Deceived 6 - Ultimate Deception (8 page)

I had to take action. It was time to stop tiptoeing around this and aggressively look for answers. I glanced at the clock and a plan began to form in my mind. First things first, though. I had to get lunch back to Chloe or she’d start to get suspicious. I wasn’t going to tell her about the box with the files until I had some kind of solid evidence that Nina…and this whole fucked up mess was for real so I could take them all down. If the Baroness thought she could hurt me even from prison, that bitch had another thing coming.

I made up a tray with some cheese and crackers and took it back to the room. If she noticed that I was more quiet than usual as we were eating, she didn’t mention it. Instead, she kept up a steady stream of conversation about the baby items we were going to need to get before Victoria was born. I hadn’t even thought of the fact that we didn’t have diapers or baby clothes or nearly enough of the necessities for a new baby. New York seemed so far away right now and I didn’t have time to focus on baby bottles. I’d deal with that when the time came. I had a more pressing issue burning a hole in my mind. I put on my best poker face and tried to stay calm as we made a list of all the things we would need. By the time we were finished, she was yawning and I told Chloe she could use my laptop and order baby stuff online after she woke up. She wasn’t sleeping as much as she had before, but every couple hours, she’d take a catnap which worked well for what I had to do next.

Once Chloe’s eyes fluttered shut, I leaned over, kissed her forehead and then headed out into the main part of the house. I’d already searched the kitchen and even though I’d been looking for drugs, or something she could have slipped into my wine, I hadn’t found anything to link the Baroness to Nina. Not surprising since it was a kitchen, but that meant I needed to venture into other places. I hadn’t explored the house as much as Chloe had when we’d been here before, but I knew the kinds of places I was looking for. Communications, pictures, all of the things that showed human interaction would be in an office, a library which often doubled as an office, or a bedroom. I really didn’t want to search Nina’s bedroom, so I started by looking for an office.

With the exception of one other guest room, all of the first floor was made up of places to entertain people, whether it was the living room where I’d sat with Nina that night or an entertainment room where a television took up an entire wall. Once I’d exhausted all of those resources, I headed for the stairs. I kept my eyes fixed firmly in front of me, not wanting to look down and see where Chloe had fallen, but I couldn’t keep myself from seeing her tumble those last few feet. I hadn’t seen where she’d started from, but even the bit I’d seen had been too much.

When I reached the top of the stairs, I closed my eyes and took a moment to steady myself. It was odd, I thought, how Chloe’s loss of memory meant that I would feel all of this anxiety when things reminded me of what had happened, but she wouldn’t. I hated feeling this way, but I loved her enough that I was glad she didn’t have to experience it.

Although there was one closed door straight ahead, I headed for the first room to my left and opened the door. Bedroom. I continued on, working my way down the hall until I found the library. Since I hadn’t yet seen a bedroom that looked like it could be Nina’s or an office, starting here was my best bet. I looked around, skimming over books and portraits, barely registering the expensive sculptures or the empty spot where a painting had obviously been hanging. Then I saw a desk against the far wall and crossed to it.

I rummaged through the papers on top, but found nothing of interest. Mostly junk and bills that I didn’t look through. I’d check out her finances only if I didn’t find anything else. I tossed an empty envelope onto he desk top with frustration and set my sights on the drawers of the desk.

The bottom one held paper and spare ink cartridges for a printer. Noting but computer supplies. The middle one had pens and pencils, along with other odds and ends. The top was locked.

I dug through the middle drawer until I found a paper clip. When I’d been around eight or nine years old, there had been this boy in my school who’d taught a bunch of us at recess one day how to pick a lock. I’d used the skill once or twice as a teenager, but it had been a while. Fortunately, the desk’s lock was simple and, after just a minute or so, I could feel that little metal bar slide to the side and I was able to pull the drawer open.

At first, I wasn’t sure what I was seeing. I’d been expecting valuables. Bank statements from the Caymans. Savings bonds. Instead, I was looking at photo albums. I picked up the first one, curious as to why Nina had felt the need to lock these away.

