Chapter 13
Warm bulbs glowed through the windows of the Sterling home, casting a soft shine over the manicured lawn and the tall cedar trimmed to resemble a Christmas tree.
It looked like the perfect house for a perfect family, the kind neighbors envied.
But I had learned long ago that the families that seemed perfect on the outside often harbored the biggest secrets.
My mother stood beside me on the front walk, her scarf pulled tight as she studied the house. “It looks peaceful, doesn’t it?”
“Almost too peaceful.”
In the car, we’d discussed our visit with the Sterlings, and she’d promised to do as I asked and stick to the plan, which I was leery about.
If I was able to secure a confession, she had a text message queued up and ready to go to Foley and Whitlock, letting them know where we were and telling them to meet us there.
All my mother had to do was press a button and the message would be sent.
I knocked, and the door opened. Roxy stood there, polished and poised in a cream sweater and dark slacks.
Behind her, Wyatt appeared, looking surprised to see us. “Hello, Georgiana. I didn’t expect to see you back again so soon.”
“I know,” I said. “This is my mother, and I know it’s a bit unusual to have her here with me, but—”
My mother swished a hand through the air. “I insisted I come. It isn’t often I get to spend the day with my daughter. I hope you don’t mind.”
“Not at all,” Wyatt said.
“Do the two of you have a few minutes to talk?”
Wyatt stepped aside. “Sure, come on in.”
We convened in the living room, where a fire burned in the hearth.
I eased into the questions, keeping them simple at first, talking to them about my visit with Lenny and what I’d learned since we last spoke.
My mother remained silent, watching them as if she had been assigned the role of human lie detector.
After a few minutes, I leaned forward, my hands clasped, as I looked at Roxy.
“I need to ask a difficult question.”
Roxy bit down on her lip, nodding as she stared into the fire. “I believe I know what you’re about to ask but go ahead.”
“Are you two Holly’s biological parents?”
Roxy’s hand flew to her mouth as tears spilled down her cheeks, and Wyatt stiffened beside her.
She turned toward him and said, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I know I should have told you, but …”
Wyatt closed his eyes.
Not in shock.
Not in disbelief.
In resignation.
He knew about the pregnancy.
And if he wasn’t Holly’s father …
Roxy wiped her cheeks, but the tears kept coming, spilling down her cheeks like rain sliding off a windowpane. “I never meant to hide the truth from you, Wyatt. I just didn’t know how to face you and tell you what I’d done.”
Wyatt straightened, his jaw clenched, but he remained silent.
“I’m sorry I kept it from you,” she continued. “I’m sorry I never told you I was her biological mother.”
Roxy hadn’t seemed to clue in on the fact that he hadn’t reacted with surprise, so I cut in. “You knew about Roxy’s pregnancy, didn’t you, Wyatt?”
Wyatt’s gaze met mine, and he shook his head, as if trying to stop me from saying anything more.
I shifted my attention to Roxy. “If Wyatt isn’t Holly’s father, is her father Sebastian?”
The horrified look on her face gave me my answer, and I turned back to Wyatt. “You knew your father slept with Roxy, and if I’ve done my math right, it would have been before the two of you got married.”
“It happened one night, just the one time,” Roxy said, hands trembling.
“Stop talking, Roxy,” Wyatt said. “We can discuss it later, after they’ve gone.”
“It’s out now. I can’t just stand here and pretend it didn’t happen. Not anymore.”
“What did happen?” I asked.
She swallowed a few times, wiping away a few more tears. “One night when Wyatt and I were dating, his father had too much to drink, and … well, I did too. We had sex, and even though it was just the one time, I got pregnant.”
I looked at Wyatt, whose eyes flickered around the room like a cornered animal searching for an exit.
“You told me you couldn’t get pregnant,” I said.
“I haven’t been able to, not since I had Holly.”
“What happened?”
Roxy bent down, placing her head between her knees, her breath heavy, while the rest of us waited.
She stood back up and said, “When I found out I was pregnant, I panicked. Wyatt’s father panicked too. I confided in Celia, and she told me she had always wanted to adopt, and she offered to raise the baby. The three of us made a pact to keep it to ourselves, and we did.”
“Celia left for Sedona, and you … what?”
“I told my family and friends that I wanted to do some traveling before I got married, just like I told you before. But the truth is, I was with Celia the entire time. I had the baby, and Wyatt’s father made arrangements with the owner of the agency for the adoption to be closed, never to be disclosed to anyone.
Celia adopted Holly, and I returned to Cambria and married Wyatt. ”
Roxy looked at Wyatt again, pleading in her eyes. “All these years, you knew?”
Refusing to look at her, he said, “I found out the night my father died. Seemed he didn’t want to leave this life without me knowing.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?” Roxy asked.
He looked at me, then at Roxy.
“You may as well admit it,” I said. “I’m guessing you put up the surveillance camera and left the note on my car. As for the note, the coroner was able to lift a print off it. He’s running it now.”
It was a lie, of course.
I sat, crossing one leg over the other, hoping he believed me.
“What is she talking about?” Roxy asked. “What note?”
Wyatt threw his hands in the air. “You don’t understand! I did what I had to do to protect us, to protect our family!”
“What are you talking about?”
My mother sat beside me, gripping the armrest, and I gave her a nod, the approval to send the text message to Foley and Whitlock. Then I rose, facing Wyatt as I palmed the gun in my handbag. “Holly was searching for her birth parents. That made her a threat to you.”
“If the truth came out about the affair and the fact we covered it up, it would have destroyed our family name.”
In the end, it still had.
“And she’d be entitled to part of your inheritance, I imagine,” I said.
Roxy’s eyes widened as if she had just put it all together. “What are you saying? What did you do, Wyatt?”
He said nothing, but his silence told her everything she needed to know.
She staggered back. “No … no. I can’t believe it. Tell me you weren’t involved in Holly’s death.”
“I’m sorry,” Wyatt said. “Believe me when I say it haunts me. I’m filled with regret.
I mean it. When she came to us about the adoption papers she’d found, so determined to find her birth parents, it rattled me.
I should have taken the time to think it over, found a way for us all to get through it, together. Instead, I … I …”
Roxy let out a scream that tore through the house.
Then she turned, fleeing the room.
Before I could make my next move, Roxy burst back into the room with a pistol in her shaking hand. She raised it, aimed at Wyatt, and yelled, “You killed my daughter!”
She fired, and the shot cracked through the room, settling into the wall behind him.
Wyatt lunged at Roxy, but I stepped between them, gun raised. “Stop right there.”
He ignored me, throwing his weight forward as he reached for my gun.
My mother drew her own firearm. “Back away from my daughter.”
He laughed, saying, “Or what? You’re not going to shoot me, old woman.”
The second he touched me, my mother fired.
Wyatt shrieked in pain and collapsed, gripping his leg as the blood drained from it.
I turned toward Roxy. “Give me your gun.”
She nodded and did what I asked.
“You ruined everything!” Wyatt snarled, glaring up at me.
“No,” I said. “You did that on your own.”
My mother moved beside me, breath sharp, eyes locked on him as if trying to anticipate his next move.
But it seemed he’d conceded.
Roxy dropped to her knees, sobbing, “My daughter … my precious, precious daughter.”
Sirens wailed in the distance, growing louder with each passing second.
Tires screeched to a halt outside, and as someone pounded on the front door, my mother rushed to let them in.
She pulled the door open like she’d been waiting her whole life for this moment.
Our mother–daughter takedown had been a success, and judging by the grin she tossed me, she felt like she’d just won gold.