The Heir She Loved (Shadows of Sin #4)

7 Olivia

July 1st, 2022

I twisted and turned in the mirror, inspecting my dress before releasing a breath and shoving my hair back. “I don’t feel great today,”

I mumbled to myself. All of my wounds were now healed, except for the ‘E’ which was still mostly scabbed over, and I had stopped wearing caked on makeup, just going with light makeup because I was trying to train myself to be confident again.

I had always loved the way I looked. I didn’t flaunt it, I didn’t try and draw eyes towards myself, but I was always confident in my looks, my style.

But now? Now I had three scars on my face, which very obviously drew eyes, especially with two of those scars being exactly the same as one of the most fictitious prolific psychos of all time.

Everyone will assume I got them on purpose. Which, I suppose, was fine, but honestly it grated against me knowing that they were assuming that.

Of course, I didn’t do it on purpose. I would never do that on purpose.

But I couldn’t stop what they thought, and I couldn’t control how they reacted.

All I could do was face it. Put on the makeup to hide them all when I went out as Abigail and embrace them as Olivia.

Even so, today felt heavy, like a weight was pulling me down.

My eyes found Lucy’s in the reflection of the mirror. Her head was lifted as she watched me carefully, still on alert since that night almost ten days ago. “What do you think?”

I asked, turning to her.

She took in the white and pink floral dress that fell just below my knees. This one was more old-fashioned. It had a straight across the chest and shoulders top, the waist cinched with a big white bow on the back, and a slightly poofier styled bottom. I paired it with black booties, my hair loose, nothing special, and a little bit of mascara.

After a second, her tongue rolled out and she started panting.

I pressed my lips together, not believing her reaction in the slightest. “You wouldn’t know, you’re a dog.”

She sucked her tongue back in, her ears folding back, and she released a gruff of disproval.

I rolled my eyes. “Whatever, come on, let’s get some coffee.”

She jumped up, following me out of the room closely, and we headed for the door.

Everett and Evelyn stayed at my house for a week after that night, he hadn’t come to visit my room since then either. Nothing more than stolen, unreadable glances.

I wasn’t worried. I knew how he felt fucking me in that condition, and I hadn’t been fully healed before he left, which was a little disappointing, but again, I understood.

Since the morning after, I had spent my time sleeping, writing, taking long, hot baths, and reading while they worked on whatever it was they worked on. Constantly on the phone, on the laptop, talking or researching, it seemed. I sent texts to Martin who had told me it would take longer than he thought it would to gather up everything I would need for the company. My time limit had been well deserved but unmanageable given how large the company was, which was irritating, but understandable.

They left a few days ago on some top-secret thing, probably one of those things I would never know about, or didn’t need to know about. I didn’t care. I hadn’t slept since they left, and Everett knew that if he had been paying any attention to the one camera he had installed into the spare bedroom. One only he had access too.

But even knowing that he might be watching if he managed to get a second to look, I still couldn’t sleep, and I was on the verge of collapse today.

I was in desperate need of café coffee, not just home-brewed stuff, but something sugary and jacked with caffeine. So today, we would head back to the city to get some coffee and maybe look at some office spaces since my home was no place to run a business.

A much needed trip, if I said so myself.

I clipped Lucy’s collar and leash on before grabbing my purse, wallet, and keys, and headed out, locking the door behind me.

It was a beautiful summer day out, warm, but still comfortable. July was one of the hotter months in Colorado, but I couldn’t have been more excited. For the first time in my life, I wasn’t worried about bruises given to me out of malice or about what Steven would say if he knew what I was wearing.

I just wish that I didn’t feel so self-conscious today. I loved this dress. I loved the shoes I had paired with it, and my hair wasn’t frizzy, but those scars and this feeling in my stomach, it was ruining everything.

Still, I couldn’t let it detour me from getting things done. I would be fine. And maybe Everett would be back soon, with his challenging words and icy eyes, and those heated looks that always warmed my stomach.

I truly missed him.

I was still worried about Lucy though. She was more protective than ever now, which I didn’t mind. I needed that, especially since I wasn’t used to carrying my gun around yet. I didn’t have a holster, and even though I had practiced pulling it out of my purse, it didn’t feel natural yet.

Lucy was all I had, even so, I prayed that this mental snap she had wouldn’t be permanent. That one day she would feel okay again.

“Morning!”