The first couple pages were typical old family pictures, some black and white, some sepia. Then the pictures started to get more recent as the people in them grew up. At the middle of the album, I started to see the same two girls over and over again. One was older, but they both had the same dark hair and eyes, and their bone structure was similar enough that they would’ve been identical at the same ages.

Something at the back of my mind said that I should recognize them but I didn’t until I got nearer to the end and the girls were now young adults. I sank down on a chair, feeling the blood drain from my face. I slipped the picture of the two women from its plastic sleeve and flipped it over, even though I didn’t need to see names to confirm what I was seeing.

Nina and Anna.

Their resemblance left no doubt as to their relation. Nina, the woman my wife considered a close friend, the woman in whose house we were staying, was the younger sister of a woman who’d tried to destroy me and everything I loved.

Chapter 9

Chloe

I had to admit, while I preferred my own bed back home, this one wasn’t half bad. I’d fallen asleep at some point when Patrick and I had been talking, but I didn’t know how much time had passed. I didn’t think it had been more than a couple hours since I didn’t feel stiff and my naps had been getting shorter, but this whole bed-rest thing had really screwed up my internal clock.

My brain was still foggy and I didn’t feel an urgency to open my eyes, so I kept them closed, enjoying the peaceful cloud I was hovering on. I could feel Patrick sitting on the bed next to me and Victoria was doing her usual high kick routine inside me. All was right with the world.

I wasn’t sure where Patrick was in the room but when he shifted, I felt a tension fill the air.

“Nina, I was hoping I’d see you.” His voice floated in from somewhere near the door to my room but I didn’t open my eyes. Then I heard a nervous laugh from Nina as she said, “Patrick. I didn’t expect to see you there. I thought you were in the kitchen making dinner.”

Although the last of the sleepy haze was gone, I still didn’t open my eyes. I strained to hear more. I was now fully awake, but something in that laugh made me want to hear the rest of the conversation so I pretended to be asleep.

“Not yet. I wanted to ask if we could share another bottle of wine while I was waiting for the food to cook.”

Another bottle of wine? What was going on here? I almost frowned but caught myself in time. I didn’t want to give anything away. I needed for Patrick to explain himself because this couldn’t be what it sounded like.

“I thought you were upset with me.” Nina’s voice had taken on an almost childish, pouting tone that I hadn’t thought a classy woman like her would use.

“I’ll admit, the kiss caught me off guard.” The weight on the bed disappeared and I knew Patrick was standing.

I couldn’t keep myself from opening my eyes as a surge of anger and jealousy went through me. If this was really happening, I had to see it for myself. Still, I had enough presence of mind to just open them enough to peek.

Patrick and Nina were standing much closer than they should have been and my hands curled into fists. Neither of them was paying any attention to me.

“I can’t stop thinking about it,” Nina said. She reached out for my husband and my heart broke when he took her hands in his.

“Me, either,” he said.

It was all I could do to stifle a cry. How could he do this to me? Victoria lurched inside me, responding to the sudden surge of emotion.

“I want to show you something.” Patrick’s voice was low.

I wanted to slap the smug smile off her face but I couldn’t move. I had to let this play out. I had to know who would deceive me more, my best friend, or my husband?

“Let’s not do this here.” Her eyes darted towards me momentarily but not long enough to notice that I was awake. “How about we head up to my room before Chloe wakes up?”

The smile that crossed Patrick’s face wasn’t his seductive one. In fact, it was hard and almost mean. My heart thudded painfully against my chest. This wasn’t right. Something else was going on here. Everything I knew about Patrick said he wouldn’t cheat on me, especially like this, so what I’d seen was at odds with what I knew. Now, however, I wasn’t sure that what my eyes and ears had been processing had been the truth...at least not the important parts.

“Actually, it’s something I’d like to show you right here.” He reached into his back pocket and pulled something out.

Small, rectangular and glossy. I caught a glimpse of faces.

Pictures.

“I know the truth.”

I barely registered what Patrick was saying now because my brain was making rapid-fire connections, bringing together the memories I’d lost.

The Bronte painting.

Sisters.

Books.

The library.

