Chapter 29
WILLOW
I’m tied to a chair on the ground floor of an old mansion somewhere in the Hamptons. North Hampton, to be specific. I followed Brett’s instructions, I obeyed his orders. I tried to get him to talk, but he wouldn’t tell me anything.
At least I’m still alive.
I’m scanning every inch of this living room until I can figure a way out. It’s quiet and not as cold as I thought. Heat is coming up through the pipes, keeping the frost away from the windows. Outside, a cold wind howls, carried by the sea. The eastern tip of Long Island is awful during the winter.
It feels sort of fitting, given my current circumstances.
Brett sits quietly by the window, waiting.
“You still haven’t told me why you’re doing this,” I say, trying to strike up another conversation, but he doesn’t say anything.
I notice his jeans, his black t-shirt, the aviator jacket with the woolen collar, the silvery stubble and almost white hair.
The wear and tear of time passing and a life spent drowning in a bottle of scotch is apparent on his face.
“I just hope you’re being paid handsomely for it, otherwise, I don’t see the point.
You don’t strike me as some sort of psycho. ”
“I don’t?” he shoots back, then glances at his gun. It rests on the windowsill, silent and potentially deadly, just like him. “You just don’t know me well enough.”
“I just don’t understand. Please, make me understand. I deserve that much.”
He shakes his head slowly. “You wouldn’t get it.”
“Try me. How much are you getting paid? A hundred thousand dollars? Two hundred?”
“It’s not about money,” he scoffs. “You haven’t got a clue.”
“Clue me in!”
“Perry won’t tell you anything; he’s too loyal,” Sheila says as she walks into the living room, like my being tied to a chair is no big deal.
I’m breathless, stunned, as I stare at her. “Perry,” I gasp. “You’re Perry,” I whisper. “Her ex…”
“Never her ex.” He chuckles dryly, then gets up and walks over to Sheila. He wraps his arms around her and pulls her into a greedy, fiery kiss. It causes my stomach to turn inside out as I put the pieces together. Finally, the puzzle makes sense. “Her first and only true love.”
“Perry has been my rock from the moment I stepped outside my parents’ apartment,” Sheila says, resting her head on his shoulder and giving me a cold smile. “He would do anything for me because he knows I would do everything for him.”
“Everything?” I ask. “While you’re married to another man? While you were married to another man before him? While you had another man’s child? Is this the everything you imagined, Perry?”
Perry shakes his head and gently pulls away, going back to his seat by the window. “Sacrifices were made for us to get to this point. We’re almost across the finish line now, though.”
“What’s the finish line, exactly?”
Sheila takes a seat in the chair across from me and crosses her legs.
The skinny jeans and deerskin boots aren’t her usual style choice, but I’m guessing she opted for something more comfortable for this part of the plan, because this was always the plan; it’s written all over her face.
When the poisoning failed at her son’s wedding, she and Perry had to think of something else.
“Why do you want me dead?” I ask her. “What did I ever do to you?”
“Do you know what the hardest part is about raising a child?” she replies with a question of her own, though she doesn’t wait for me to answer.
“It’s making sure he goes on to have a better life than you and has the freedom of choice.
I never got my freedom of choice, you see.
I didn’t choose to marry Terrence’s father; I had to. ”
My frown has her rolling her eyes.
“I was dancing at his favorite club,” she adds. “I took him to the back room and let him have his fun. He paid well. It helped us get Perry’s Mustang at the time.”
“What a great ride that was,” Perry says with a laugh.
Good grief, he’s as crazy and as delusional as she is. It’s a match made in hell, and I’m smack in the middle of it and at their mercy.
“But then I got pregnant. I knew it wasn’t Perry’s.”
“I’m shooting blanks,” Perry feels the need to clarify, prompting a scowl out of me.
“I loved Perry, but I wanted a baby, too. James gave me that. It landed me in the Madison family, though. I’d hoped he’d just pay me off and leave me alone, but no, James had honor,” Sheila scoffs. “I played along for a while, but I never left my Perry behind.”
“And Perry made sure we’d be together again,” he says, oddly referring to himself in the third person.
“Then I met Cole. Perry didn’t like him much,” Sheila adds. “And it turns out Cole’s brothers didn’t like me much either.”
“So you married the father. You want a chunk of the Morgan fortune. That’s what it has always been about then.”
“As far as Perry and I are concerned, yes.”
“You squandered Madison’s fortune,” I say.
“It wasn’t that much to begin with,” she replies with a casual shrug.
“My lifestyle demands a certain amount of money. In the long term, I suppose we made some bad investments, but none of that matters anymore. We’re about to come into a new fortune soon enough,” she adds, giving Perry a playful wink.
I shake my head in genuine dismay. “The sad part is that Bill already knows what an awful person you are, yet he chose to respect his vow to you. That’s the promise he made to you and Terrence. Does Terrence know about all this?”
