Page 63 of A Little Bit Whiskey
“I can’t believe I didn’t see this.” Carter texted the family to meet him in the labeling room. “Let’s walk.” He turned, moving the barricade to the back of the winery building. “Weezer and I have thought that Anna might have planted that box of items in our china cabinet.”
“Why would she do that?” Eddy asked.
“Outside of hating my wife, I couldn’t figure that out. But then Tamsyn told us she found something else in the cottage. She’d been holding on to it, not telling anyone. She thought it would help her find her father. I believe she just did.”
Weezer gasped. “No. Fred? But he can’t have kids? He and Anna tried for years. Anna always said he was the problem.”
“I bet it was her, not Fred.” Carter paused at the door to the wine labeling room. “It makes sense as to why Fred went so easy on Elizabeth. She was the mother to his kid. But Elizabeth once told me that Tamsyn’s father was going to take care of them. That he was going to come back to her and take them away. That’s the part that doesn’t make sense to me.”
Weezer placed her hand on his shoulder. “We have to find them. If she figured it out, they’re going to feel backed into a corner and who knows what they will do.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of.”
Tamsyn
Tamsyn stepped into the overflow building. “I need to know a few more things.” She hugged her body. “You at least owe me that before you put a bullet in my head.”
“We don’t owe you anything,” Anna said. “We gave you everything. We took you into our home. We raised you. And you couldn’t even appreciate that. All you’ve ever done is shit on us. When the rumors about Carter resurfaced, you went behind our backs and got a paternity test. How do you think that made us feel?”
Tamsyn ignored the rant. “How long have you known you were my father?” She stared at Fred.
“Your entire life.” He leaned against a stack of wine boxes, his weapon pointed at the center of her chest. Fred was a good shot. Not great, but he wouldn’t miss at this range.
“I thought it was you who couldn’t have children,” Tamsyn said.
“That’s the story we told so that no one would ever think it was my husband who fathered you.” Anna wiped at her cheeks. “I was so devastated that he cheated on me and with Elizabeth. She was a vile woman.”
Tamsyn glared. She wanted to lunge forward and squeeze the life out of Anna. “You said she was your friend.”
“Never. She blackmailed your father for years. She threatened to tell everyone the truth if he didn’t give her child support. We couldn’t afford to write her checks, but we quietly did other things.”
“Like what?” Tamsyn couldn’t fill her lungs. Everything she thought about her life had been a sham. Her teenage years flashed before her eyes. The feelings of not fitting in rumbled in her gut. She thought it had been about missing her mom, when in reality, it had all been because they hadn’t wanted her. But why did they keep her?
“I didn’t arrest her when I could. I let her drug dealer off with a warning. I made sure CPS didn’t take you away. Anything I could think of to keep her from talking,” Fred said.
“When your father saw that Carter was giving Elizabeth money, we knew what we had to do. We made sure everyone would believe the rumors, and we told Elizabeth if she didn’t go along with it, you’d be taken from her.”
“That’s just cruel.” Bile smacked the back of Tamsyn’s throat.
“So is blackmail,” Anna said. “But your mother got cold feet. She decided she wasn’t going to go along with the plan.”
“So, you killed her.” Tears poured like a raging waterfall from Tamsyn’s eyes. “Why did you take me in? Why didn’t you let me go into the system if you didn’t want me?”
Anna laughed. “Because if we didn’t, the fucking Rivers would have and we couldn’t let them win.”
“Win?” Tamsyn stumbled backward, toppling over a case of wine. She braced herself with her hands, landing hard on her wrist. She groaned, feeling the bone snap.
Neither Fred nor Anna did anything to help.
“Win? You see me as some prize.” She rolled to her knees, using her good hand to push herself to her wobbly feet. “I’m a fucking person. And back then, I was a child.” She pointed to Fred. “I’m your daughter and you saw me as a game? You didn’t want me because you loved me.”
“I never said that.” For the first time since Fred had taken her hostage, he faltered. “Of course I care about you.”
“But you don’t love me. Not like a father should.” She held her limp wrist, doing her best not to focus on the throbbing pain.
“I asked Elizabeth to give you up. To let Anna and me adopt you,” Fred said. “But Elizabeth wouldn’t, and Anna wasn’t ready to forgive me.”
“Which one of you pulled the trigger?” Tamsyn asked with a shaky voice.