Lucy immediately started snarling, putting herself between me and Wade who was walking up in full cop gear.

I slowed to a stop halfway down my walkway, glancing to the street to find that the cab that I had called was nowhere in sight.

Dammit, I should have stayed inside.

“Whoa,”

he said, his smile getting nervous as he stopped on my grass. “Is she okay?”

“Um,”

I cleared my throat, adjusting my stance. “Yeah, something about being out here has her on edge,”

I explained easily. I was fine. I was fine. He was a cop. He didn’t have anything to do with the guy who broke in. He was kind. “You on patrol?”

I asked, glancing towards his house. No patrol car. In fact, I had never seen a patrol car parked anywhere near his house.

“Street today, yeah,”

he agreed, pulling my eyes back. “I should have told you earlier, I’m a Detective at Falcon. Sometimes they send me on patrol if they’re short staffed.”

My brows pulled together, and I took him in. I didn’t know they did that. “Huh,”

I said, glancing down the street again. Still no cab. Maybe I should have just stayed inside. I could have ordered coffee, and the internet was there for a reason. Searching for office spaces online would have been so much better than dealing with this.

Lucy snapped and my head whipped around, finding him a step closer than before.

I took a step back, letting Lucy adjust herself to accommodate. “You patrolling this street?”

He shook his head, studying me carefully, confusion in his eyes. “Heading out, saw you walking out, thought I’d say hi before I leave.”

He lifted his chin, his suspicion growing. “Are you okay? Did something happen the other night?”

My heart skipped a beat, and it took everything I had to remain calm. “The other night?”

Fuck! He knew about what happened. He knew that Everett and Evelyn killed and dismembered someone in my living room. He knew about the cleaning crew. I single-handedly just ruined a criminal empire because of a stupid collar.

He nodded towards my door. “I noticed your siblings going in, they looked stressed. Ran to the door. Never heard a thing though. A van pulled up later, three more people. Didn’t seem like a party.”

I shook my head, hating how quickly his tone shifted from a normal voice to his ‘cop voice’. It suddenly felt like he was interrogating me. “My parties are quiet.”

His eyes flicked to the right, and a second later, I felt the warming presence of Everett stepping up behind me.

My heart fluttered.

He was back.

Wade studied him a moment before returning his focus back to me. “You never did answer me about those drinks, Liv. Maybe Friday night?”

The anger rolling off of Everett was palpable. “I told you that I wasn’t interested,”

I said, now more scared for his wellbeing than mine.

“Nothing serious, I remember.”

“Nothing at all,”

I clarified, praying he would understand the clear boundaries. “Thanks for stopping by, but I was just heading out,”

I explained, turning towards Everett, only to stop when I saw a cab pull up to the curb.

Thank God, although now I wanted to stay home for completely separate reasons. I didn’t need coffee if I had him.

My relief was short lived when a small box truck pulled up right behind it, and a woman who looked almost exactly like me climbed out of the cab.

My heart fell to my ass as my mom smiled at me. That tight little ‘I hate you but I have to save face’ smile that she liked to wear when there were cameras in view.

“Someone else moving in?”

Wade asked, glancing over.

Two men hopped out of the truck, meeting her on the sidewalk. “Just start unloading,”

she told them, gesturing towards the house. “Pile them wherever.”

This is what I got for not leaving the house in days. I deserved it. I deserved all of this.

She walked up to me in her six-inch heels, her dress tight and revealing, completely inappropriate for someone of her age. She took her sunglasses off and looked Everett over. “Honey, it hasn’t been October for almost a year, and that mask is unsettling. Why don’t you take it off, let the sun shine on your face.”

She couldn’t even pay attention to me long enough to see how fucked my face now was. I wasn’t sure if that was a blessing or a curse yet, but I was sure I would figure it out soon enough.

“She’s right, people don’t like stuff like that on this street,”

Wade agreed tightly. “It’s suspicious.”

Everett remained quiet, probably glaring, I didn’t look back, I was too busy watching the two guys head for the back of the truck. No coffee for me then. No office space, no anything today except for standing here, dealing with this.

Mom turned to Wade, looking him over as well, those judgmental eyes taking in every wrong that man had ever done. I almost felt bad for him. “Are you working?” Almost.

Wade straightened. “On my way to work now, I wanted to stop by and say hi to your sister,”

he nodded.

