Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 75015 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 375(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75015 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 375(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
“Daddy?”
Victor twisted around and most of his anger seemed to rinse away in an instant when he heard the small, innocent voice. Emily stood in the middle of the staircase holding a pink teddy bear and gazing at the puddle of her mother’s blood on the step below her.
“Oh, Em, baby.” Victor hustled across the basement, hiked up the stairs, and scooped her up. “Come on. Let’s get you back to bed, baby. Come.”
It was frightening how quickly he could change up. Menacing at one point and sympathetic the next. Victor glared at me over his shoulder, tossing a warning look that said don’t try a fucking thing.
The door slammed shut, echoing through the basement. I dropped my head and closed my eyes again, thinking of a way to get the hell out of here. Why had Victor killed Eve? Surely whatever she’d done couldn’t have been that bad—not to the point where he needed to murder her.
“He killed her.” I opened my eyes and cut my gaze to Gina. She was already staring at me.
“How can you be sure?” she asked.
“That’s what I’ve been told.” My voice cracked. I cleared my throat. “The Reeds—they live across the lake. The girl, Rory, said they found Eve’s body one morning in their rental house. They said she was already dead.”
“But how could it have been Eddie? I mean, how did you know for sure?”
“I didn’t know for sure . . . not until he pointed the gun at me.”
“God.” Gina squeezed her eyes shut. “I’m so sorry this is happening,” she breathed. “So, so sorry.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“It is!” she wailed, throwing her head back. “I—I knew he was seeing someone else. I knew he was having an affair. She wanted to be sure that I knew. She just kept coming back, bragging, telling me to leave him. She told me she’d been sleeping with him for months. I asked Eddie about it, and he confessed to it. I wanted a divorce, but he suggested marriage counseling. He wanted to make things work . . . for Emily. I wanted the same thing, so I stayed. I wanted to move on from it and he said he’d take care of the pregnancy and that he would convince her to—”
“Wait, what?” My throat thickened with emotion. “Pregnancy? What are you talking about?”
“She was pregnant with his child! She sent me a photo of the pregnancy test. Her blood work. Everything. She could’ve photoshopped it, sure, but something told me she wasn’t joking. This felt real, and that was going to be my last straw with Eddie. I wanted to be done.”
“When was this?” I asked. “When did she send you the photo?”
“About two or three weeks ago, I think. I was so angry. I told him I’d take everything from him, including Emily, if he didn’t fix this. It just doesn’t make sense that he’d go and kill her. I thought he’d have her get an abortion or pay her to leave us alone. I’d even suggested that he do that.”
“But she didn’t,” I whispered.
Of course, she fucking didn’t. Because that’s Eve. She craved the upper hand. She liked being the one in control because, for the longest time, she was powerless. She probably didn’t even love Victor. She used him. Saw what he had with Gina and wanted it for herself. She blackmailed him, infiltrated his life. Found out where he lived. Now I could piece it together.
She knew Victor and his wife owned a house on Aquilla Lake. He probably dealt with her way beforehand and told her to terminate the pregnancy. She didn’t want their affair to end, but I bet Victor stopped responding to her because he wanted to fix his marriage.
She likely got upset and wanted to get back at him, so she thought of ways to bother him. She lucked out with finding the cottage and only booked it to be near him. She wanted to disturb his peace, prove that he couldn’t just use and discard her like trash. She was slowly causing him to unravel. Setting off his temper. Pushing him too far. Always pushing people too damn far.
Victor must’ve appeared at Twilight Oaks twice. The first time, when Lincoln left, was probably to serve her a warning. Mrs. Abbot said she saw Eve walking around their side of the lake. Victor must’ve noticed her too and that set off his alarm. Things were going good with his wife, but Eve was lurking around, ready to sabotage it.
But the second time Victor visited her was his last straw. She must’ve done something horrible—something to really set him off. So, he killed her. But it didn’t make sense that he’d left the body for the Reeds to find. Why hadn’t he covered his tracks?
Unless . . .