Dice (Blackwings MC: Croftridge #3)

Chapter 25 – Daphne

25

DAPHNE

“ A re you sure you want to do this?” Dice asked.

“I don’t want to, but I feel like I need to,” I said.

“All right, let’s get this over with,” he said and got out of the loaner SUV he was driving.

“My sentiments exactly.”

After stopping at the front desk to get the room number, I inhaled deeply and knocked on Sean’s door.

As I expected, Glenda opened the door. Her lips curled in disgust when she saw me. “Well, I should’ve known it was you. Who else would visit someone in the hospital without calling first?”

I opened my mouth to respond as Dice took a menacing step forward, but Sean took care of the problem. “Enough, Mother! You don’t have to like Daphne, but she protected my child and cared for her when I couldn’t, so you will give her the respect she deserves.”

She scowled at her son.

He scoffed. “Perhaps you should excuse yourself while she’s here.”

Glenda huffed indignantly. “I suppose I could get myself a cup of coffee.”

“I’m sorry about her,” Sean said once she was gone.

I waved my hand dismissively. “Don’t worry about it. She never liked me. I didn’t expect that to suddenly change.”

“She doesn’t like anyone,” he said and directed his attention to Dice. “If we met yesterday, I don’t remember, but thank you for helping Daphne, and in turn, helping me.”

“Oh,” Dice said. “You’re welcome. And no, we didn’t meet yesterday. I was there, but I was focused on Daphne.”

“This is Dice,” I added. “He’s my?—”

“I’m hers. And she’s mine,” Dice said.

Sean nodded in understanding. “Well, what brings you by?”

“A couple of things,” I said. “First, how are you, and how’s your little girl?”

“It’ll take some time, but I’ll be okay. The bullet didn’t hit anything major, but I’ve got some malnutrition issues to address. Talulah’s having a tough time. She hasn’t seen me or my mother in months, so we’re like strangers to her. Since she spent most of her time with a nanny, we’re going to keep her around while she gets adjusted. How about you? Are you okay?”

“Me?” I asked in surprise. “Oh, I’m fine. I mean, I’m obviously shaken up by the whole thing, but I’m also relieved that it’s over. She was terrorizing me for months.”

“Yeah, I know,” Sean said. “She enjoyed telling me about her plans, and she enjoyed starving me for days when they didn’t work. It was a special kind of hell.”

“I’m sorry that happened to you,” I said.

“No,” he said vehemently. “Don’t apologize to me. I’m sorry for everything that happened to you. I know things didn’t end well with us, but I never wanted any harm to come to you.”

“Well,” I said slowly. “I may have wished for some bad things to happen to you, but nothing like this.”

He laughed lightly. “That’s understandable.”

“Can I ask you a few questions about her and what she was doing? I understand if you don’t want to talk about it or aren’t feeling up to it?—”

“Daphne,” he interrupted. “It’s fine. Ask whatever you want to know.”

“Flint said you told him Tori didn’t know you were married, and you hadn’t planned on telling her. How did she find out?”

“After Talulah was born, I was basically living at her house. She went by my place once or twice a week to get the mail. When she saw the letter from your attorney, she opened it. If you don’t already know, she paid your lawyer to cancel the divorce and give you the runaround.”

I gasped. “I recently found out what he did, but I didn’t know she paid him.”

“She also paid a man to kill you. When she found out you kicked his ass, she hired two people to kidnap you and bring you to her so she could do it herself.”

“Lewis and Leah,” I said.

“Yes,” he confirmed and stifled a laugh. “I’m sorry. It’s not funny, but she was so mad when she had to go get them. By that point, I was somewhat used to not eating very often, so I was able to secretly enjoy it when you thwarted her plans.”

The sound of Dice furiously tapping at the screen of his phone caught my attention.

“Is everything okay?” I asked.

“Yep. I’ll tell you about it later.”

“If you’re texting your people about Lewis and Leah, I can save you some time and trouble,” Sean said.

“How so?” Dice asked.

“They’re gone. Tori paid them to leave town and never come back after they came up with a story to explain their actions.”

“I knew they were lying,” Dice said.

“Yeah, it took them a while to come up with a story they thought you would believe but couldn’t prove to be true or false. It was Lewis’s idea, so there might have been some truth to it.”

“How was she finding these people? Are there really that many people who will commit crimes for money?” I asked.

“She knew Leah, and Leah knew Lewis,” Sean explained. “I don’t know how she found the guy that attacked you.”

“Have you told the police everything you’re telling us?” Dice asked.

“Yes,” Sean said slowly. “Was I not supposed to?”

“It’s fine,” Dice said with a hint of frustration, or maybe disappointment. “The police should be able to track them down even if they did leave town.”

“I have to admit, I was really worried about the mushrooms,” Sean continued. “She was convinced that would work.”

“It almost did,” I admitted. “I was in the hospital for days.”

“What about the fire?” Dice asked. “Do you know whose boat she used?”

“It’s hers. She bought it the day before she tried to burn down the lake house.”

“That explains why we didn’t see her name on the list of registered boats,” Dice said.

“I still can’t believe she did all of this for money. If the goal was to get her inheritance, why didn’t she just marry someone else?” I asked.

“I asked her the same thing,” Sean said. “It did not go over well, and she never gave me an answer. The best I’ve been able to come up with is that she was mentally unstable.”

“Well, I guess that brings me to the other reason I’m here.”

“The divorce?”

“Yes,” I nodded. “My new lawyer is working on it, but we might have to start over with a new filing since the other lawyer withdrew the original one.”

“Like I told the other guy, I’ll sign whatever you want me to,” Sean said. “If you’ll let me know how much this has cost you, I’d like to pay the attorney fees. I’m the one who asked for a divorce in the first place.”

“You know,” I said with a small smile, “that’s how I felt at first. I was pissed that I had to pay for something you did. But now? Now, I’m okay with it. If things hadn’t happened the way they did, I probably wouldn’t be sitting here with Dice.”

“Are you thanking me for cheating on you?” Sean joked.

“Oh, no,” Dice laughed. “You made her a stepmother against her will, and she will never thank you for that.”

Sean covered his face with his hand. “That never occurred to me.”

“It certainly did to me,” I said.

“I’m sorry, Daphne,” he said. “I really am.”

“It’s … it’s not okay, but I think I’ve forgiven you,” I said and redirected the conversation. “There is one other thing I’m curious about. The inheritance stipulations. Why couldn’t she marry a man who had been divorced?”

Sean sighed. “Her family is very wealthy and has been for many generations. Her grandmother remarried after her first husband died. That man was only after her money. He was divorced and running a marry-the-rich-widow scam with his ‘ex-wife.’ He didn’t get away with it, and her grandmother made sure that no one ever would.”

“I’m pretty sure a prenuptial agreement would have prevented anyone from trying to get their money through marriage,” I said.

“Yeah,” Sean agreed. “But rational thinking doesn’t seem to run in their family.”

An awkward silence fell over the room. After a few minutes, I clapped my hands together. “Well, we need to get going. I’m sure my lawyer will be in touch.”

“Where did we land on paying for the divorce?” he asked.

“How about we split it?” I offered.

“That works for me.”

On the way home, I got the feeling that something was bothering Dice. I assumed it had to do with Lewis and Leah, but after several minutes of tense silence, I decided to ask. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Why?”

“I don’t know. You seem tense.”

He exhaled audibly. “I just realized that you can go home now that this is over.”

“Oh,” I said. “I guess you’re right.” It hadn’t occurred to me that I could go home.

“Unless you don’t want to,” he said.

“What do you mean?”

“You could stay.”

And that’s what I did.