I sneered, rolled my eyes, and turned back for the house, not bothering to spare Everett a glance as the turmoil in my stomach continued to build. I pulled my keys out. This couldn’t have happened on a worser day.

At least I wasn’t dealing with it alone. Everett could be under her scrutiny as well. He could hate her with me when she left.

I unlocked the door and let it swing open before turning back to the three people standing in my yard while two men I had never met before started piling stuff on two dollies.

I watched them for a moment before my eyes finally found Everett’s. He was watching them too, mom and Wade in deep conversation. Mom had most likely brought them from Denver, people who worked for her, but that didn’t mean they weren’t some kind of trouble. She always had an agenda, so by proxy, they did too.

I released a breath and walked over to the banister. I pulled my phone out and sat down, leaning my back against the post, watching what was happening right before my eyes. I was going to call Katie, tell her my mom was in town, that maybe we should move the signing, but before I could even lift my phone, it had already started ringing.

I looked down, seeing Evelyn’s name flash across the screen.

It was the first time she had ever called me, and, on instinct, my eyes flicked to the corners of my porch roof, looking for the cameras they had installed around the edges.

“Hey,”

I answered.

“Who’s the broad?”

I knew it. “If Everett is here, why are you watching the cameras?”

“I didn’t know Ev would be there until he walked up. He got done with his assignment early.”

My brows pulled together. “Aren’t you guys partners? It doesn’t seem like you work together that often.”

“Yeah, it’s complicated. Pops, Zo, and I are supposed to keep our eyes on Azrael, Jack, and Ev, but Malachi let’s Ev and Jack go out alone sometimes. It all depends on their mood. Everett’s been pretty decent this last month or so, off and on, but there have been times when I’ve had to keep him from going on sprees or going too far with our victims, worse than with the guy the other night. That was nothing. Anyway, it’s not important, he’s gotten better over the years, I think it comes with age. Is that woman your mom?”

I wish I could have seen him in that kind of manic state. He always seemed so controlled, so sure. I would have been interested to see him lose it. For research purposes, of course. “Unfortunately,”

I muttered, watching the men drag that dolly through my yard. I glared at them. “Martin didn’t warn me about her coming today. They’re finally bringing the company’s information over.”

“And the cop?”

“Yeah, he…he’s just being friendly,”

I finally decided. “You guys didn’t vet the people on the street before I moved in?”

She laughed. “And what? Make everyone who seemed off move out? Of course we didn’t. I had my suspicions that you meant more to Ev than he was letting on, but even if you guys had done the deed, so to speak, before you moved, vetting isn’t really our thing, not unless we are going through another round of recruiting. Happens once a year, although with Everett’s plan, that’ll change at some point.”

I had so many questions. “Yeah, well, like I said, the research I do isn’t always accurate. It’s difficult to tell fact from fiction when researching serial killers and the mafia’s code of conduct.”

“Speaking of, how is your book going? Any more gun fucking?”

I frowned deeply. “Do you even have a job or are you just spying on me all the time?”

“Little of both,”

she smiled. “I love when you walk around the house in just that sheer pink robe and panties.”

She inhaled sharply. “Fucking sexy.”

My cheeks burned bright red. “Fuck,”

I mumbled, grasping the bridge of my nose. “I didn’t even think of that.”

She laughed. “Don’t worry, I’ve touched myself to the image of you around 14 times since that fateful day in your bedroom, don’t tell Ev. As far as we know, nobody else watches the cameras but the two of us and Malachi from time to time. Maybe Azrael, but you’re not really his type.”

I straightened, glancing back to the yard, my curiosity outweighing my embarrassment. “He has a type?”

“Screaming and chained. Pretty sadistic. Anyway, I do have work to do, I was just curious who she was. Seems like you’ve got a party going over there. Keep your head up, baby girl, they can be draining.”

Mom was now touching Wade’s chest, Everett watching the men with an unwavering, chilling stare. “Yeah, thanks.”

I hung up and Wade immediately noticed, as if he had been watching me the entire time. He took the opportunity to step out of mom’s reach and hold up his hand at me.

“See you later, Liv. Enjoy the paperwork!”

I nodded, but didn’t respond, turning my attention back to the boxes they were carrying into my house. Thank God, he was leaving. One less thing to worry about today.

I was glad the paperwork was finally being dropped off, but seeing the actual amount of it really made me regret the decisions I had made.

“He seems nice,”

mom said, walking up the steps, Everett not far behind. “Very respectful. Are you two dating?”

