Page 79 of Cruel Love
“Why? What did she ever do to you?”I managed to keep my toneneutral, despite the flare of angerthatshot through me.
“It wasn’t what she did to me. It was what sheremindedme of,”shereplied, her tone void of any emotion.
My brows furrowed at her answer, but I didn’t ask the obviousquestion which was on the tip of my tongue. Her acceptance of her fate was sparking my curiosity, I thought I’d have a battle on my hands to get my answers, but now I was second-guessing myself.
“There’s a thirty-year-old scotch in the cupboard behind me. My momwas saving it for if I ever got married, but itseemsthatday won’t be coming. Mind if I pour myself a glass?”
I placed my hand over the gun I’d laid on the table in warning.“Aslong as you don’t try anything stupid.”
She gave me a sad smile.“I have no intention of being tortured byyou for answers, James. If I’m going to die, I’d rather it be as pain-free as possible.”
She rose to her feet and cleared her bowl away, washing it in the sinkand drying it. Once she’d put it back in the cupboard, she grabbed the bottle of scotch and two short glasses before pouring a generous amount of the amber liquid into each glass and sliding one over to me.
“Funny. You didn’tseemto have a problem with torturing Willow, didyou, Ann?”I said, refusing to take a drop of scotch until she did on the off chance it was poisoned. I doubted it was, but you could never be too careful.
“No, I didn’t,”she replied candidly.“I didn’t have a problem withdisciplining the girl, and nor do I regret it.”
My jaw clenched at the callousness in her tone, and the need toplant a bullet into her brain rightthatsecond grew stronger the longer I stared at her.
“Why,”I growled, unable to hold back my contempt for her and donewith playing nice.
She didn’t answer, instead taking a large gulp of her drink andswallowing it down before refilling it.
“You know, I haven’t been back to this house since I was in my earlytwenties. I had a good childhood growing up here, I forgot how much I missed this place,”she said, gazing fondly around the room.
“I couldreallydo without the trip down memory lane.”
Her eyes hardened.“But you’ll listen to me if you want what youcame here for. Unless Willow has remembered everything about her past, which I highly doubt, otherwise you wouldn’t be here,thenI’m one of the few people who know what you want to know,”she snapped, her tone sharp.
I leaned forward and placed my arms on the table.“And what is itthatI want to know?”I asked, finally taking a sip of the scotch and enjoying the smoothness of it.
She smirked.“All in good time, James.”
I leaned back in my chair. I was in no rush, so long as I got myanswers.“Fine, answer me this. Why is itthatyou are so willing to tell me somethingthatyou and Welch were so desperate to make Willow forget?”
“Aside from not wanting to be tortured by you?”She paused, waitingfor my response. I nodded.“Because I’m tired, James. I’m tired of harboring secrets and getting nothing in return. I’m tired of being the invisible woman who no one wants. If my time has come to an end,thenI want to go out in a blaze of glory, and be remembered as the woman who ruined the men who ruined her.”
My brows furrowed in curiosity. She held my gaze, and for a briefsecond, she wasn’t the woman who’d inflicted years of pain on my wife. She was a woman who was in pain herself. But in an instant, her features soured, and she was once again the hard-nosed bitch Willow knew her to be.
“Who’s Helen Somersby?”I asked when she didn’t speak again for atense minute.
A small smile crept across her lips.“Now, that’s a name I haven’theard in years. Did Willow remember her mom’s name or did you find out some other way?”I didn’t reply, not prepared to give away what information I knew, until she spoke again.“Come on, James. If you want me to tell you what I know, the least you can do is tell me how you came to be sitting here with me tonight.”
I tilted my head to the side, considering my options before pulling outthe piece of paper I’d kept with me since Isabella handed it to me, and slid it across the table.“My mom helped.”
She picked up the paper, her gaze darting across the words beforeshe met my eyes, an unreadable expression on her face.“You know what they say. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”
“Meaning?”
A malicious look flashed across her face.“Everyone loved Helen.Including your father.”My jaw almost hit the table, and my eyes widened.“Don’t tell me you’re surprised, James. Your father might have loved your mother at some point, but he was never a one-woman man.”
Honestly? It was a surprise. I’d never have imagined my father havingan affair. No, he wasn’t the most affectionate man toward my mom when we were growing up, and he was nothing but cold to her after he cut her tongue out, but I never considered he would have cheated on my mom.
And with Willow’s mom of all people?
What the fuck?
“My father was having an affair with Willow’s mom?”
