Chapter 50
Fifty
Daphne
It was the question of the century.
“Why’d you do it, Daphne?”
The terrible lighting threw shadows across Brooks’s face. His expression was filled with nothing but fury.
If he was going to kill me, then he’d do it knowing the ugly truth.
A fly buzzed somewhere in the distance as I worked up the nerve to speak.
“Did you …” I looked down, ashamed of how hard it was to get the words out. “Did you ever notice that near the end of … whatever we were … that I didn’t like being around your father?”
His brows pulled together. “Never noticed that.”
I stared over his shoulder at the water-damaged wall. “You couldn’t tell by the way I looked at him?”
“No. I was always too busy staring at you.” His face changed so fast it stole my breath. “Wait. Did my father hurt you?”
“No,” I rushed out.
His face relaxed a hint.
“But he … he hurt my mother.”
“How?”
My knees felt like water. I backed up, ready to sit on the mattress, but stopped when I noticed the stains and cigarette burns. I recoiled, deciding to stay on my feet.
“Start fucking talking,” Brooks warned, as if each second I took made him believe anything I said less. “Because right now, you’re looking really fucking bad.”
“He had an affair with my mom!” I shouted. My throat constricted as the words left my mouth.
Brooks went dead quiet. His mouth parted, then closed again. A second later, his upper lip curled in disgust.
He cleared his throat. “And you thought that was a good enough reason to have him killed?”
“I never wanted him dead!” I sobbed. “No one told me they were shooting him!”
He stepped around the corner of the bed and came closer. “What the hell did you think would happen then?”
“Impeachment!” I threw my arms up. “They told me they needed evidence to destroy him politically!”
“No.” He sliced his hand between the space separating us. “I don’t believe you’d do that over a fucking affair! It had to be something else for you to go to those lengths.”
Closing my eyes, I knew my legs were ready to give out. It was either on the mattress or the floor, which made the mattress look clean. I chose the mattress, blocking out the thought of filth as I collapsed onto it.
At this point, I had nothing to lose.
I’d probably be dead or in some prison cell soon.
I focused on a series of cigarette burns that almost formed a star. “Ask your dad about the affair,” I said quietly.
Rage and sadness drowned out every sane thought as memories crashed into me. I shot to my feet to shove Brooks hard, pretending that for a second, it was his father in front of me.
“Ask him about the baby he forced her to abort because he said it’d destroy his career!
” I yelled around another punishing shove.
“Ask him why he sent her to some back-alley clinic where she almost bled to death!” I was so blinded by tears and anger that I couldn’t even make out how Brooks was looking at me.
“Then ask how he threatened to tell my father and the king about the affair if she didn’t go through with the abortion! ”
Brooks never raised a hand to me during my shoves.
He rocked back into the cheap dresser with one shove, then planted himself there and let me hit him again.
He looked like nothing but a blurry mess as I finally took a good look at him.
But I wasn’t done yet.
“I was the one who found her!” My voice cracked. “She was unconscious in a pool of blood.”
Another shove.
“I was the one who called 911! She spent weeks in the ICU while your asshole father wiped his hands clean of her! He wouldn’t even take her fucking calls after she told him what happened!”
It was a struggle to catch my breath.
To speak.
To think about anything but that memory now.
He pushed away from the dresser and closed the space to point his finger in my face. “You’re fucking lying!”
“I’m not.” I stared down the man I loved, who shared blood with the man I despised.
I moved to the opposite side of the bed, putting the stained mattress between us. “My dad found out about the abortion, of course. She told him everything while I was in the same room.”
I scoffed. “You know my dad, Brooks. He was a fucking calm man. A level-headed one. He believed in doing the right thing.”
“Doing the right thing?” Brooks released a bitter laugh. “He fucking set a man up to die.”
My voice calmed an inch. “And how many times have you threatened to do the same for any man who touched me?”
That stunned him into silence.
“Your father was my dad’s best friend. He found out they’d been having an affair since their SVU days.”
“If we’re going with that angle, let’s not forget that your mom was also my mom’s best friend.”
I peered down at the floor at that, remembering when Brooks’s mom had visited her in the hospital. I’d never seen my mom look more ashamed. I’d also seen something in Catherine’s eyes that told me she knew about the affair.
“Fine, they had an affair!” Brooks said. “How did that become a fucking plot?”
This was the part of the story where I started to look really damn bad.
“Like my dad …” I started before returning my gaze to that stain on the wall. “I wanted your father to pay.”
Brooks walked to the door and wrapped his hand around the tarnished knob, then stopped before turning it. “You did all of this while talking to me every single day!”
My guilt twisted so deep in my gut that I waited for something inside me to rip.
“The plan was never to kill him, Brooks. I swear it!” Tears rolled down my cheeks.
Snot dripped from my nose. “The best way to stop a man like your father was to destroy him politically. My dad swore all they wanted was enough evidence to impeach him. They gave me the device and asked me to put it in his office. That’s it! ”
He flexed his fingers around the knob but stayed where he was.
“I was angry and wanted justice for my mom!” I pressed a hand to my stomach as nausea rolled inside me.
“After that, my mom could no longer have children.” My throat tightened, making the words harder to release.
“She cried in my arms because she’d been so excited to give me a brother or sister.
I mourned that baby with her.” I let my arms fall helplessly to my sides as I begged my body to calm.
“I never meant to hurt you. I thought I was righting a wrong. I couldn’t keep watching a sinner pretend to be a saint. ”
He released the doorknob and stalked toward me so fast I backed into the edge of the mattress. “We’re all fucking sinners who pretend to be saints. Including you.”
He went back to the door, like he couldn’t decide whether he wanted answers or wanted to leave without hearing one word I said. “You asking me to show you the Oval Office was nothing but part of your treason and manipulation.”
That … I couldn’t deny, so I nodded.
My dad had told me to use Brooks or Adelina to get into the office.
I’d chosen Brooks.
He gripped the door handle behind his back. “You know what’s crazy?”
I shook my head while smacking tears from my face.
He slipped his hand off the doorknob. “If you’d come to me with that … I would’ve done something. Not kill my father. But I’d have carried that pain with you.”
“I’m so sorry,” I said as a fresh sob tore through my body. “I regret it every day.”
“Then you should’ve told me every day you felt that regret. Don’t leave this room.” He jerked the door open. “Someone will come for you.”
“Brooks—”
“Don’t fucking leave.”
My fight-or-flight response kicked in. “Where are my things? My phone?”
“You try to leave, then I’ll have Secret Service arrest you.”
Then he was gone.
The tears came harder as I buried my face in my hands.
I knew that was the last time I’d ever see him.