32. Odell
THIRTY-TWO
ODELL
“Almost ready, Dellie?”
Hunter appeared in the bathroom holding our daughter, Brielle. I’d only been away from her for a few minutes and I’d missed her. I kissed her tummy and she giggled, a sound that was in sync with my heart.
“Yep.”
The phone bleated. Mine. It was a message from Uncle saying he needed to see me urgently.
Are you okay? Where are the guards?
I’m fine. Just sitting in my easy chair going through some things .
It was Sunday and we were headed to Flint and Tony’s for lunch. Sunday lunch used to be exclusively at Rudy’s before Flint mated, but now we rotated.
But I really need to see you today .
My belly jolted. Uncle and I had skirted around the subject of Draven and Stefan. If I tried to bring it up, he got upset and apologized over and over, and then I cried and we talked of other things.
I suspected Hunter was correct when he said I had put off talking about it because I didn’t want to hear what Uncle had to say.
And he’d chosen today to do it? I made a face as my breakfast almost made an appearance.
“What’s wrong?” Hunter lifted my chin.
“Indigestion.” I fibbed, not wanting to bring up the past, though if Uncle wanted to talk about Draven, the past was about to grab my ass and plonk it in a chair, demanding I confront it.
“Uncle needs to see me. Let’s take two cars to lunch so I can visit him on the way home.” I was driving again, and we’d reduced the number of bodyguards that crowded around me in a protective circle.
“Okay, but as it’s Sunday, we only have two guards.”
“One for each of us.” I doubted any enemies were on the prowl on a Sunday afternoon, but Hunter had had bulletproof windows installed in the Red Beast. Such a waste, but I was in love with that car.
Lunch was a loud affair as usual, and most of the noise came from the adults. But they were my family and I’d grown to adore them.
With a full tummy and a heart swelling with love, I set off to Uncle’s as my mate and daughter left for home, along with leftovers. Flint and Tony had taken cooking lessons and were now trying to outdo my mate and me. Ha! No chance.
Uncle was inside the cabin with the door open when I arrived, and I acknowledged the guards before striding in to him.
He was surrounded by papers, the folding file beside him.
“Thank you for coming, love, but I thought you should see this.” He said he’d been unsure about showing me, thinking the past was best left there, but decided I had a right to know.
“After I received a phone call from your aunt this morning.” He clenched his good hand. “I’d had enough.” His voice rose like that night when he told me about being married off to Draven.
He handed me some papers that were yellowing and smelled of mold. I crinkled my nose, not wanting to touch them, but he insisted I take a look.
“The last will and testament?” It listed my folks’ names and mine, as well as Aunt Louisa as guardian and executor of their estate.
“What estate? I’d always been told my parents were dirt poor, and I’d been too young to remember.”
“Keep reading.” He shuffled papers around and handed me a sheaf. Bank statements.
The dates were from just after my parents died until last year around the time of Uncle’s accident.
“I don’t understand.”
“You had a modest inheritance, and Louisa withdrew money regularly.” He threw up his hands. “I had no idea and assumed the money was from her job, as mine wasn’t well paid, She always brought in more than me.”
“Okay. I don’t see a problem.” While I was a little peeved, if she had told me when I turned eighteen seven years ago that she’d needed it for our family, I would have understood. I was a financial burden, and my parents would have known that when they wrote the will.
“But my darling, when you turned eighteen, any withdrawals should have been done by you. Louisa’s power of attorney ended with your birthday.” He pointed out the letters from the bank were addressed to me after my eighteenth birthday.
Shit! My aunt had fraudulently taken out money, and Uncle wanted to expose her so he wasn’t the only bad guy. My family was so messed up. I rubbed a fist into my eye, wishing I’d never… never… something.
I was annoyed at Uncle for telling me, and angry at my aunt for breaking the law. Geez!
“Uncle, maybe it’s best we forget it.” I was getting good at shoving things in my mental closet and throwing away the key. I’d done it with Uncle and him basically selling me to Draven.
But if I wanted to get past this, I had to have it out with him.
“Uncle, you’re retaliating against Aunt Louisa for divorcing you.”
He removed the papers from my grip and clasped my hands in his.
“Not at all. We hadn’t been happy since I had my accident. She resented me for my disability. Hadn't been happy for years, if I’m honest.”
No, that was a lie. “She did everything for you.”
“When you were around, yes. But when we were alone, she refused me food, wouldn’t get me water. Or my pills, even on the days I was bedridden.”
This version of my aunt was the opposite of the one I’d always known. It couldn’t be true.
“You adore her, and I know that. But your aunt has a personality of steel. She never considered what I had to say.”He leaned forward. “I take full responsibility for what I did with Stefan, but I…” He gulped. “I was so weak. I should have stood up to her.”
That word sent a shock wave through me, and I jerked upward. “Her? It was Stefan and Draven.”
Uncle clasped his head. “Draven, Draven, Draven. I never met Draven until he came to get you, though his name has been bandied about.”
“But you had to.”
“No, your aunt introduced me to Stefan, saying he could help us financially.”
“No, you’re wrong.” I got up and paced the floor, noting my bodyguard was chatting to the ones looking after Uncle near the Red Beast. “How did Aunt Louisa know Stefan?”
“Through City Hall. Though she was the receptionist at the realtor’s, she sometimes had to file paperwork.”
I collapsed on the sofa, my mind working overtime. Shit! She’d met Stefan, he scented me on her, and they what? I couldn’t say it. Stefan was on one side, my aunt on the other. They had nothing in common. It couldn’t be. I grabbed my belly, wanting to throw up, my mind grasping at threads and trying to tie them together.
