Chapter 26
I shot up in bed, gasping for air. Dry jogging pants clung to my legs, and my T-shirt was twisted around my waist. My fingers brushed something rough on my scalp. Bandages. Another glance revealed a few wrapped around my arms too.
For a second, it all felt like a terrible, twisted dream.
Rain still pattered against the windows of my bedroom at the Breakers, but the violent howling had calmed to a steady whisper. The sky outside was a muted slate, the storm’s fury reduced to a drizzly gray lull. Faint light glowed from the ceiling fixture. The power was back.
The door creaked open.
Daniel stepped inside, also in dry clothes, balancing a tray with a cup and something that smelled like toast.
“Emily,” he breathed out, his voice cracking. With trembling hands, he set the tray on the nightstand.
A chair stood at the edge of the bed. He moved closer and sat beside me, pulling me into his arms. His grip was tight, desperate.
“Am I dead?” I asked the question without thinking.
“No,” he choked. Real tears slipped down his face. He looked wrecked, like he’d been dragged through the storm and wrung out. But he was alive. We both were.
An unexpected and overwhelming warmth spread through my chest. It felt like sunlight piercing through a frozen lake. A second chance. I clung to him harder and felt my throat tighten with tears.
“But how is that even possible? I remember the waves. They pulled me under. And you . . . you were gone. I thought you were dead.”
Daniel leaned back, wiping his face with the back of his sleeve.
“They did. I saw you get swept off the road when I ran back from the generator hut. I was fixing it. Cynthia had cut the wires to the house. If I’d been just a second later, I wouldn’t have seen you go under and . . .”
He broke off.
“You jumped in after me?” I asked, my breath catching.
“Of course I did. I’d rather drown with you than live in this shitty world without you.”
I blinked hard. “And you got us both out?”
“Barely. There’s a life ring tied to the old light pole near the road. By the stairs down to the boat ramp. Without it, we both would’ve gone under.”
Silence settled between us. It was broken only by the soft taps of rain hitting the window.
“Where’s Hudson?” I finally asked.
“The ambulance took him. You were stable when they got here. You woke up while they were checking you, then blacked out again. They think it’s a mild concussion, shock, mostly exhaustion.
They’ll come back for you if you want, but other calls were more urgent.
A lot of damage on the mainland. Deaths, too. ”
I nodded slowly, the weight of it all beginning to settle.
“What about—” My voice caught in my throat.
Daniel shifted. His shoulders slumped.
“I heard her cries from the basement,” he said quietly. “The hidden door in the pantry was open. So . . . I shut the door and barricaded it with whatever furniture I could find. I had to take care of Hudson and you first.”
My stomach twisted. The whole thing was sick, but at least she was alive.
“Daniel—”
“I know,” he said softly. “And I swear to you, I don’t even know where to begin or what the hell to do now. I’m at a total loss here, Emily. But if you can just listen to me, just hear me out, that’s all I’m asking.”
“That woman,” I said. “Is she . . . is she my mother?”
He nodded slowly.
My hands flew to my face. “Oh, God, Daniel. What the hell is happening?”
“How much do you remember? From the night you got the scar?”
Flashes hit like lightning. Screams. Thunder so loud it shook my chest. A man’s face twisted in rage. Pain.
“I remember the man hurting us. The one who looked like you.”
His jaw clenched. “That man is—well, was—my father. He wasn’t a good man. He was a monster.”
I blinked hard. “So your parents didn’t die in a car accident during a storm?”
“No. They didn’t. Not quite, at least.”
Of course. It made sense now. But the thought that followed came like a punch to my gut. My voice dropped. “Oh my God. Is he my father, too?”
It felt like the floor had dropped out from under me.
Daniel sat up fast and shook his head. “No. God, no. He’s not. It’s not like that. I swear.”
I frowned. “But Cynthia’s my mother. And she was married to him, wasn’t she?”
“Yes, but Cynthia isn’t my biological mother. My father married her after my mom died.”
I felt a sliver of relief. But just a sliver.
“Daniel, how could you?”
“I know. It’s a hell of a lot. But I can tell you everything. What happened that night. What happened before. After. Everything you want to know. And when I’m done, you decide what to do. Whatever the consequences are, I’ll take them.”
I crossed my arms. “Maybe you should start with why the hell my psychotic mother is locked in your goddamn basement like in some kind of horror movie.”