“No, mom,”

I replied bitterly. “Why did you have to come? Martin had all the paperwork figured out himself. In fact, he should be here.”

Why wasn’t he here? He said he would walk me through everything just in case. He should have been here.

She walked over to the porch swing, only to sneer at it when she noticed that it wasn’t bleached clean and scented with whatever the new essential oil of the week was. “I told him that I wanted to come. That I could handle it. Afterall, you are taking the company from me, leaving me broke and in the gutter. I should be here to witness my own daughter ruin me.”

I felt the guilt grow in the pit of my stomach, mixing with whatever else had already been in there, dragging me down. “You bankrupted the company, mom. It isn’t my fault that you were signing contracts without reading them.”

“We were taking care of a child, doing interviews, and running a company, Olivia, we didn’t have time to play around with the fine print.”

“And it’s a good thing too,”

I said, standing. “God knows what would have happened had you kept your hands gripped around it. You would have gone down in history as the worst business owner in the world.”

She gaped. “Excuse me, Scarface, I am your mother, you cannot speak to me like that.”

My cheeks blazed red. Scarface? Scarface! “I can speak to you however I want,”

I replied evenly. “I don’t care what you think you’ve given me or what you think you’ve done for ‘my own good’, you fucked me up, mom. Before all of your half-assed confessions, you fucked me up. Now it’s my turn to be the adult in this family and try and revive this company before the Lemont family name is actually ruined.”

“Says the woman who fucked her own brother,”

she hissed, stepping up to me.

Lucy snarled a warning, moving closer to me, causing my mom to stop and glare. “Control your mutt,” she spat.

“He was not my brother, and you haven’t seen her out of control yet,”

I threatened. “Say whatever you want to say, mom, but right now I’m picking up the pieces that you aren’t strong enough to handle. Whatever you have done is nothing. It means nothing. Not to me, not anymore.”

Her face was pinched and red, clearly angry. “You cannot be the face of a company looking like that, Olivia Marie. A shredded face with a collar around your neck? You look like a street dog.”

“Rather a dog than your daughter,”

I bit. “You should be happy though, it’s your stupid plan that caused this.”

A sick light filled her eyes. She straightened, a smirk touching her lips as she lifted her head. “Good for Steven. At least he got one thing right.”

My hands fisted at my sides, and it took every ounce of strength I had to force them to relax, to swallow the anger, to focus. “Once these boxes are dropped off, I don’t ever want to see you again, mom. I’ll give you a monthly stipend if I can get this company back to where it once was, but until then, you’ll have to get an actual job. Work for once in your life.”

Her eyes widened, that smug little look disappearing from view. “What? This was my company too. I deserve to get my share!”

“You spent your share,”

I stated icily. “I owe you nothing.”

And it was like something in her finally snapped. “I gave you everything!”

she shouted, half-hysterical. “Anything you ever wanted. Dresses, shoes, makeup, food, schooling. I paid for all of it.”

I had so many things I wanted to say to her. How she ruined my life, how I never wanted things, I wanted her. I wanted love and affection and normal Christmases. How I hadn’t cared about the house or the horses or the designer bullshit, all I wanted was her.

But why waste my breath? Why waste another ounce of energy on trying to make her see what she was forever blind to?

So, I straightened. “Tell dad I love him, and I miss him, but you are no longer welcome in my life.”

She worked her jaw, her painted red lips thinned, her blue eyes flaming. She leaned in, visibly angry. “Your father is dead,”

she told me bitterly, my blood running cold. “I killed him like the dog he was, I guess I just didn’t realize the bitch he gave me was a dog too.”

And it was as if a switch had been flicked in my brain. Everything shut off. Every emotion, every thought. Nothing existed but the ice that was now slowly crawling through my mind.

She straightened, lifting her chin as if she had done something spectacular. As if she had won.

My father and I had actually had a somewhat decent relationship, but he hadn’t replied to any of my texts in over a month. My guess was that he’d been dead for quite some time. He had had his faults, horrible faults, but at least he acted like he gave a fuck about me outside of the cameras.

“What are you doing?”

she asked, looking me over. “Are you so uncaring of your parents now that you don’t have the ability to feel?”

And, despite everything, I felt a smile touch my lips. “No,”

I said, my voice chilling, “I just remembered something that someone like you would never think twice about.”

