Page 122 of Mercy (The Sins Trilogy 3)
“Is that why he tried to kill me?” The mention of Margot makes it pretty clear I was the target, not the other girl in the car. Do men go that far after a rape attempt? And how is that related to Tony’s mom?
“Maybe. I don’t know.” Tony runs a hand over his face. “He’s an arrogant bastard who thinks he can just take whatever he wants.”
My disgust and contempt for Caleb intensify, along with pity and sadness for the girl who died because of me. No, not me. Caleb and his entitlement. “If he was driving the car back then, was he the one trying to run us over outside Julie’s apartment?”
Tony pauses. “Possibly… I don’t know.”
Is he trying to protect me? “You can tell me. I can handle it.”
“That’s not it.” He closes his eyes for a moment. “It’s just impossible to say. It’s been so long since I last saw him. He could’ve changed. Gotten bigger or thinner.”
Maybe…but my gut says Caleb is the one. He wants to finish the job, make sure I can’t point a finger at him. After all, he can’t be sure about what I do and don’t remember. There’s no statute of limitation on murder, and what he did is exactly that—cold-blooded, planned-out murder. He just couldn’t get to me earlier because I was traveling so much, and he didn’t know where I was.
Tony tilts his head and looks at me. His broad shoulders look so weighed down, his eyes haunted.
So many ghosts. So much pain.
I’m furious that this bombshell has fallen on us like this, so close to our wedding. We should be happy. Celebrating our upcoming nuptials. Sharing the delicious chocolate I brought home.
“Tony—”
“Edgar got in touch with me while you were out with the dress fitting.” His voice is flat. “He said Father and Mother invited us to Tempérane. They want us to get married there. It’s kind of a tradition, the Blackwood brides being married at the family mansion.”
“Don’t they know the wedding’s two weeks from now?” Bobbi mutters.
“What did you tell them?” I ask, praying it wasn’t anything affirmative. I don’t care if every Blackwood bride is supposed marry in Tempérane. I’m not choosing that site to start our marriage, not when Margot was so mockingly cold at the Italian restaurant. The Pryce grove is not only gorgeous, it doesn’t have any ugly memories to torment Tony.
“Nothing concrete. Harry said Father seems to want to reconcile with me, but Mother doesn’t. For a second I thought maybe, but…” He shakes his head. “I don’t even know what to believe anymore.”
Bobbi looks at me. “I doubt she meant to murder you that way. Weren’t you living with her?”
I don’t remember. But Tony nods. “She was.”
“There are easier ways if that’s the case. Slow poisoning. An accident.”
She’s right. That doesn’t mean my feelings about Tempérane are changing.
He stares at his hands, his eyes growing darker and more remote. “Maybe she didn’t want to get her hands dirty.”
“Maybe, but this Caleb doesn’t sound like the epitome of competence or discretion. So why would she pick him to do her dirty work?”
“I don’t know.”
Neither do I, but Bobbi brought up good points. And staying in Los Angeles isn’t going to solve this problem. Caleb and Margot are both in Louisiana. Perhaps confronting them is the best way to resolve this ugliness hanging over us, so we can close this dark chapter from the past. “Okay. Let’s go to Tempérane.”
“Ivy, you don’t have to,” he says.
“We’re not going to get married there, Tony. It’s too late to change the venue even if I wanted to. But we know who drove me off the highway now. We also know Margot could be involved. I want this taken care of before the ceremony, so that it’s not hanging over us. And if I go back to the site of the accident, maybe it’ll help me remember something that can help shed more light on the situation. I’ll call Elizabeth and ask for a few days off.”
I give him a small smile, putting on a strong front because he’s affected by this just as much as me. Going to Tempérane is unpleasant but necessary—like the boring drills I did in order to master a certain skill required to play Liszt.
And I pray that Margot isn’t involved, that there’s some kind of misunderstanding about what Caleb said, for Tony’s sake.
