Page 72 of The Price of Mercy
I stare at Sam as he clasps his watch onto his wrist. “What does Mercy’s mom have to do with anything? I thought her dad’sthe one who sold her family away?” How far back does this shit with Samuel go?
“No,” he replies, fixing his tie next. The man’s a mess. “Ingrid’s the mastermind. It’s why my father had her killed. She knew too much and gave little in return after my dad got what he wanted.”
A shiver runs down my spine. “Which was?”
“That’s… complicated.”
“How complicated can it be?” I stop him from leaving. “Tell me.”
Sam’s eyebrows pinch together, but he relents with barely any coercion. He likely needs someone to talk to about everything he’s uncovered.
Ironic that we’re in a shrink’s office.
“Dad wanted the mortuary for easy body disposal. That part’s obvious. But he didn’t want the Morningstars to get ‘above themselves’—” Sam’s frown deepens. “So not only has he been sabotaging their business for years, he added a clause in the contract about body ownership that Ingrid’s lawyer must have missed or willingly overlooked.”
My money’s on the latter.
“Everyone who has the Morningstar name, whether maiden or married, along with every single person buried on the property, Morningstar or not, belongs to him. Which means…” He clears his throat. “Even in death, he’s trying to control my mother.”
I try to understand, but I’m missing the full picture. “I thought your mom was buried at that Catholic Church in the center of the city.” News outlets would not shut up about Mrs. Wright’s funeral the week that it happened. White rose petals filled the streets as her casket was transferred to the church.
“That’s what everyone thinks, but the Catholic Church is one of the few places my father doesn’t have a foothold. She wasbaptized Catholic at birth, so he thought he’d win points with the local diocese by holding her funerary service there. But she isn’t buried atthatchurch; she’s buried at the one on the Morningstar property. Right out front, if the pictures are to be believed.”
“You’re telling me that you had no clue your mom was buried with the Morningstars?”
“My dad didn’t exactly invite me to her second burial after I cried my eyes out at the first one. I was already enough of an embarrassment. Besides,” Sam sighs, “we’d been fighting ever since Mom first got sick. This was another way he’d have one up on me.”
I clap my hand on Sam’s shoulder. “That’s fucked up.”
His smile doesn’t reach his eyes. “Yeah, well, that’s what it’s like to be a Wright. Be glad you have a different last name.” He gets a faraway look in his eye. “If I ever marry Mercy, I’m changing my name to Morningstar. They’ve been more of a family to me than my own ever has.”
A smile curves on my lips, but Sam’s slipped out the door and disappeared before he can notice.Thank God,too, because I don’t want to be the one to tell him that he’s gonna have to fight Kane for Mercy’s hand—or for her last name, at least. Because if I know my boyfriend like I think I do, he’s a total sap for that shit.
Warmth spreads from my chest to my fingertips, and I shake my head to knock the smile off my face. If I’m not careful, I might start to fall for that kind of shit, too, and the last thing we need are three men sharing last names.
I sure as hell don’t want to look like I’m married to Sam.
Imagining Kane and Sam bickering about it, though?
Fucking priceless.
Chapter 29
Mercy
“Thankyou for taking care of the house today. Did you find my dad’s appointment book?” I slip my hand into Kane’s as he says goodnight on my front porch. It would be like a scene from a romance movie if he wasn’t walking across the lot to sleep in the old church afterwards. I’m pretty sure no one in a movie’s ever done that before. They go home to giggle in bed about their crush, not watch them through the window across the street.
“I found a lot of things,” Kane muses, twirling a strand of my hair around his finger. “Like your family photo album. Never knew black was a staple color for children.”
“Your family didn’t wear matching ensembles?”
“My family wasn’t a family at all, Mercy.” His smile falls for a split second before it grows twice in size. “Zane became the only family that mattered, and now I can confidently say that I haveyourfamily, too.” He chuckles. “Your dad likes me.”
First Zane says it, and now Kane?
“Trying to take my family from me?”
“Trying to steal your heart, Siren.” He grins into the curve of my neck. “Is it working?”
