Chapter 25
Those words erupted out of her so fast that she nearly tripped on them.
But as soon as she said them, Arabella felt better. Like a weight was lifting off her shoulders. And that knot in her gut was loosening.
“What do you mean you might know who did it?” Jake asked. “Are you in trouble?”
“Maybe? I don’t know. But first, is Abe okay? Did you talk to him? They didn’t break into his house too, did they?”
“We did talk to him. He said he’s been out all day at an appointment and didn’t see anything.”
“I’m so glad he’s all right. And my stuff? The house? Is it okay? Did anything survive?”
Jake shook his head. “Seems they were really thorough. They went through and smashed most of the stuff in the kitchen. There’s a bit of crockery that survived.
Most of your clothes were slashed as were the mattresses.
Someone took a knife to the drapes in the house as well. And ripped up some of the carpet.”
“This wasn’t a robbery,” Kellan said.
“We’ll need you to check if anything was taken rather than destroyed,” Jake said. “But it doesn’t seem that way. It’s like someone with a vendetta did this. Is there anyone who might do that?”
“Um, yeah. See, I didn’t just move here because I wanted to get away from Austin and out from under my father’s legacy or memory.
Whatever you want to call it. That was just part of it.
The other part was that I loved this town the last time I was here.
It felt . . . right. Like coming home or something.
I’ve dreamed about it and thought about it ever since.
It just felt like the right decision to make.
But there was a third reason. My ex-fiancé. ”
“Cole?” Jake asked.
“No. Not Cole. I had another fiancé.”
“Another fiancé?” Eli snarled. “Did your father force you into that relationship too?”
“Yes,” she whispered. “And the thing is that he wasn’t nearly as nice a man as Cole.”
Kellan kept rubbing her back but she could feel him growing tense and knew that he wasn’t happy.
“What do you mean?” Jake asked. “How could your father force you to get engaged to someone?”
She glanced away, sighing. “This is a bit embarrassing, but I didn’t really care with Cole.
I had told myself that I’d never be able to trust a man so why not just keep my father happy and marry the person he wanted.
After meeting Cole a few times I could tell he was a decent person.
If a bit distant and cold. Still, I didn’t think he’d hurt or threaten me.
So I guess I kind of saw him as my ticket out from under my father’s thumb.
At the time, I’d only just started selling my baking and hadn’t gotten into content creating.
I barely had any money and I knew I could get a job, but I didn’t have any savings for a place to live.
Or to help pay for Pop-Pop’s nursing home. ”
“Wait,” Jake said slowly. “Are you saying that your father would stop paying for your grandfather’s nursing home if . . .”
“If I didn’t do what he said? Yep. That’s what I’m saying.
That’s exactly what he told me the first time I tried to go against him.
If I didn’t do what he wanted, then he would make sure that Pop-Pop got kicked out onto the street.
My grandfather isn’t in the best of health.
He has some heart issues and his medication costs a lot.
There was no way that I could have paid for his medication let alone the nursing home as well.
So I did what my father wanted. Pop-Pop was the only person in my life who had ever shown me affection or love.
I couldn’t let anything bad happen to him. ”
“Baby, I’m so sorry. That’s fucking awful,” Eli said.
“Yeah, I mean, once Cole broke things off I was kind of relieved but also sad because I thought he would help me get out of that situation. I stupidly thought my father wouldn’t do something like that again.
Especially not after he decided to run for Lieutenant Governor of Texas.
I never knew he was interested in getting into politics.
One day he just told me we were moving to Austin and to start packing.
I don’t understand it but suddenly all of our financial issues had disappeared.
We had a nice house, an expensive car, Pop-Pop was moved to a good nursing home.
I didn’t trust it and he wouldn’t tell me how he did it.
I started building up my business again because I knew I still had to find a way out. ”
She rubbed her hand tiredly over her face.
“How did you do that?” Jake asked.
“Well, I had some help, thankfully. Pop-Pop lived in Austin a long time ago and his old friend’s granddaughter owned a bakery.
So she let me use it for my cakes after hours.
And I started doing content creation. That really started to take off.
