Chapter 63
Everyone twisted in their seats.
Miles, dressed in faded jeans, a wrinkled button-down shirt, and his scuffed loafers, flashed a smile. “It’s only fifteen past. You could’ve waited.”
Ingrid could barely move. Barely breathe. She felt her vision swimming, blurring the people in the room. She felt dizziness rise inside her like a wave and then crash down again, submerging her.
Miles’s eyes roved the room until they met Ingrid’s. They were flat blue. Cold, clear turquoise water.
“Hi, Budgie.”
So ridiculous for him to use her nickname here. Had he lost his mind? Ingrid opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out.
“I know this is all a big surprise for you,” he said to her. “And we’re going to talk about it all, I promise.”
Ingrid glanced at Sailor, then back at Miles. “What’s going on?”
Miles sent her an apologetic look. “I couldn’t tell you.
It’s so complicated. I was dealing with so much.
” He hesitated. “See, your mother, Tess … was my mother, too. She had me before she had you, but she came back up here and left me with the Drummonds when I was a baby … because Edie wouldn’t take me. Because of who my father was.”
He looked at Sailor. She lifted her chin, her face a blank.
Ingrid flushed, now with anger and confusion. She could feel Sailor’s eyes on her. Everyone’s eyes on her. She wanted to scream.
“Who your father was?”
“Oh. It’s Rill.” Miles grinned sunnily. “Rill Loeffler … was my father.”
Ingrid’s mouth dropped open. She looked at Sailor, addressing her in the calmest voice she could muster. “You knew about this?”
Sailor nodded. “Just yesterday. Brooks told me.”
Ingrid turned to Miles. “And you? How long …”
“Oh. A long time. Years. My adoptive parents told me I was adopted when I was ten or so. They used to let me call Tess down in Florida. We talked all the time. She told me Rill was my dad when I was like fifteen, I guess?”
He said it so casually. In such an offhand manner. It almost, but not quite, covered that brief flash of shame Ingrid caught in his eyes. Because he had to know how much that hurt her. Tess had never called her. Never told her who her father was.
“Tess said she felt like she owed it to me to tell the truth about my lineage. She didn’t say anything about you, Ingrid—about my having a younger half sister—until right before she died.”
Ingrid let out something between a laugh and a sob and gripped the arms of her chair. Her brain scrambled to fit the pieces together. The years, the recent months. Everything she and Miles discussed and planned and promised each other.
All of it lies.
“So … you knew when we first met?” she asked him. “On the ghost tour? That you were my brother? That he was your father.” The room was so quiet that her voice echoed in the immense space. “But you never told me.”
He hesitated, as if he was searching for the right words.
“I don’t understand, Miles. Why didn’t you just tell me?”
He glanced at Sailor again.
“Don’t look at her!” Ingrid snapped. “Look at me.”
He obeyed, a sheepish expression on his face. “I wasn’t ready. I had to decide how I was going to … you know, handle it. What approach was best for me to take.”
She let out a raw laugh. “Tess dropped me off at Edie’s when I was six years old. And that was it. I got nothing after that. I take that back. I got two birthday cards, that’s it. No letters, no phone calls. Did she ever tell me who my real father was? No! I still have no idea who he is! Or was!”
“Ingrid—” Miles said.
She was screaming now, everyone’s eyes wide and mouths in little O’s, but she didn’t care. If she’d had a match, she would have burned the place down.
“But that was because my father was just some nameless nobody with no company and no fancy house and no money to be had.” She jabbed a finger in Miles’s direction. “She told you. She told you who your father was because you could make her rich!”
“Ingrid,” Brooks Glover’s voice was calm but firm. “Let’s take it down a notch.”
Ingrid ignored him, her gaze sliding back to Miles. She felt the hatred emanating in waves from her body toward his. He felt it, too, she knew, because he visibly flinched.
Good, she thought. You know you’ve made an enemy. And what an enemy I will be …
“Ingrid,” Miles said quietly. “I didn’t plan to lie to you. Tess told me Edie wanted nothing to do with me because of who my father was. How do you think that made me feel? And I figured if I told you the truth, you might turn against me, too.”
“That’s bullshit. Edie was a loving person. If she knew you existed, she would’ve never refused you. Tess kept you away from us on purpose. She had a plan. A plan to get money from Rill Loeffler.”
“Oh my Lord,” Scoot said.
“I promise, Ingrid,” Miles said, undeterred. “It all started—our friendship—because I wanted to get to know my sister. I wanted to know you.”
Ingrid lifted her eyebrows. “While you figured out how exactly you were going to blackmail Rill?”
“Blackmail?” Miles asked.
“Or murder him, I don’t know—” Ingrid shot back.
“What?” Sailor shrieked.
“What is she saying?” Scoot demanded.
“Everyone,” Glover said. “Let’s just take a moment—”
“Yes!” Ingrid was shouting now. “Murder him because he had sex with Tess, our mother, when she was sixteen years old! You wanted to get revenge for her, didn’t you? Just say it, you piece of shit!”
Scoot stood, pushing her chair back and pointed at Miles. “That’s enough. I want this person out of here! Out!”
Glover put a calming hand out. Not that anyone was paying attention to him.
“And her.” Scoot whirled, pointing now at Ingrid. “Get her out of here, too. I can’t stand the sight of her. Of either of them!”
Pandemonium broke loose. Miles started talking over Scoot, and Scoot screamed even louder.
