50. Dimitri
50
DIMITRI
H er eyes instantly become wary.
"What do you need to tell me?" she asks.
"It's about your mother," I say. "I think I learned something about her past."
"Oh." Some of the tension leaves her face.
“Before I tell you what it is, I need to know something about her,” I say. “I need to know if she’s a natural blonde.”
Her eyebrows draw together.
“You’re asking me about the color of her hair?” Briar asks.
I nod.
“Um, she gets her roots touched up every other week," Briar says. "But to answer your question, she's naturally a brunette. What does that have to do with anything, though?"
Finally .
I've been grasping at straws for weeks, but we finally have something real to work with.
"I'll show you," I say.
I grab my laptop and pull up the familiar photograph. I zoom in on the portion behind the column.
“What are we looking at?” Briar asks.
“Wait for it,” I say.
“I don’t get it.” Briar looks at me.
I point toward the screen. It’s almost like an optical illusion. The girl is camouflaged into the shadows, but once you see her, you can’t unsee it.
“Do you see it now?” I ask.
“Is that…is that a person?” Briar asks, tilting her head at the photograph.
“Yes,” I say. “For a long time, I’ve suspected that your mother was hiding something. And I think I finally know what her big secret is.”
“Her big secret?” Briar asks.
“I have reason to believe that your mother isn’t who she claims to be. She isn’t the legal heir to the Thorne family fortune.”
"What do you mean?"Briar asks.
I zoom out of the photograph until all of it is showing.
I point at the man in the middle.
"This is Richard Thorne, your grandfather," I say. "He was a very wealthy man, but he wasn't loyal to his wife. He had numerous affairs in the duration of his life. And some of these affairs resulted in illegitimate children.”
Briar frowns at the screen.
"What does that have to do with my mother, though?" she asks.
"I believe that your mother was one of his illegitimate children," I say.
Briar’s head whips in my direction. "What?"
“Forty-five years ago, he had an affair with one of the maids who worked in his mansion,” I say. "When his wife discovered it, she immediately fired the maid. The maid was made to leave town, but there was a rumor that she gave birth to twin girls a few months later. I believe that your mother was one of the twin girls.”
"Then who is this?" Briar asks, pointing at the blonde girl in the photograph.
"That's the real Malorie Thorne," I say. “She’s the woman your mother has been impersonating this whole time."
Briar's eyes widen.
“I overlooked a couple of things about the Thorne family,” I tell her. "One of which was that Richard Thorne wrote his will a few weeks before the fire. He left all of his money and property to his wife and children. And even though he was the birth father of the twin girls, he refused to acknowledge their presence."
"The arson," Briar says, bringing her hand to her mouth.
I nod. "Your mother was born a psychopath. All she ever cared about was herself and her own needs. And when she learned that the man who was supposed to look out for her left her nothing, she decided to take everything from him."
"So the woman who died in the stables…” Briar trails off.
"That was your mother's twin sister," I say.
Before the woman was shot in the stables, she said something peculiar. I'm not Jennifer.
“Your mother’s birth name is Jennifer,” I say.
I can't peer into the past.
But I can imagine it.
I can imagine a little girl who grew up in poverty even though her father was a rich man. I can imagine how early signs of sociopathy would harden with age, giving birth to a monster who would commit her first set of murders when she was only eighteen.
I can imagine her lurking around the Thorne mansion, watching the privileged lives of the Thorne family.
"She was whip-smart," I say. "She always had been. You don't pull off something like this without thinking through every detail for years. She's a master manipulator and a deranged sociopath. And she's always been hungry for money and power."
Briar peers at the blonde girl in the center of the photograph.
“She looks so much like her, though,” Briar says.
"They are half sisters," I say. "Your mother, Jennifer, just had to get a few minor surgical changes to pass for Malorie Thorne. And the next step in her plan was to find a meek husband and start a family. Nobody would suspect a dutiful mother of criminal activity.”
“I always wondered why my mother chose to marry my father,” Briar muses out loud. “They had nothing in common. He was dazzled by her beauty, but I never even saw them share so much as a peck on the cheek. I never saw them have a conversation that wasn’t superficial. She just wanted a husband she could control. And as her daughters…we were just props. Her entire life is a complete fabrication.”
“Not for long,” I say.
Briar looks up at me. “You’re planning something, aren’t you?”
I purse my lips together.
“Dimitri, you promised you’d tell me things,” she says. “You promised there would be no more secrets between us.”
She’s right. I did promise her that.
"The only reason your mother grew into the monster she is today is because nobody was able to stop her," I say. "And because of that, she let the power go to her head."
“And you plan to be the one to stop her?” Briar asks.
“I won’t be doing it alone, of course,” I say. “I’ll have my men with me.”
“It won’t be enough,” Briar says, shaking her head. “You can’t underestimate her, Dimitri. She has connections with so many powerful people.”
Tears shine in her eyes. My instinct is to do whatever it takes to stop those tears from falling.
"We can't forget about the things she's done, Briar," I say. "She's throwing the entire ecosystem of the underworld off balance here. You don't need me to remind you about her involvement in human trafficking."
Briar wrote in her diary about what she found in her mother's basement. She saw the kids who were being held captive there. It was the reason she decided to escape from home that first night we met.
"Yes, but?—"
"It's easy to make excuses for these sorts of things, Briar," I say.
"I just...I can't afford to lose you," she says. "I know it's selfish of me to ask you this, but I don't want you to involve yourself in her business."
"Remember when you asked me if there was anything you could do to help the kids?" I ask. "This is our chance. We actually have the power to make a difference here."
She watches me with wide eyes.
I wouldn't have told her about my plans a few days ago. But I have to change the way I operate because Briar will be my wife soon. I need to include her when I make decisions that can impact us both.
"What do you have in mind?" Briar asks.
"She's holding an auction," I say. "It’ll be held in Monaco a week from now.”
"An auction?" she repeats.
"It's labeled as an art auction," I say. "But that's just a front for what's really happening. They'll be selling women there. Powerful men from all around the world will be in attendance. And of course, your mother will be present too."
Briar narrows her eyes. "What else?"
This is the part I didn't want to tell her, but I know she'll learn about it eventually.
"Your sister Grace will be a part of this auction," I say finally.“She’ll be one of the girls being sold.”
Briar freezes.
“And my mother’s responsible for this?” she asks.
I nod. “It’s a bait, though.”
“What for?”
“You,” I say. “She knew that the only way to get you to come back is if it involved your younger sister.”
"I take back everything I just said," she says. "We need to do everything we can to bring my mother down . Once and for all.”
For the first time in a long time, I see the fire return to Briar's eyes.