life, breaks now for my sister and my brother and for Carter who’s going to get here too late and find me. I can’t finish the thought. It’s too painful.
“Here, watch this, it will make you feel comfort to know she slept through it.” Fiona places the baby monitor on the floor beside me walks out.
I pick it up and stroke the screen, wishing I could be with her.
“It’s okay, baby. I will not let you die in here,” I promise her. Even as I know it’s futile.