I was close to being in a place where I could support both me and Pop-Pop when my father told me that I was now engaged. ”
“Who the fuck does this shit?” Eli asked. “Did he think it’s the middle ages? Where he can just decide who you are going to marry?”
“My father saw me as chattel. Something to be used for his advancement. Nothing more. There was no affection. No love. I’m just ashamed I went along with everything without fighting back.”
“Who was it that he wanted you to marry?” Jake asked, leaning forward.
“A guy called Lee Newsome,” she said. “You probably won’t have heard of him, but he’s been an associate of my father’s since . . . well, I think since before we moved. I don’t know . . . I almost feel like maybe he was financially backing him?”
“Do you know where Lee might have made his money then?” Jake asked.
“No, I overheard my father once on the phone talking to him about money and thanking him for the donation. It was a bit odd. I asked him what Lee did for a job. He said he was an entrepreneur. That he had a big interest in politics and saw something in my father worth backing.”
“And when did he tell you that you were going to marry him?” Jake asked. “Had Lee ever shown any indication that he liked you?”
“No, nothing. I mean, I barely knew the guy. Not that that mattered to my father. He didn’t care about my feelings or desires.
Like I said before, I was purely chattel to him.
But I don’t get what Lee got out of it. With Cole it was business and I understood that.
A merger that would have benefited both parties. But this was weird.”
“How long ago was this?” Jake asked.
She noticed that Eli and Kellan had fallen silent. But Kellan kept rubbing her back while Eli massaged her feet. They were tense, listening to what she had to say.
“A few months before my father’s death. After he died, I got out of Austin as quickly as I could. I wanted Pop-Pop to come with me, but he loves his nursing home there. He’s got two girlfriends.”
“Two?” Jake asked.
“Yeah. They’re all really happy together. The nursing home wasn’t that happy, but didn’t want to lose three residents.”
“I say good on Pop-Pop,” Eli told her.
She smiled at him. “Anyway, we were living in the governor’s mansion and I needed to leave anyway so I figured why bother moving twice?
I got rid of anything that belonged to my father and found a place to rent here.
I put my father’s will into probate and I’m still waiting to hear about that, but I had enough of my own money to pay for Pop-Pop for the rest of the year and rent a house here.
It drained my savings, but I’m sure I can get them back into a healthy state.
So all I had left to do was talk to Lee. ”
“How did he take it?” Eli asked.
“That’s the thing, I couldn’t get hold of him.
He didn’t answer any of my calls. I wasn’t sure what to do.
So I left him a message on his voicemail.
I know that’s terrible, but I didn’t even know where he lived and he never turned up to my father’s funeral.
Although it was a big affair because he was the governor, so perhaps I just missed seeing him. I don’t know.”
“He was your fiancé,” Eli said. “Even if it was fake, wouldn’t he have contacted you? Tried to put in some sort of appearance?”
“It’s like as soon as your father died, you became of little interest to him,” Jake said.
“Either that or something happened to him as well,” Kellan added.
“What do you mean?” she asked. “Why did you say ‘as well’? My father jumped off that bridge.”
“Did he ever show signs of being suicidal?” Eli asked her.
“Well, no. I never thought he would do something like that. He always thought he would come out on top. Why?”
“Are you trying to say that something else happened to her father?” Jake asked.
“It can’t have. There were two witnesses that said the same thing,” she said. “That he jumped. And that no one else was there. Also, he left a note saying that he was under tremendous pressure and couldn’t take it anymore.”
“And he wasn’t acting strange before his death?” Eli asked. “He hadn’t given any sign that he was taking anything?”
She straightened. “Like drugs, you mean?”
“Yeah.”
“I don’t think so. I mean, wouldn’t I be able to tell? Wouldn’t he have highs and lows? Or how would he get them? The governor couldn’t risk getting caught buying drugs.”
“What if someone he trusted got them for him?” Eli asked.
“Someone like Lee?” she asked. “I guess that’s possible.
But why? And . . . wait, no. I’m pretty sure that there was a toxicology report done after his death.
The coroner wanted to ensure that he wasn’t under the influence of anything.
All he had in his system was a small amount of alcohol.
But honestly, that was pretty normal for him. He was a fairly heavy drinker.”
“So he was just acting like normal?” Eli asked.