39
Air e
T he place was quiet when I got back. I hadn't been gone for long. When I left, Nolan had been playing video games, but now there was no sound coming from the living room. The thirty-minute walk I took had me feeling a lot more energetic. It was good to breathe some fresh air and have the wind blow on my face.
That was odd. Nolan had left the game on pause, which he rarely does and wasn't in the living room. I called out to him, having that same trepidation I felt when he collapsed in my arms. That day was like living through a nightmare. I thought he had died. The thought alone is what made me realize I had been suppressing a long held feeling. I love Nolan Hawthorne. It was seeing him lose blood on the concrete city sidewalk that shocked me into that realization. I loved him, flaws and all. The confidence to speak my feelings into existence was what I lacked. He didn't want me. He hated me and was probably only keeping me by his side for the baby.
While we were waiting for Nolan to wake up, that's when I decided to come clean and tell the Hawthornes who I really was. They were shocked at first. Carey was livid and wanted to throw me out of the waiting room, but it was Ivy who helped them see my side of the story. They came around when I told them that my grandfather had practically blackmailed me into marrying Nolan and that Nolan already knew.
I can't deny the way my heart leapt though, when Raine told me his brother was calling my name when he woke up. Had Nolan been thinking of me, or thinking of the baby inside me? He was shot after finding out we were having a son after all.
"Nolan?" I called out to him. I heard voices coming from his office. He rarely had work on weekends. It must be urgent for Kelly to come here if it was him Nolan was speaking to. I was about to walk past when I saw the door open. I popped my head through the door and the two men froze mid-sentence when they saw me. My smile faltered. They looked like they had seen a ghost. No. An enemy combatant. Nolan had a deep scowl marring his face.
Kelly's face was harder to read, and he didn't give me time to assess before bidding Nolan goodbye and walking past me as though I didn't exist. "What's the matter?" I asked Nolan as soon as I heard Kelly leave.
"Why don't you take a seat, dear wife?" He motioned to the settee in the corner of the room. His steely voice was commanding enough for me to do as he said without asking. Nolan got out of his chair and went to lean on the corner of the table, facing me. He was imposing. Menacing. I felt like I had done something wrong and was in the principal's office.
"What's the matter?"
"You hold a lot of secrets, don't you?"
I didn't know what he was talking about. I had told him everything. Whatever Kelly told him, it was not true.
"Nolan."
"Are you working with your grandfather against me?"
"Is something wrong? What did Kelly say?"
"What he said doesn't matter. What I want to know is if you're working with your grandfather or not."
I shook my head.
Nolan nodded, but he didn't seem convinced. "And my son? What about your plan to get his inheritance after I die?"
"Nolan I don't know—"
He grabbed a tablet that was on the desk behind him and flung it across the room. I caught it and turned it on. A video popped up. An interrogation room video like the ones I had seen on true crime shows. Only this one had a person I had seen before. The man who stood next to my grandfather for years. His bodyguard. He was in a small room with white walls and wearing jeans and a t-shirt. It was odd to see him out of his black suit. He was sitting on a metal chair welded to the floor in front of a metal desk, also welded to the ground. On the other side of the desk was a man in a leather jacket and jeans with a file open lying flat on the desk. I played the video.
"You said you were paid to kill Nolan Hawthorne," Leather jacket man said. He sounded like a cop. "Who paid you?"
The man clasped his handcuffed hands on his lap. "A woman called Aire Taylor. His wife's cousin."
I looked up at him. Nolan was impassive. His blank expression offered zero comfort. I continued playing the video.
"Can you describe this woman to me?" the officer said.
The bodyguard went on to describe my features, minus the baby bump.
"And how much did she pay you to kill Nolan Hawthorne?"
"She offered me three hundred grand. A third up front. The rest when the job was done."
"Is there anyone else you were working with?"
"No. Just her."
The video ended there. "Nolan I did not—"
"I know." He got up from the desk and took the tablet. "What I want to know is if you're part of this scheme. And I need you to tell me the truth. Did you know anything about Aelin or your grandfather wanting to kill me?"
I shook my head vigorously. "No!" I stood up and marched over to him. "I had no idea."
"Okay. I believe you."
"You do?"
"Figured if you wanted to kill me, you wouldn't have put yourself and our baby in harm's way. I haven't forgotten how you tried to push me out of the way. I am alive because of you."
"Nolan."
"I know. What I don't get is why you lied to me about your sister?"
"My sister. What are you talking about?" As far as I was concerned, I was an only child.Unless my father had a child I did not know. I was confused and the way he was acting was only making it worse.
His eyes narrowed. "Do you not—Oh you don't know. Fuck." He ran his hand through his hair.
"Nolan what—"
He closed the video on the tablet, opened an email and the attachment on it. "Like I said, Kelly has been looking into your family. I did it because I wanted some background information on your grandfather. He didn't go too far at first. Just a basic history. Then he found out about how your mother and father got married and ended up living without your family's fortune."
"My mother was cut off after marrying my father," I said. My grandfather did not like that my father was from a low income family. Kenneth had planned for my mother to marry the son of one of his business associates, but my mother refused.
"But after I found out about your deception, I told Kelly to look further into your history," Nolan continued. "I didn't want any more surprises, you see. What do you know about your aunt? Aelin's mother."
I crossed my arms. "Where are you going with this?"
"She was supposed to inherit your family fortune, wasn't she?"
"Yeah, and then she died in a helicopter crash, together with my mother."
"Did your mother never tell you anything about Aelin and her mother?"
"Like what?"
Nolan took a deep breath, as if bracing himself for the inevitable. Only I had no idea what it was, and the suspense was killing me. I shook my head.
"Kelly thought there was something off about your aunt's story. He thought it was odd that she went away on holiday and came back a few months later with a child. So he dug further and found a hospital record." Nolan handed me the tablet slowly and pointed at the document. "Your mother gave birth to twins. You two are not cousins. Think about it. Aelin. Aire. You are sisters."