“I will,” he said. “But I need to back up a bit. If that’s okay.”
I nodded.
He stared out the window for a moment. The rain blurred the glass.
“I never really knew my mother,” he began.
“Just scraps of memories. My third birthday. Balloons. A pony ride. One night, she read me a bedtime story after I had a nightmare and couldn’t stop crying.
” His eyes met mine again. “They told me she drowned in a boating accident. So I wasn’t lying, not entirely, when I told you that the sea took my parents.
It did take one of them. The one who really mattered.
I still wonder if it was even an accident or if he pushed her, right off the yacht. ”
His voice dropped to barely a whisper.
“But even if he did, he was Michael H. Winthrop. No one dared question him. Not with all the factories bringing money and jobs to the state. The campaign donations. The influence. The power.”
His gaze dropped.
“I’m so sorry.”
“My childhood wasn’t a loving one. I grew up here at the Breakers, mostly alone. Just Hudson and the staff. My father was gone most of the time, which I honestly preferred. His temper was violent. I used to wish the sea would take me too. So I could be with my mom. Far away from him.”
My hand found his.
“Then one day, he came back after nearly a year away. Your mom was with him. Cynthia, his new wife. She was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. Eyes as green as grass. Heads turned everywhere she went. It made sense why he wanted to possess her.”
“Where was I?”
A faint smile lifted the corners of his mouth.
“At first, she was here alone. But then you showed up. Of course, my father hated you the second he saw you. You reminded him of her past. That she had a life before him. A man before him.”
My jaw clenched. Even then, I’d been hated.
“But forget that monster. The moment you stepped into the Breakers, my world changed. Everything got brighter. We did everything together. I taught you how to catch bugs, and you taught me how to make flower crowns. We played from morning until night. And when they left us for their European trips, we had each other. We were inseparable.”
He smiled, his fingers twitching as if he were flipping through snapshots in his mind.
“I never loved anyone like I loved you. I was just a kid, but to me, you were even more beautiful than your mother. You always stood up for me too. Always. I was two years younger. You were braver than anyone I knew. Even my dad couldn’t force you to do things you didn’t want to do.
To this day, I don’t understand where you got that strength. Your mom and I were terrified of him.”
My hand drifted to the scar on my neck.
Daniel noticed and nodded toward it. “Remember how I always told you that you got the scar saving someone?”
I nodded.
“You did. You saved me that night.” He drew in a breath.
“The fighting between your mom and my dad got bad fast. Real bad. He was obsessed. Jealous beyond anything that made sense. Sometimes he locked her in the house just to keep her away from other men. No one was allowed to look at her. He always thought she was cheating. Accused her every day. We used to hear her sob through the walls. We’d hide in closets together, holding hands, praying it would stop. ”
“I think I remember that, us hiding in my closet. They were yelling in the hallway. Horrible things.”
He nodded. “That really happened. But none of it was her fault. She never did anything wrong. He broke her nose that day. That’s why she was screaming.”
“What?”
“Yes. A few weeks after the fighting started, he turned violent. Not just verbally. He mostly targeted her. We stayed out of his way, were invisible if we could help it. But it was a terrible time for all of us. Hudson tried his best to help, but his hands were tied. My father was a powerful man. And now, looking back as an adult, I know that people knew what he was doing. No one cared. Not when tens of millions were being made through his businesses. Not when it came to the local economy and politics.”
I shook my head slowly. “Why can’t I remember all that?”
“Most likely because of what happened shortly after.”
Our eyes locked across the space between us.
“About a month after he broke Cynthia’s nose, they got into another bad fight.
Worse than the rest. She packed a bag and said she was taking you and leaving.
He beat her again. Worse this time. Threatened to kill all of us.
I was so scared he’d actually do it that I typed a letter to the police on the typewriter in his office.
Told them he was a bad man. That he hurt us.
That he might kill us. I even stole a stamp from his desk and mailed it.
But the police returned it to him. They didn’t help us. ”
Silence fell, deeper than before. Cynthia’s voice echoed in my head—how she refused to call the police. The distrust. It made perfect sense now.
“There was a storm raging outside when he confronted us about it,” Daniel continued. “He’d sent the staff to the mainland earlier that day. Even Hudson. He wanted the house empty. The letter sounded like a child had written it, so he went to you first. In the library.”