Chapter 9 Linc #2
“Since you’re staying, we can set up a temporary office. I can help you and take care of this at the same time,” she offered.
“Great idea. Book yourself a room in the same place I’m staying. Come up on Monday, and we’ll figure out a schedule.”
“We can work from here?” she asked.
I glanced around, wondering how it would feel to work here.
To conduct my business in this house where my father handled his affairs.
I cleared my throat. “Maybe in the dining room.” I could handle that much.
Once my mother had passed, we never used it.
I ate alone most of the time, and the few occasions my father and I had eaten a meal together, we’d sat in the kitchen.
She nodded in understanding. “I’ll set it up.”
Ned went through some more particulars, Abby busy making notes on her tablet.
Then he stood. “I’ll be back next week once the appraisals are finished.
We’ll review all the items and go from there.
” He shook my hand. “Be patient, Linc. I know you want this place gone, and it will be. I hope it brings you the closure you seek.”
I frowned as he walked away. Of course it would bring me closure. Knowing this place no longer existed would help ease the hold my past still had on me. Destroying all the landmarks and decisions of Franklin Thomas from this town would help everyone. I wanted his memory, his entire history, erased.
“Did your father design this house?” Abby asked.
I shook my head. “No. It was being built, and the owner went bankrupt. My father swooped in and bought it for a song, completed construction, and laughed privately at the fact that every day the man who was building it had to look up and see it, knowing he would never have it. Knowing the house he planned on living in with his family was being enjoyed by someone ‘more deserving,’ as my father claimed.”
“Wow,” Abby breathed out. “That’s fucking harsh.”
I barked out a laugh. “The truth of it is that my father was already playing games in this town. He drove the man to bankruptcy. Then he had the audacity to act innocent while rubbing it in his face.”
“What a two-faced bastard.”
“That he was. Offered him a job at one of his businesses. Clapped him on his shoulder and assured him things would improve. All the while making sure his life never got better. I went to school with his son. They moved the next year. I remember my mother saying they were looking for a fresh start.”
“Your mother had no idea about your father? The horrible things he did?”
I shook my head. “She knew he wasn’t the man she thought she’d married, I think.
But she had no idea of his twisted ego. He hid it well, but once she died, he let it out full strength.
He liked me knowing what he did. What he was capable of.
She did what he told her to do, aside from loving me.
That was the rule she broke of his that he never forgave.
Me before him. Then she had the gall to die and stick him with my care.
” I sighed. “I think, to be honest, she was better off dead.”
“What about you, though? Were you better off without her?”
“No,” I snapped. “You know that.” I leaned forward. “I know what you’re trying to do, Abby, and it isn’t going to work. We’re not talking about me anymore. Tell me what’s going on.”
Now it was her turn to look uncomfortable.
She was silent for a moment, twisting the end of her pink streak over and again, tugging on her hair just hard enough to feel pain, so she could concentrate on something other than the horrific moment she was living through.
She had done that for all the years I’d known her.
She told me once at times it was the only way she could keep herself from screaming when she was younger.
I let her gather her thoughts, knowing she would tell me the truth. She always did.
“My mother came to see me,” she finally admitted, not meeting my eyes.
I was out of my chair, gripping the sides of the desk. “Who the hell let her in the building? She isn’t allowed in there. She isn’t allowed to be near you.”
She shook her head, her eyes wide. “She didn’t come into the building, Linc. She—” Abby swallowed heavily “—she was waiting for me in the underground parking lot of my building when I got home.”
The implications of her words hit me. Her mother knew where she lived.
“You’re moving. This week.”
She didn’t acknowledge my words, but a tremor went through her. “It was such a shock, seeing her. It’s been so long, for a moment, I didn’t recognize her.”
I moved around the desk and sat beside her, taking her hand. “What did she want?”
“Money. She saw an article about you and saw me in the background of the picture they used.”
I frowned. “You are never in the pictures.” I approved every photo, making sure she was never around when cameras were being used.
“I think this was taken without us knowing. It’s an office shot. I’m not even looking at the camera, barely even in the shot, but my mother recognized me.”
“Abby, I’m sorry.” I had promised to always protect her, and I had failed.
She squeezed my hand. “Not your fault, Linc. Anyway, she saw the picture and tracked me down. She followed me and, somehow, a couple of days later got into the garage and waited for me. She informed me that if I lived in such a swanky place and had a job working for someone as wealthy as you, I could spare her some money.” Her voice began to tremble. “After all, I owed her.”
“The fuck you do,” I snarled out. “You owe her nothing, and she’s getting nothing.” When Abby didn’t meet my eyes, I groaned. “Tell me you didn’t give her any, Abby. She’ll keep coming back.”
She pulled her hand away and stood. She paced back and forth across the room, her hair an endless loop between her fingers.
Then she stopped and stared at me. “When I told her to go to hell and stay there, she smiled. Just smiled. It was the fucking scariest smile I’ve ever seen.
” Tears glimmered in her eyes, shocking me.
Despite what she had been through, it was rare I ever saw Abby cry.
She was too strong, so I knew the next thing out of her mouth was going to be bad.
“She said no problem. Then she paused and said perhaps I wanted to reconsider. When I told her I didn’t think so, she said fine.”
“And?” I demanded.
Tears ran down Abby’s cheeks. “She told me Carl got out of prison early for good behavior. She told me she would tell him I said hi and perhaps he’d drop over for a visit.”
Curse words I rarely used flew from my mouth. I stood, enraged, disgusted, and frightened. What kind of human being did something like that to their own flesh and blood?
Abby pressed her hand to her mouth. “He’s out, Linc. She’s going to tell him where I am. I-I’m so scared—”
She didn’t finish her sentence before the sobs began. I was across the room, yanking her snug into my arms and holding her. Violent tremors racked her body, and I pulled her tighter.
“He’s never getting near you. Ever. I promise you that, Abby. I’m here for you.” I dropped a kiss to her head. “I’m not leaving you alone, sweetheart. I promise.”
A noise made me look up, and I saw Sunny, standing frozen in the doorway.
She stared at me—at the woman I was holding, her mouth agape, hurt written across her face.
I knew what it looked like. That she had heard the words I’d just uttered.
I stared back at her, torn. I couldn’t abandon Abby, but I couldn’t allow Sunny to think that, once again, I had lied to her.
I shook my head, frantically trying to convey with my eyes the words I couldn’t yell out.
But I didn’t have the chance. Before I could do anything, Sunny was gone. The door shut, and her rapid footsteps faded away. I heard the crunch of the gravel indicating she was running down the driveway and away from me.
And there was nothing I could do to stop her.