“Oh, no. I spared him,” she says. “He’s better off not knowing. He’ll meet Perry soon, though. It’s time.”
“We’re just waiting for the old man to die. Can’t kill him, too,” Perry replies.
Too?
I stare at him in disbelief, quickly putting two and two together. “You killed James Madison.”
“All I did was fix the brakes. He got himself killed,” he says.
Ice trickles through my veins as I understand precisely what kind of monsters I’m dealing with—the worst kind, capable of deceit at the highest level and in the long term, people with masks who have almost everyone fooled, people so awful, you can’t even imagine what worse things hide beneath the surface.
“Sheila, what do you want from me?”
“Ah, yes, that was the original question, and I got sidetracked.” She laughs lightly, but her humor drops into a cold glare as she looks at me again. “I swore I wouldn’t let Terrence suffer the way I did. You weren’t the one for him. I knew it from the moment I met you. You’re too much for him.”
“And you went and found him less. Why try to kill me, then?”
Sheila slaps the armrest of her chair in a flash of rage.
“Because your mere existence sickens me, you fat bitch! Because you get to strut your lard around like you belong in my world, the same world I sacrificed so much to be a part of! Because you never had to sell yourself the way I did in order to get somewhere! Because I fucking hate you so much, I will do anything to live in a world where you no longer exist.” She pauses for a deep breath. “That’s why.”
The words come out so naturally, the hate is so visceral.
Jamie was right. Sheila is just psychotically jealous of me and of everything I’ve built on my own. She made her choices, yet she pretends to be a victim of her circumstances.
“Tell me something,” I say, stealing a peek at Perry. He doesn’t seem too fond of this part of the conversation, choosing to stare out the window instead. “Did James Madison force you to marry him?”
“Well, no, but he didn’t give me any other choice,” Sheila replies.
Perry’s doubtful look is hard to miss when he looks at her. The thought must’ve crossed his mind so many times, I’m sure of it.
“You did have the choice not to marry him,” I say. “Wait, that would’ve meant raising Terrence on your own. Oh no, it would’ve meant raising him with Perry, in poverty, I suppose. I mean, who wants to hire a pregnant or a postpartum exotic dancer, right?”
“I would’ve gotten a job,” Perry mutters.
Sheila scoffs and waves his concern away. “She’s just trying to get into your head, the fat, scheming bitch. Don’t mind her.”
There’s so much I want to say to her, but I’d only end up dying sooner. I can’t get her to back down; it’s clear she wants me dead. But she also made sure I’d be here, awake and alive, to listen to her motives. I still have one option left to try.
“You don’t have to do this,” I say.
“Oh, but I do. There’s no other way,” Sheila replies. “As long as you’re alive, you’ll be a thorn in my side, and the Morgan brothers will keep getting in my way. With you out of the picture, however, they’ll be too distraught to notice.”
“God, Sheila, what are you going to do?”
“I’m going to convince Bill to finish updating his last will and testament, like he promised. My son and I deserve the lion’s share of everything he has. You said it yourself, didn’t you? Bill promised he’d take care of Terrence and me. I intend to hold him to it.”
Perry frowns as he looks outside. It catches my attention, that lingering concern over something that moves somewhere out there.
It’s probably a car or a neighbor. Either way, it stays with him long after the distraction has passed.
He’s hypervigilant, and prone to fits of anger and unpredictability, but he is obsessed with Sheila, foolishly obsessed.
I can either cast more doubt over their insane relationship, or I can appeal to whatever morsel of humanity she might have left underneath that honey-mustard-colored cashmere sweater of hers.
“You can’t kill me, Sheila,” I say.
“Says who?” She laughs, a truly terrifying sound.
“I’m going to be a mother soon. I’m pregnant,” I reply, hoping for the best while my stomach tightens, my body somehow preparing for the worst. “I just found out.”
Sheila stares at me for what feels like a wretched eternity, her face expressionless, just cold, green eyes and red, glossy lips pressed into a thin line. Perry, however, seems troubled by the revelation. I’m guessing he might draw the line at killing a pregnant woman.
“All the more reason to end you,” Sheila decrees.
“Sheila, please.” I burst into tears. I’m tied up and helpless. There’s only so much more I can do, and despair is quickly settling in and making my heart crumble. “My baby…”
“Perry, it’s time. I’ve had my fun.”
I look at Perry and shake my head, hot tears streaming down my cheeks. “Please, Perry, don’t…”
“Sheila, baby—”
“Oh, give me the fucking gun. I’ll do it!” she snaps and gets up, then walks over to the window with a frustrated huff.
Perry tries to stop her, but she boldly pushes him aside and reaches for the gun.
I struggle against the rope. It’s wound tightly around my wrists.
I can’t get away.
She’s going to kill me.