The picture of the sisters in the library.

Holy fucking shit
.

Sisters!

It clicked into place even as Patrick said it out loud.

“You and Anna are sisters.”

All the missing memories came crashing in all at once, nearly making me gasp with the force of it. That empty black hole was now filling at lightning speed and the truth of it made me sick to my stomach. I was pushing myself up and speaking before the pair realized I was even awake.

“You pushed me down the stairs, you bitch!” The words shot out of my mouth like the blast from a cannon.

Patrick’s head whipped around, confusion passing over his face. I could see him processing what I’d said. Nina froze, her eyes wide, the proverbial deer in the headlights. For several seconds, no one spoke and I was pretty sure no one was even breathing. Then, suddenly, everything happened at once.

Patrick grabbed for Nina and she shoved at him. I started screaming, “Get your fucking hands off my husband,” followed by a string of profanity that would make a sailor blush. As they struggled, I disentangled myself from the sheets and jumped to my feet. No way in hell was I going to let Patrick fight this alone. The memory of what Nina had done, the pain of her betrayal, the fury of what might have happened to my family—all of it gave me miraculous strength in the face of this dire situation.

Nina twisted, freeing herself from Patrick’s grasp. I flew to the table by the door, my feet alighting with a swiftness that was amazing considering my weight and size. This time, when Patrick grabbed her shoulder, Nina lurched forward, throwing the mass of her body into him, making him stumble. They both fell to the floor and I heard a crack as Patrick’s head hit the marble encrusted wooden bed post at the foot of the bed. Damn this heavy bedroom set. What was with this woman and marble everywhere in this house?

I stood there, frozen to the spot, leaning back heavily on the little table with a horror so absolute that I couldn’t make a sound. Images of all the things Patrick and I were supposed to do together flashed through my mind. Could it all be taken away, gone in an instant?

Those few seconds were a slow death, and then I heard him groan. I closed my eyes and breathed out. Patrick was hurt, but alive, thank God. A sharp pain ripped through my stomach as Victoria kicked, hard, and it cleared my mind. I wrapped my arm across my belly, pressing my hand against it to ease the pain. There was no time for self-indulgence now. Nina was getting up.

I ducked in front of her just as she started for the door, and pushed it closed behind me. It occurred to me how absurd we must have looked. Her in her sleek business clothes and mussed hair, me with bed-head and in a nightgown with dancing frogs. It would’ve been funny if it hadn’t been so serious.

Nina laughed, a harsh and brittle sound that said she didn’t find any of this amusing, either.

“Come on, Chloe, we both know how this ends.” She threw the words off with a repulsive arrogance burning through every syllable.

Nina took a step towards me and I reached behind me, my fingers searching for what I knew was there on that little table. I’d spent enough time staring at the walls and the furniture in this room, after all.

“Haven’t you had enough?” Her eyes were glaring, with a dark threatening look that fueled my anger even more. When her hand reached out as if she was going to shove me again, the last bit of self-control I had snapped. As she came at me, my fingers locked around her wrist.

“No. I owe you one.” My eyes narrowed. “Actually, since you plastered your nasty lips all over my husband, it’s more than one, bitch.”

I pulled the lamp—that damned metal lamp that was never plugged in—out from behind me and swung it with all my might. It hit her, full force, in the side of the face and she spun into the wall.

I didn’t have the time to gloat, however, because the moment I followed through, pain ripped across my stomach for a second time and I fell to my knees, crying out.

“Chloe?” Patrick’s arms were around me as I squeezed my eyes shut. “Baby, talk to me.”

Oh, fuck!
This time the pain that tore through me make me double over and I fell forward onto my hands and knees. The pain was so intense it, took my breath away and I stayed there for a moment, sucking in air. I pulled one hand off the floor and held my stomach just below the biggest part of my belly and I felt something wet between my legs. It came out with a gush and spilled all over Nina’s expensive carpet. What the hell? Had I peed my pants in all of the hysteria? I forced my eyes open, lifted my head and looked up. Patrick’s worried face hovered above me, a trickle of blood making its way down the side of his face.