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)
“Not sure there is, actually,” Jack says. “I never thought much about it.”
Ruby scouts it out, looking everywhere, until we find a pile of cardboard boxes in a secluded alcove behind the furnace and water heater. Jack and I help Ruby pull them all down. They’re full of books, papers, toys. Junk mostly, until we get to the last one. Ruby pulls it away, and a plug pops out of an electric socket that was hidden by the pile of boxes.
“Bingo,” she says. “Here’s something you don’t see every day.” She opens up the cardboard box, and inside is what looks like a college dorm minifridge.
Jack frowns. “A refrigerator?”
“This isn’t a refrigerator,” Ruby says. “It’s a freezer.” She starts to pull it out of the box, but I take it from her, even though it’s not that heavy. The cord hangs out from a hole in the cardboard. I hastily plug it back into the socket.
“What do you think is in here?” Ruby asks.
“Clueless,” I say.
Ruby opens it.
Vials.
Small vials.
“What the hell is all that?” Jack asks.
“This,” Ruby says, pulling out a vial and reading the name on it, “appears to be your father, Jack.”
She hands the vial to me. Written in a black sharpie is Sean Murphy, and the date?
Over half a century ago.
Dad grabs the vial from me. “Let me see that.” He drops his jaw.
“It can’t be,” I say.
“You’ve always said Sean Murphy is a pretty common Irish name,” Jack says.
Dad is still staring at the vial, saying nothing. His eyes are wide and his jaw rigid.
“I have, and it is.” I squint to read the small print on the vial. “But the date checks out. I think somehow she got my great-uncle’s sperm.”
Ruby pulls out some more vials from the refrigerator.
And then she gasps.
Nearly drops the vial.
“What is it?”
She doesn’t say anything, simply hands it to me.
I drop my jaw.
Bradford Steel.
Chapter Twenty
Ava
“Wake up,” I say.
My grandmother doesn’t move.
“For Christ’s sake,” I mutter. “Wake up, old woman.”
Nothing.
I know what I must do.
I nudge her again, this time more gently. “Grandmother? Wake up. Please.”
Her eyes flutter open.
So manipulative. So manipulative to get what she wants.
“Grandmother,” I say, “please tell me. Why did you reach out to me?”
“Isn’t that obvious, Ava?”
“Not to me it isn’t.”
“Well, you’re my granddaughter, first and foremost.”
“So is Gina.”
She smiles. “Yes, but I knew you would understand me.”
“How? How do you think I could understand everything you’ve done?”
“Because, Ava, you are your own person. Just as I am.”
She can’t possibly be saying that we’re similar. “What the hell does that mean?”
“For God’s sake, Wendy,” Dad says. “Stop this. Just stop doing this to her. She’s an innocent young woman.”
“Dad…”
“She’s manipulating you, Ava. Can’t you see it? All those years ago, she tried to do the same to me.”
“You’re my son, Ryan,” Wendy says. “I will always love you, and I will always protect you. No matter how horribly you speak to me.”
“Right.” Dad lets out a sarcastic laugh. “You were trying to protect me that day when you were ready to put a bullet through me.”
“We would be together. You, me, and your father.”
“What about Lauren? What about my sister?”
“I love Lauren.”
“Then why didn’t you want to take her with us on that horrific path of death?”
“I had already made plans for Lauren at that time.”
“What plans?”
A sly smile curves onto Wendy’s lips. “You see, Ryan, I didn’t think your father would actually die that day.”
“He didn’t,” Dad says, “and neither did you.”
“He would have,” she says. “If you had died, your father would’ve died. I made sure of it.”
“So you shot him in the chest instead of the head for a reason.”
“Yes, I did.”
“How can the two of you just sit here and talk about this?” I nearly scream. “Shooting people like it’s some freaking normal thing. Tell me why you shot Uncle Talon. Tell me that, Grandmother.”
She says nothing.
Which says a lot to me.
She doesn’t deny it.
“I didn’t actually pull that trigger,” she finally says.
“I know that, but does that matter?” I say. “You certainly aren’t denying having anything to do with it.”
“The Steels need to go down,” she says. “All the Steels, except for you, Ryan.”
“That’s still what this is about, isn’t it?” Dad says. “You’re still so obsessed with Bradford Steel that you want to take out all his children with Daphne. And of course you had to start with Talon. Talon is the one you truly hate more than any of us.”
I have to force myself to stay seated, not to rise and shake this old woman. “Why would you hate Uncle Talon?”
“Because Talon cemented everything,” Dad says. “It was easy to think Joe was just an accident, and that’s why my father married Daphne. But once Talon came along…” He shakes his head. “You are made of ice, Wendy. Pure ice.”