Page 85 of Forbidden Secrets
“Where’s Melanie?What’s going on?”
Rhonda’s back was to her and with Chase’s attention focused on the gun, Melanie crept out of the room.Staying low, she followed the wall, using the shadows as cover.
“Melanie’s in here.She knows it was you, that you’re the rapist.”
“Fuck!You told her?”he snarled.“You bitch.I’ll destroy whatever reputation you think you have.You think Josh won’t divorce you once he knows you lied to him?He’ll disown Dylan, and your kid will be left with nothing.”
“That won’t happen because you won’t get the chance to tell him.”Rhonda motioned with the gun.“Into that room.”
“Fuck no.I’m not going anywhere with you.”
Melanie darted behind a large piece of machinery.There had to be a back exit.She tried to remember her walk around the building.Had there been a door at the far end?
A strong gust of wind shook the building.A section of the metal roof lifted before tearing loose and disappearing.
Chase and Rhonda appeared poised in a frozen tableau with rain pelting through the opening.Chase lunged forward and gripped Rhonda’s arm.They crashed into the log conveyor, both struggling for the gun.Melanie sucked in a breath as Chase forced Rhonda back toward the teeth of a giant saw blade.
Rhonda twisted and a gunshot rang out.The gun clattered across the floor.Chase and Rhonda both scrambled for it.When they rose, Chase held the gun.Blood ran from a graze across his forehead.
“This changes things, doesn’t it, bitch?”he sneered, blood and rain running down his face like tears.
Rhonda bolted up the stairs.
Chase ran to follow her, then faltered when he spied Melanie.
“You!This is all because of you.”He raised the pistol slowly.“Rhonda was on to something.Better this ends now.I’ll take care of you first, then her.”
Melanie stepped forward.Anger overcame her fear.“No, Chase.This is all because ofyou.You will rot in hell for what you did to me.You are a despicable excuse for a human being.”Words bottled inside for fifteen years tumbled out.“Now everyone will know.No matter what happens here today, it will come out.People will know the deeply reprehensible and shameful thing you did to me, and how you let an innocent man go to prison for your crime.You’re a monster.”
“That was a long time ago.You deserved what you got for rejecting me.But you should have left it alone, moved on with your life like I did.Now I’m fixing this, and no one will know.I’ll get rid of you and Rhonda.I’m a Bradford and people respect that.They’ll believe anything I tell them.”
“Are you so sure about that?”she asked coolly.“Are you really a Bradford?
Confusion flickered across Chase’s face.“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“I got an email this morning from Neil Grafton.Did you know he had an affair with your mother?”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Believe it,” she said, voice low and fierce.“We have a witness.Someone who overheard your mother telling Neil she was pregnant, and that it’d be easy to convince her husband the baby was his.”
He shook his head in denial.“You’re lying.Evenifit happened, it doesn’t matter.”
“It matters, Chase, because she and George were having fertility issues.They were unable to conceive.He probably saw the pregnancy as a miracle.But it wasn’t a miracle, was it?”
“You’re making this up,” he snapped.“I’m a Bradford.”
“Then explain why Grafton swapped your name with Walker’s as the DNA match.He did it because you’re his son.He admitted it in the email.”
“You’re lying,” he roared, fury blazing in his eyes.
Movement near the bay door made them both freeze.
Melanie blinked against a sudden gust of wind, and there he was.
Gage stood silhouetted in the open doorway, the storm roiling behind him.Legs braced, gaze laser focused, he leveled his gun on Chase.
“Drop the weapon, Bradford, or you’re a dead man.”Gage’s voice cracked through the storm like a rifle shot, lethal and unflinching.Rain drenched his coat.