Her brows furrowed, her anger faltering. “What? Did you not hear me? I killed your father. I killed him. He wouldn’t give me what I wanted, he was so selfish, so I put rat poison in his food. Untraceable. You should know that, being the kind of writer you are.”

But it wasn’t untraceable.

And now her bankrupting the company made far more sense. Of course, dad wasn’t in the picture. He was the businessman. He never would have ruined the company, even on accident, he was too smart, but mom?

“I did hear you, mom, and so did the security cameras. So, if I were you, I’d listen to your daughter for once in your life and stop talking.”

Her eyes widened, her body stilling. “Security cameras,”

she breathed out, glancing along the edge of the house. “I don’t see any security cameras.”

“You wouldn’t, they aren’t like the ones you have.”

The panic was almost laughable. She looked from the house back to me, her entire demeanor shifting. “Baby—”

I held up a hand. “Get off my property.”

“But—”

“Lucy,”

I spoke evenly.

My dog started snarling viciously, slowly prowling after her, forcing her to back up towards the stairs.

“Olivia,”

she tried, trying to look at me and keep her distance from Lucy at the same time. “Olivia, listen to me, please.”

I turned away from her, Everett finally joining me, the leash slipping from my hand.

“Olivia.”

I found his eyes, searching them, my expression as hard as his. “Did you know my dad was dead?”

He shook his head once. “No.”

I accepted the answer and glanced back to the guys still carrying stuff in. I sneered, feeling that anger simmering under my skin. “I was going to find an office space today, and now my house is filled with boxes.”

“We’ll take care of it.”

I frowned, finding his eyes again. “You don’t move boxes and find office spaces.”

“It’s in our best interest to help you rebuild this company,”

he told me quietly. “Stay here.”

I watched after him in confusion as he headed back into the house. In their best interest? What did that mean?

I shook my head and sank into the porch swing. God, it wasn’t even 10am. And I still hadn’t had a single sip of anything, or even a bite of anything. I was starving and thirsty, and now I’ve had to deal with my mom, Wade, the company, and I just found out my dad was dead.

I didn’t even know how to feel about that because I was too busy dealing with everything else.

Before I could even take two breaths, my phone was ringing again.

With a hefty sigh, I answered it without looking at who was calling, really uncaring of who it was at this point.

“Hello?”

“Olivia, I just received word that you received the boxes.”

I worked my jaw, my heart thrumming angrily. “Yes, Martin, and where were you? You were supposed to be here overseeing everything to make sure nothing got left behind.”

To make sure I didn’t have to deal with my mother’s bullshit.

“Everything made its way onto that truck. Your mother assured me she would make sure it was delivered, so this is me double checking. So long as that truck is empty, you will have everything.”

God, it was irritating. This whole mess of a situation was irritating. “I’m going to send you some audio today or tomorrow. Mom admitted to murdering my dad, so you need to deal with that.”

He was silent for a beat too long. “She what?”

“Thanks, Martin,”

I mumbled and hung up the phone.

Olivia: Get the audio of mom’s murder

confession to Martin, please.

Evelyn: Give me a taste of that pussy again

and I’ll do whatever you want.

Olivia: Sorry, no dice.

Evelyn: it was worth a shot.

My lips flicked up in a bare smile, and I rolled my eyes, and locked my phone. She was fun, I liked her. I liked talking to her, it was easy, fun, and it made me feel like maybe I had a friend in her.

My eyes lifted back to the cab where Lucy had pinned mom inside. I could see her fuming beyond the window. I just wanted her gone, but something told me that she wasn’t going to leave until after the men had finished offloading the truck, which made me feel only slightly bad for the cab driver.

Maybe if he wouldn’t have driven her all the way here, he wouldn’t have to deal with this.

I thought there was a thing about cabbies driving that far anyway. He was a jerk for giving her the exception.

Twenty minutes later, one of the men finally came up to me with a clipboard.

I signed without reading, mumbled a thanks, and stood, watching as they loaded back up and took off, the cab right behind them.

She must have still had some money left over from the loan. I would need to ask Malachi if there was something to be done about that. Maybe he could go retrieve whatever money was left that she didn’t spend, knock a few thousand off my total debt.

Now, wouldn’t that be ni—

A sharp pain sliced into my neck, and I instinctively reached up only for Everett to grab my wrist, holding it in place.

He leaned down, the look in his eyes almost feral. “It’s time for another payment,”

he hummed.