Page 79 of The Next Mrs. Parrish

“Now where are we?” Tallulah asks as she and Bella follow me to the side door.

“Texas.”

“Why—”

The door opens and a blond woman I’ve never seen before, dressed casually in jeans and a blouse, smiles atme.

“Daisy Ann?” I say.

“Welcome. I’ve been waiting for y’all.”

We follow her into the house and I’m about to thank her for her help when there’s a pounding on the door. I look at her in alarm. She turns and opens the door.

“Well, it’s about time you arrived.”

She opens the door and in walks a smiling Jackson.

– 49 –

AMBER

Amber scrambled to get her things together and check out of the hotel. She’d booked a nonstop flight to New York, and she needed to be at the airport within the hour for her five o’clock flight. When she landed, the car she’d ordered would be waiting to take her to Bishops Harbor, an hour’s drive from JFK.

“Bobby, you need to drive like lightning. I have to be at the airport pronto.”

“Bad time of day for traffic, ma’am, but I’ll do my darndest.”

The drive seemed interminable between the beginnings of rush hour and red lights along the way, but miraculously they made it with time to spare. Since she still had forty-five minutes before boarding, Amber settled herself in the first-class lounge and waited. It would be sometime around eleven, maybe even close to midnight before she finally arrived at the house. Jackson had no idea she was coming. He really didn’t understand who he was dealing with. No, he’d always underestimated her, thought he was smarter than she was. He’d screwed her over, but he’d forgotten that she had all the goods to get even, the dummy.

He would never see his precious son again. Jackson had pined for years for a son. It was the reason she’d been able to steal him from Daphne—she’d purposely gotten pregnant and, as luck would have it, was carrying a boy. She could still remember the look of pure joy on Jackson’s face when she’d given him a copy of the sonogram of his son. It would kill him to lose Jax. His little man. She would takeJax far away and Jackson would live the rest of his life having no idea where he was. Maybe she’d even send him a postcard occasionally just to taunt him. By the time Jax was an adult, she would have brainwashed him to the point he’d never want a relationship with his father. Jackson wanted to play dirty, and this was the kind of arena where Amber fought best.

It was a full flight, and sitting next to Amber in first class was an old man who fell asleep minutes after takeoff. She was thankful that she didn’t have a chatty Cathy beside her, but when she noticed drool trickling from his open mouth, she almost threw up. She shuddered, reflexively moving away from him even though the large seats provided ample separation. He continued to snore and grunt throughout the flight, and she almost cheered when they finally landed. How disgusting it was to be old. She really needed to fly private in the future.

—

It was only adrenaline keeping Amber awake on the drive to Bishops Harbor. She was dead tired, and her eyes burned with fatigue, but sleep was light-years away. She sat up and put the window down when the driver pulled through the gates. The house was dark, only the outside architectural and landscape lighting illuminating the night. The car came to a stop and the driver got out and went to the trunk.

“You can just leave the bags on the porch. I’ll get help to take them in,” she directed, handing him a wad of cash.

The house was still when she entered and slipped off her shoes. She wondered if Jackson was asleep already. Should she surprise him? Putting her ear against the bedroom door, she stood very still and listened. There was no sound, but breathing wouldn’t necessarily be heard from where she stood. With her heart racing, she turned the knob as slowly as she dared and opened the door a slight crack. Moonlight filtered into the room through the sheer curtains, and as her eyes adjusted to the light, she saw that the bed was empty. Whatthe hell was going on? Suddenly the sound of heavy footsteps startled her, and she let out a shriek as she turned around.

“Amber. You frightened me. I thought you were a burglar.” Chloe was holding a broom in one hand and a flashlight in the other.

Amber began laughing hysterically in both relief and at the sight of the broom as a defense weapon. “Where is Jackson?”

“After Daphne ran away with the girls two nights ago, I thought Mr. Parrish was going to have a stroke. He was furious, screaming and yelling, stomping around like a madman. He left this afternoon for Dallas.”

“Dallas? Why did he go to Dallas?”

“He said he had business there and then he was going to find Daphne and the girls. He has the police and the FBI looking for them. Put out an Amber Alert and everything. But so far, nothing.”

“Where’s Jax?”

“He’s in bed.”

“Okay. Why don’t you go back to sleep? I need to get some sleep too. We can talk more in the morning. And put the broom away.”

Chloe laughed. “Good night, Amber. See you in the morning.”

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