“This was a mistake.”
“She said we needed money, fed on my guilt that my accident had caused all our problems.” He held up a hand. “I should have stayed strong, resisted her, but Stefan said he’d kill you if I didn’t agree.”
He related how my aunt had played on his pride, saying he needed to make money and Stefan had an inside man at the race track. She said it was a sure thing.
“Louisa said I was dragging the family down with my medical bills, and I had to prove my worth.”
What he said made me sick to my stomach. There hadn’t been any gambling. Stefan had probably just taken what little money Uncle had, loaned him a bunch, and then said he was in debt.
“I got in so deep, I couldn’t claw my way out.”
“Why didn’t you tell me this before?” My shrill voice caught the guards’ attention and they looked up, hands on their holsters. I stuck my head out the door saying we were fine and slammed it shut.
“I’m sorry. It was all my fault. I could have gone to the police, but then I was painted as the bad guy, and I was, and you were happy and pregnant and Louisa was living her life.” He threw up his hands. “I could live taking all the blame as long as you were happy.”
“I have to speak to her and get the whole story.”
Uncle sighed. “That might bring your closure, but I think you should let it be. She’ll be angry at me.”
“I won’t let her.” I collected the will, statements, and letters and kissed him goodbye.
I should have driven home and spoken to Hunter, but I needed to see my aunt.Thinking back, I conjured up images of Aunt Louisa and her interactions with me and my uncle. I put her forthright manner down to her caring about us, and I was still certain that was the case. But it could be interpreted as her not wanting to entertain Uncle’s opinion and not giving me a choice in my life.
When I pulled up, there was a removal van in front of the building and a For Sale sign for a third floor apartment with “Sold” slapped over it. The lobby doors were ajar as men were wheeling and carrying boxes and furniture, and I recognized my aunt’s chairs.
What in the heck was happening?
I told the bodyguard to wait in the lobby, as I didn’t want him to overhear me arguing with my aunt.
“Odell!” Aunt Louisa took a step back when I appeared, as her door had also been open. “What a surprise.”
“When were you going to tell me you were leaving?”
“It’s not a big deal. I just need a fresh start, and the money from the sale will allow me to do that.” She picked up a small box.
“I spoke to Uncle.”
She stiffened. “He would do anything to hurt me. Whatever he said is a lie.”
“You set him up with Stefan.” I shook and almost wished I could take that sentence back.
She shrugged. “Your uncle whittled away what little money we had. He got you into this.”
The person beside me wasn’t the woman I’d known most of my life, who’d mothered me. Her lips were set in a straight line, and her body hummed with an arrogance I didn’t recognize. She’d always been strong but not like this.
“What was your purpose? To hurt Uncle?”
She turned, her mouth twisted. “He’s irrelevant. I wanted something more. I’d done so much for him, for you. It was my turn, and I wanted to get my reward.”
“You knew Stefan wanted me dead.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” She didn’t look at me as she shoved items in a box. “You always exaggerate. I tried so hard to mold you to be like me.” She stalked out to the hallway as the delivery guys came back up.
My aunt lowered her voice while walking into the elevator, and I followed her. “I stood up for you, gave you everything you damned well asked for, and yet you were always too soft, more like Stan than me.”
She held open the doors as the men carrying a bed frame were coming toward us. “When I met Stefan, we got to talking and he took me for lunch. He paid me the attention I hadn’t had since before you came to live with us.”
She rambled on, my head hurting from the words pummeling my brain. “He said if I got you to marry his nephew, he’d pay me a significant sum of money, some before and the rest after the marriage. He explained it was a complicated trust situation and his nephew needed to marry. It was a win-win.”
A win. She was talking about Stefan winning and her too, at my expense.
“He's dead!” I spat out.
“What?” she yelled. “You’re lying!”
“I shot him!”
I backed away from her as the removalists halted, saying they’d take the other elevator. As the doors closed and we started to move, Aunt Louisa grabbed a piece of cardboard from her box and shoved it between the rubber door seals. There was a small gap between the doors and the floor. I’d studied the inside of elevators many times and had researched ways people got trapped in those metal boxes.
I understood what this might do. She’d avoided triggering the sensors and the system thought the doors were jammed, and when I slammed the “open door” button, it wouldn’t open.
“So that’s why I didn’t get the rest of my money. I tried to get you to stay here so when Stefan got back to me, I could hand you over.”
She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes, and then she grasped her throat, making gagging noises. “It’d be a shame if you couldn’t breathe in here. Are the walls closing in? There’s not much air. I wonder how long it will take until it’s all gone.”
Not the walls but the darkness. I could do this, though I’d only been in older elevators and I didn’t know exactly where we were. I’d pried doors like this apart before, but only when the elevator malfunctioned about a foot or so below the building floor. If we were between the third and second floor, I could topple out and splatter in the elevator shaft.
The panic was rising, but I had to do something. My aunt knew my “panic buttons,” and I refused to leave Brielle and Hunter.
I tried removing the cardboard, but it ripped in my trembling hands.
There wasn’t much to focus on, so my mind went to the panic room and me counting the different objects. Hunter’s voice was in my head. If I pictured him as if he were beside me, I could do it.
Dellie, I’m here .
I could hear him, and knowing I wanted to stay alive to be a dad to my baby and a mate to Hunter, I curled my fingers and grunted, trying to pry the doors open. They moved an inch, and then I was thrown back as they were pulled apart. A wolf, my Hunter’s beast, leaped in, and Aunt Louisa’s scream filled the tiny space as I sank to the floor.
I’d survived.