Chapter 17 Silas
SILAS
Horatio is still talking. I hear him, but it’s background noise.
“It’s how I managed to keep us hidden from the old man. It’s how I had enough money to do it.”
Chandler Carlisle-Bent isn’t Ophelia’s uncle. He’s her father.
Blood pulses through my veins, pounds against my ears. I want to unhear this. I want it to not be true.
“I blackmailed Chandler and honestly, he was happy to have her gone. He paid. For nearly two years, he paid.”
Chandler Carlisle-Bent isn’t Ophelia’s uncle. He’s her father.
“I stopped asking for money after she drowned herself. It took me that long… Jesus Christ.”
Horatio stops. I look at him, finally, and he looks about a decade older than he did when I walked in here.
“What are you going to do?” he asks me.
I shake my head, turn to the door.
“Silas. She can’t know. She can’t ever—”
I leave.
I walk out of that room in stunned, stupid silence. I knew what he’d say. I think I did, at least. It makes sense. It’s the only thing that makes sense.
“Silas?” Higgins asks when I pass him as he’s returning, but his voice is an echo, and I just keep walking until I’m out of the building and standing in the bracingly cold air.
I draw in gulps of breath. My heart is racing and everything, all the words, this terrible truth, it’s all spinning round and round in my head as I try to make sense of something too terrible to make sense.
Chandler, Ophelia’s uncle, is her father.
I cross the parking lot to the SUV.
Chandler raped his half-sister. And she got pregnant.
I hit the button to unlock the door and climb in. I start the engine and when I drive, it’s on auto pilot.
What happened next makes sense, Horatio blackmailing Chandler.
There’s no way he’d have been able to keep himself and Claire hidden from the old man.
Not with the power and money he had at his disposal.
But Chandler must have had access to that money, to some extent, and he had motivation enough to keep her gone.
He needed to hide his secret, his crime, from his stepfather, so paying Horatio to stay away and keep Claire and her child away was exactly what he wanted.
I remember how he looked at Ophelia, standing in that bar as we left the hotel hours ago.
With malice in his eyes, he watched her.
He was in the limousine with Ethan. He’d already made some deal with Ethan.
When I laid out my suspicions to Ophelia as far as Ethan’s plans for her, I believed, still do, that Ethan does not have the stomach for murder.
But the look in Chandler’s eyes and the way he watched Ophelia?
I think his stomach may be stronger. Strong enough.
After all, isn’t rape a sort of murder? Murder of the soul.
Sly had found Gordon because the old man’s money was what he was interested in. Chandler being disinherited, that only helped Sly. Ethan and Chandler’s alliance, that is the thing to watch.
So, the old man found out? He must have. It’s why he disinherited Chandler. Has to be. Claire was his golden child, and he learned the truth of who hurt her and why she disappeared from his life.
I go back over the conversation in that hotel room. The way he spoke about Horatio wasn’t with hatred. It wasn’t with love, either, but what did he say? Something about learning too late what Horatio had done for his daughter.
He never once called Horatio Ophelia’s father. I did notice that throughout the conversation. I wonder if Ophelia did. But she wouldn’t. I did because I knew what to listen for.
And I understand now the urgency with which Horatio needed to keep that secret. He’s right. It will destroy her if she knows. A child of rape. Worse.
“Jesus Christ.”
I recall the old man’s words when Chandler left the penthouse via the elevator.
I’d prefer he used the balcony and made a final exit but no such luck.
I’d thought it was strange but not out of character for the man I met.
When I’d asked about the sitting duck comment, what had he said?
He has enemies enough. And what he did for my daughter, well, I learned that too late of course, but I remember.
He knows. He surely knows.
I blink and, as if waking, look around to take in my surroundings and realize where I am.
I am driving up along the cliffs, up toward the chapel.
I turn around and head back to Sinistral, to the hotel.
I take out my phone as I drive and message Nigella to keep Ophelia there. She sends a thumbs up emoji.
I pull into the lot of The Sinistral and park the SUV. It’s a quiet night. I stop at the concierge desk to ask her to call up to the penthouse and let Carlisle-Bent know I want to see him. Just like this morning, I am sent up right away.
I’m not sure what I expect to see when I get up there, not sure if Chandler will be there or what I will do if he is.
When the elevator doors open, I find the old man in his chair, although he’s wearing pajamas now and has a blanket draped over his legs.
The nurses are all there, but Chandler is absent from the room.
“My granddaughter is not with you?”
“I need to talk to you. Alone.”
He takes a moment to study me, then nods. “All right. Out. Everyone out.”
“Mr. Carlisle—”
Gordon turns his head to face the male nurse. “I said out. You may return once Silas and I are finished. I’m sure I can survive that long without your care.”
“Sir—"
“Get. Out.”
The nurse bites his tongue, and I can guess the old man is not easy to work for.
“Yes, sir,” he finally says. I wait for all three of them to leave and the elevator doors to slide closed.
“Chandler?” I ask.
“He won’t be back. I am making sure of that.”
“Why is he here? Why do you let him near you, considering?”
“Ah.” He knows I know. He rolls the electronic chair into the living room, and I follow. “Get us a whiskey.”
I do. I could use one. Or three. I hand him a tumbler and take a seat across from him. The old man’s eyes follow me keenly. He’s sharp.
“He’s not your son, not by blood.”
“No.”
“And you disinherited him two years after your daughter ran away. After she died.”
I see the pain that causes him.
“You gave him your name.”
“That was a mistake that will be corrected. As to why I allow him near me, believe me if I could avoid it I would. He belongs in the ground. I should have put him there when I learned the truth. But it’s a little late for that now and, well, what do they say? Keep your enemies close.”
