Dare To Love Again - Jordan Silver Page 0,71

a trapped deer at the end of a hunter’s scope.

“No, you don’t, my wife does. But I’m sure you know that her half a billion is just a drop in the bucket for Addison Enterprise and all our holdings. That’s why you wanted her away from me, isn’t it? Because you knew that there’s no way in hell, you could fight me and win!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Whatever she told you…”

“Cut the shit, lady. I’m not here to play games with you. I’m here to tell you once and for all, stay away from my wife and son. If you come near her again, I will destroy you.” I know she has no plans on obeying that particular order, and I don’t want her to. The next words out of her mouth verified it.

“You can’t tell me what to do with that little bitch and her spawn.” I sat back against the chair unmoved and stared her down.

“I can, and I have. My wife is off-limits, and that goes without saying for my son.” She opened her mouth to speak, but I cut her off. “Now, let me tell you how this is going to be. My wife has another year before she can touch her inheritance, but I think you’ve lived off of her long enough. You’re to move off of the Winthrop estate ASAP.”

Her face grew redder with each word. “You’re not to take anything other than the jewelry your late husband bought you when he was alive. All the family heirlooms and keepsakes are to be left for their rightful owner, the heir to Sterling Winthrop’s estate. If you’ve forgotten what all that entails, I have a list for your perusal.”

“I’ve already sent someone to the estate to look after my wife’s interests, so if you even think about damaging anything before you leave, you will be held accountable.”

“You…what’re you talking about? Who did you send to my home? You have no right.”

“According to my lawyers and Sterling’s, I do. According to the estate lawyer, when I called to alert him to the fact that Kynlee Winthrop is indeed alive and my wife, who’d changed her name, he had a lot to say. Thanks for letting them know that she wasn’t dead all these years, by the way.”

“My guess is that you planned on keeping her alive until her thirtieth birthday, just long enough for her to receive her inheritance then arrange some kind of accident afterward, which would leave you as her sole beneficiary, of course. I don’t guess I have to wonder what you planned to do with my son.” It was taking everything in me not to go for her throat. But, as satisfying as strangling her would be, I wanted her to suffer much worse than that. This game of cat and mouse had only just begun.

Calen

I can’t show my hand too soon, not until after I’d backed her into a corner and got everything I want out of her. “Were you by any chance planning to kill him as well? That would be quite a feat, wouldn’t it? To have killed off three generations of the Winthrop family.”

“It’s what they deserve…” She caught herself, but I just quirked my brow.

“You don’t say. Do tell, what exactly do they deserve?”

“You think I’m stupid; you think you can trap me?”

“How would I do that? It’s just the two of us here. It would be my word against yours.”

“That’s right. And I have a very good standing in the community, just as good as yours.”

“Yes, it’s easy to do that, to buy off whomever you wish when you’re living off of the interest from someone else’s inheritance. Tell me, does she even know how much she’s worth? I mean, apart from what she now owns as my wife. I’m guessing no.”

“She doesn’t deserve any of it. I was his wife; it should’ve all been mine.”

“But this started long before he died and left her everything, didn’t it? I wonder, did you know he was going to leave her everything, or did you think you killed him before he had a chance to change his will?” For someone as smart as she is, I didn’t think my little word game would work. I thought for sure she’d see the trap and sidestep it, but she walked right in.

“Of course, I thought I got to him before he had a chance to change his stupid will. He came to me about the divorce, and