“My parents threw a long weekend party to announce the engagement. Married life at first was wonderful. Nathaniel was very attentive. But when we had a child, he changed. He was a playboy before I married him, and after he grew bored, he went back to being one. When I realized that my husband was sleeping around again, I went to your grandfather and told him I was leaving. I can’t believe I had the nerve to do so, but I had something on him. He was livid, but for the first time he was scared too.”
“What did you have on him?” Dane asked.
“I’d caught him one night during that long weekend in my sister Elizabeth’s room.”
“He slept with your sister?” Lena said, horrified.
What his mother said next seemed like a rehearsed answer to Dane, and her eyes, for the first time during their visit, were shifty.
“Yes, and he didn’t want that to get out. I didn’t understand why, because it wasn’t like she was underage. My guess was he didn’t want our father to learn of it because he had no intention of marrying Elizabeth. He didn’t believe in marriage, at least as it pertained to him, so he let me go, but the cost of leaving was my son and my family’s silence.”
Uncle Josh moved from his spot at the back of the room. “Your sister was murdered not long after that weekend. Did you ever consider there was a connection between that weekend and her death?”
Dane watched the change in his mother’s expression from guarded to resigned and what looked like relief despite the fear in her gaze, “Of course I did, but if he was capable of what I feared, then he was capable of anything. And he’s also a judge with a DA for a son, which makes him pretty untouchable. Any attempt I made to expose him would have been taken out on my son.”
“Then why speak up about it now?” Dane asked.
“Because there is something worse than the fear of death and that’s not being able to look yourself in the mirror. I may be late to the game, but he needs to pay for what he did.”
Dane waited until his grandfather left for the evening before he hunted down his dad. He found him in his bedroom, dressing.
“Can I talk to you?”
“I’m on my way out. Can this wait?”
“I saw Mom.” Dane still couldn’t seem to get his head around the fact that he had seen his mother. For him, it felt like the first time because he had been so young when she’d left. She was beautiful and when she smiled, he could see himself in her face. For so long he’d harbored animosity toward her, but to learn that she had been manipulated by his grandfather enraged him. Just one more reason for him to hate the old bastard.
His dad stopped straightening his tie and turned to Dane. “When?”
His question jarred Dane from his thoughts. “Yesterday. What can you tell me about her sister, Elizabeth?”
Pain flashed across his dad’s face and he settled on the edge of the bed. Suddenly he looked years older.
“She was a good kid and a very talented actress. She thought Belinda was just the greatest, and me by extension. That she was murdered seemed senseless. I think what made it even harder was that her killer was never found. Her father, your other grandfather, put everything he had into finding the murderer and even now, thirty-two years later, he still hasn’t stopped.”
“Did you ever wonder why Grandfather allowed Mom to leave, particularly with how anal he is about appearances?”
“Yeah, it’s crossed my mind a time or two. Why?”
“Mom told me that she saw him with Elizabeth the weekend of your engagement announcement.”
Dane watched his father’s various reactions to that statement; he was prepared for the verbal lashing he assumed would ensue because he had listened to the whore, as his grandfather often called his mom.
“What exactly did she see?”
“He was having sex with Elizabeth.”
Rage transformed his face, turning him an unhealthy shade a red, and then he reached for the closest object and hurled it at the wall. “Son of a bitch.” He looked like he was getting ready for a really good rant when he stopped suddenly and turned to Dane.
“Holy fuck, that actually clarifies a few things.”
“Like what?”
“After that weekend, Elizabeth was always coming around. I thought, at first, that she had a