Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 77170 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77170 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
“Oh, they did. They were a gift from me.”
“But Didi… She lived with us.”
“She did. For several years. But those bracelets came from me. She knew me as a friend.”
“How would Mom and Dad not have known that?”
“I knew your grandmother long before you were born, Ava. From the time your mother was just a child.”
“Of course. Because you knew my grandfather, Theo Matthias. And my mother.”
“Yes. I couldn’t have chosen a better woman for my son than your mother.”
“Did you—”
She shakes her head. “No, I had nothing to do with them getting together. That happened all on its own.”
“But my mother…”
“Yes. She tried to kill me. I didn’t die, of course, but when she tried, she proved, beyond a shadow of a doubt, how much she loves my son.”
“Tell me about my grandfather. Theodore Matthias.”
“Theo was brilliant,” Wendy says. “I hated putting an end to his life.”
“Then why did you?”
“His time had come. He had come full circle. He had grown to love his daughter again, and I knew he wouldn’t be any good to the organization at that point. Besides, Tom and Larry were both gone already.”
As much as I want to keep talking about this, find out more about what my grandmother knows, we’re getting off the subject at hand.
“Grandmother, the bracelets…”
“You’re a smart girl, Ava. You saw the etching, didn’t you?”
“Yes. The WM.”
“I doubt Didi ever noticed. But once you were born, and I told her they were meant for you, I knew you would notice the initials someday.”
“How did you know that?”
“I’ve known since the day you were born, Ava. You’re the key.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You want to know why I reached out to you. Why you, and not your sister. Or your father.” Wendy closes her eyes, sighs, opens them again. “Your father has no love for me. As much as I yearn for his love, I’ll never have it. And your sister… Even though she and I share artistic talent, she is your father’s daughter through and through. But you, Ava. You’re not just your father’s daughter. You’re also my granddaughter.”
“Grandmother, you’re not making any sense.”
“Think about it, Ava. Think about it. Think about who you are, and you’ll see that I’m making sense.”
“I am my father’s daughter.”
“You are.”
“But so is Gina.”
“She is. Biologically, you are as much your father’s daughter as I am his mother. So is Gina.”
“And I don’t understand—”
But then I do understand.
What the cards have been trying to tell me this whole time.
Who I am isn’t changing so much as it is emerging.
“I think I’ve always known, Ava, that you were more mine than Ryan ever was. More than Lauren, more than Jack, more than Gina. I was there the day you were born.”
I gasp.
“I was. I was in the delivery room.”
“But how—”
“Simple enough. Colored contact lenses. A surgical mask. Disguised as an intern, simply observing.”
“Does Dad know?”
“No, and I have no intention of telling him or your mother. When you were born, Ava, I felt something. Something I didn’t even feel when your father was wrestled from my body. You, Ava, are my true progeny. Heir to everything that I am.”
“I don’t want to be like you, Grandmother.”
“But you are, Ava, and I’m afraid there’s nothing you can do about that.”
I curl my hands into fists, and without saying goodbye or good night, I leave the room, slamming the door.
She’s wrong about me.
I’m nothing like her.
And I will prove it.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Brendan
Dad and I reach the city attorney’s office the next morning before Donny. In fact, before the office is even open.
Finally, a security guard unlocks the door. “Sean, Brendan. What are you doing here so early?”
“We need to see Donny.”
“Good timing. Callie and he are just arriving now.”
Callie and Donny enter through the door.
Dad shoves the paper in front of Donny’s face. “You want to explain this, Steel?”
Donny takes the paper. “Sean, I haven’t had any coffee yet this morning.”
“Do I look like I care? What the fuck is this?”
Donny glances down at the paper, scans it, and then looks at me. “Brendan, I don’t understand this.”
“Neither do I,” I say, “because you just told me the other day that you don’t know what the Steel Trust is. That your family has no record of it.”
“I don’t. But whoever sent this document seems to know.” Donny looks to my father. “I told Brendan I would take care of this, and I will. I don’t know anything about this letter. I need to talk to my father and my uncles, but I can tell you now, none of them know what the Steel Trust is either.”
“I want to get to the bottom of this, Steel,” Dad says.
“No more than I do, Sean.” He lifts the paper. “May I make a copy of this?”
“Sure. But I can tell you right now, I don’t have the money to pay off this lien.”