“You never once referred to Horatio Hart as her father.”
“Hayes. His last name is Hayes.”
“And after Claire’s death, you stopped attempting to find them.”
“I had found them by then. I never lost them again.”
“But you let them be.”
He nods and sips his whiskey.
“Why?”
“It didn’t matter anymore. She was gone. And I wasn’t sure if I could look at the girl. Not then. Not when I knew.”
“Not when you knew who her father was.”
He nods gravely. From the breast pocket of his pajama shirt, he takes out a cigarette. “Get me that lighter.” He gestures behind me.
“Is that a good idea?”
“For heaven’s sake, how much longer will not smoking this cigarette buy me?”
I shrug a shoulder, get the lighter and light his cigarette.
He takes a long drag, then coughs so hard, I think he’s going to die.
I take the cigarette from his hand and put it out as he closes that oxygen mask hanging from the arm of the wheelchair over his nose and mouth and draws deeply from it.
A few moments later, he clears his throat and faces me.
“Chandler always hated Claire, I think. Even when she was a baby. He was ten years older than her. Did you know that? His mother, she was a good woman, but Chandler?” He shakes his head.
“He was a bad seed. Rotten from day one. My mistake was in letting him see how much I loved her. My mistake was not realizing how his hate festered and how vulnerable my little girl was.”
Wow.
“I still am not sure if he hurt her to spite me or out of pure hatred for her. When she ran off with Horatio, I assumed Horatio was the child’s father.
I had no reason to doubt that. That’s why the story of a kidnapping.
I was desperate to bring my daughter home.
The fact that Horatio managed to keep himself and her hidden, well, that was unexpected.
But then my accountant found the transactions.
The amounts weren’t large enough to attract attention, but they caught his eye during an internal audit and that’s how I learned Horatio had had help.
It’s how I eventually learned the truth.
And too soon after that, Claire drowned, and it didn’t matter anymore. ”
I wonder if he knows she committed suicide of if he believes her death was an accident. I don’t ask.
“I cut Chandler off entirely then. Disowned him. And I didn’t think I could stand to look at the child that bastard fathered because in a way, I suppose I blamed that baby, too, for my daughter being gone. I always knew where they were but never more. I didn’t want to for a very long time.”
“But now that you’re dying, you want to?” I ask.
“It’s not her fault, is it?”
“No, it’s not.”
“Grief does strange things to you.”
I know that well.
“Besides, when Sullivan Fox contacted me and Chandler came out of the woodwork, my hand was forced. And, well, let me just say this, after seeing Ophelia, I am sorry I did not know her sooner because all I see when I look at her is my Claire. And out of love for my daughter, whom I failed so utterly, I owe Ophelia my protection, to the extent I can give it.”
“Making her the sole inheritor of your estate is going to do the opposite.”
“I will take care of Chandler. The lawyers have already drawn up paperwork and a contract. He’s looking them over now. He’ll want more, of course, but that’s accounted for.”
“Is he blackmailing you?”
“It doesn’t matter. What matters is he’s gone.”
“What sort of contract are we talking?”
“He will be paid a generous annual stipend to stay away from Ophelia. He doesn’t deserve a penny, but it’s the only way to keep her safe. I know that.”
“Will he do it?”
“He’s a greedy bastard. He’ll do it.”
“He may be a violent bastard.”
“He’s more lazy than violent and I’ve made sure he realizes just what is at stake if he goes back on his word.”
“With all due respect, you’re not going to be here forever.”
He grins. “I have made sure I can reach him from beyond the grave. I’ll have my lawyer send you the files in the morning so you can be sure but Ophelia, she doesn’t know any of this,” he says. “She can’t ever know it.”
“She believes Horatio is her father. She’s never had any reason to doubt it and I agree with you and Horatio, she can’t know.”
“Good. Make sure, Silas. Don’t let him destroy her like he destroyed her mother.”
My phone buzzes with a text. I take it out of my pocket and read it. It’s Nigella telling me she’s wrapping up.
Me: I need an hour.
Nigella: I’ll have Hamish take the long way.
I put the phone away and stand.
“I need to go. She wants to come see you again, by the way. I won’t allow her near Chandler, so you make sure you’re right that he’s gone.” I take a card out of my pocket and hand it to him. “This is my phone number. You will let me know.”
He takes the card and nods.
I need to get to the house before she does.
I want to burn the envelope that contains what was in Horatio Hart’s hidden box.
I walk to the elevator and push the button and as I wait, I take my phone out and scroll to Sly’s number.
Because there are still too many loose ends.
If Chandler is taken care of, assuming he sticks to the bargain Carlisle-Bent is offering, that leaves Horatio, Ophelia’s grandfather, and me. We aren’t going to talk.
But what if Sly does know? What if he figured it out? He’s cunning enough to wait to use the evidence until it serves him. Ethan? He doesn’t know. He’s not as clever as Sly, nor is he as cunning. Besides, if I know Ethan, he wouldn’t go near Ophelia if he knew something like this about her.
I type out a text telling Sly we need to talk.
“Silas,” the old man says, and I pause, my thumb hovering over the send button. I turn to face him. “One way or another, we’ve all failed that girl. Do right by her. Don’t let her heart shatter.”
I study him, interrupted only by the arrival of the elevator carrying the trio of nurses in.
They exit, and I step on. When the doors slide closed, I hit send, feeling a little calmer, a little more in control than I had when I walked out of that prison.
I can tie up one more loose end. Sly Fox is as greedy as Chandler. I can give him what he wants.
Because if there is one thing I know for sure, one objective that replaces all the rest, it’s that Ophelia can never find out who her biological father is. Because Ophelia is my end game and for her, I will sacrifice everything.