Scoot’s lawyer stood, trying but failing to placate his client.
Glover and his associate were yelling over the fray.
Sailor and Jude watched silently. At the window, Ingrid glowered, her eyes fixing on a massive container ship moving upriver.
Tess had known better than to just knock on Rill Loeffler’s door demanding a payout. Rill was too smart to be the target of some amateur paternity shakedown, especially one that had included the element of sex with an underage girl. So she confided in her son and together they came up with a plan.
She used Miles to gather intel on the Loefflers so she could figure out their strategy.
She told him about Ingrid, his half sister, a witch-psychic who was running a nice little business over on Taylor Square and who might be the best, safest way into the Loeffler family.
And who knows? Ingrid might even want to help Miles out.
Help him take what they had decided was rightfully his. He should get Ingrid on his side.
Tess had been the one to suggest Miles put his ghost tour flyer on her door, Ingrid had no doubt about that.
Tess instructed Miles to get close to Ingrid.
To make himself indispensable to her. To pretend he loved her.
And then, no doubt, with one more well-placed flyer—Miss Edie’s Palm and Aura Reading—in Sailor’s door, to subtly steer Ingrid in the direction of the Loeffler family.
Unfortunately for her, the woman had died before she could enjoy the fruits of her labor.
Ingrid could see everything so clearly. When Sailor had come into Ingrid’s life, Miles had played the part of jealous friend.
But it had all been an act to keep her from suspecting him.
In truth, he been right beside her the whole time, whispering in her ear.
Suggesting, coaxing, encouraging her to get close to the Loefflers.
To move in with them. To pick them off, one by one.
Destabilize them. Diminish their ranks, so he would have a clear way in.
So he, Miles, would be the last man standing.
He convinced Boney to get Scoot drunk and he helped her wreck her car. He set fire to Jude’s boat. And then … then he stabbed Rill and Cas, his father and half brother, to death with a pirate’s dagger, framing Boney for it …
… and all because of what was going to happen in the next hour in this room.
The distribution of Rill Loeffler’s substantial assets.
Assets that were even more substantial now that Scoot was basically cut out of the will and Cas was dead.
Assets that would be divided now between Sailor and Miles, her recently discovered half brother.
Ingrid had only been the means to an end.
But what could she say now, to these people? If she told the truth about Miles, she would tell on herself as well. She would have to tell the truth about cursing Scoot. Cursing Jude’s boat. Casting the spell on Rill.
Turning a blind eye on Miles adding his help to her magic.
“We’re just work colleagues, me and that guy Boney.
” Miles was saying now to the lawyer in a clear, confident tone.
A tone she didn’t recognize. “You can check my phone and his. I’m an open book.
I didn’t know him that well. I will admit, I did want to get to know Ingrid, my sister.
And I was curious about my biological father, too.
My other family. But that’s all I’ve done. ”
Glover raised his hand and nodded wearily.
But Miles wasn’t finished. He turned to Sailor. “I did happen to mention to Boney about your wedding, but it was just an offhand comment. Sometimes the caterers give us leftovers after events. It helps to make ends meet, you know. Ghost tours don’t pay that well.”
Ingrid glared at him, astounded at his lies.
Fucking snake …
Ghoul …
Miles continued. “I had nothing to do with the tragedy that occurred the other night, I swear this to you, Ingrid. To all of you. I swear it on my life that I’m completely innocent. I’m only to blame for one thing—being acquainted with a guy who obviously was extremely troubled.”
He faced the room, his arms spread wide, his face as open and vulnerable as Ingrid had ever seen it be. And now, much to her horror, silent tears were falling down her own cheeks. She brushed them away, hating how they made her look weak. Hating him.
Miles turned to Sailor. “I can’t tell you how sorry I am for what that awful person did to your family.”
Sailor was sobbing into a tissue now as Jude rubbed her back. Miles watched her with a compassionate look on his face.
“Shall we continue?” Glover motioned for his associate to bring the chair that had been waiting by the wall closer to the desk. Miles sat.
“Continue,” Sailor sniffed to Glover.
Glover resumed his reading. Rill had divided the remainder of his ample estate between his surviving children, Sailor, Cas, and Miles.
This included his majority stock holding in Savannah Sauce; his houses in Scotland, Spain, Uruguay, and France; his various holdings in real estate, stocks, and bonds.
There was also a Manhattan apartment, a quail hunting club in Thomasville, and jewelry, rare coins, and gold bars locked away in several safe deposit boxes scattered at banks throughout the state.
The Tybee House, known as Sargassum Sling, would be sold, the proceeds evenly distributed between the three children.
Except there were only two now.
More for them.
Glover went on to read that in the event of one or more of his children’s deaths, Rill stipulated that the assets be divided equally between the surviving number.
“‘… and I would ask Cas or Sailor, whichever of my children who is head of the company my grandfather started with a mere ten dollars in his pocket and the grit of a man with no choice other than succeeding, to take care of their younger half brother, Miles Drummond.
“‘I, unfortunately, cannot claim him at this time. The Loeffler family has already suffered enough scandal and upheaval, and I’m unwilling to put them through additional pain. After I am gone, I do not feel I can deprive him out of what he rightfully deserves.
“‘He is my son. I ask that my children, Sailor and Cas, welcome him to the family, share with him the nobility, dignity, and privilege of the Loeffler name, as well as allow him to participate in our precious organization. Be patient with him. Treat him as blood. Accept him as I was not able to. I love you all. Your father.’”