Stirred (51 page)

“Alexandra, grab her goddamn arm!” he commanded.

I was barely aware when she complied. I was too shocked.

“Alexandra?” I asked. “Alexandra Morra?”

Her brow lifted in surprise. “So, Sean-boy told you after all, huh?”

“What’re you talking about? Told me what?”

“That he knows me. That he figured it all out, that his so-called friend, Trinitee Marsh, wasn’t dead after all.”

“And how would he know that?” I asked.

Alexandra laughed then calmed and focused on me, her eyes taunting. “Because
I
am Trinitee Marsh, or I was, for the last five years anyway.”

My mouth gaped open in utter shock. Was this what Sean had been keeping from me? How long had he known? Though she looked different, he must’ve recognized her from that photograph with Aurelia. He obviously knew her that well. I just wondered what else he knew and hadn’t told me.

“Ah, I see the doubt in your eyes,” Alexandra shouted over the buffeting wind. “Well, if that didn’t blow your mind, this sure will. Because, you see, Sean knew, long before I became Trinitee Marsh, and even before I was adopted as Alexandra Morra, that my name…was Ivy. Yes, that’s right. I am your throwaway daughter, you filthy piece of shit!” she seethed. Then to Frankie, she said, “Take her to the rail.”

Frankie smirked as he pulled me from her grasp and led me closer to the edge of the observation deck. I was too overwhelmed to even fight. I just stared at the girl. Trinitee. Alexandra.

Ivy…

“That’s impossible!” I howled. “My Ivy is dead!”

Yet, no matter how absurd, I could see what was only hinted at earlier when I first laid eyes on her, that sense of familiarity. It was the trace of Jacob I saw. Especially in the shape of her mouth. But that simply could
not
be. This girl was trying to pull something over on me. Confuse me, and she was doing a good job of it.

“Are you sure this is how you wanna do it, Alex?” Frankie asked.

She shrugged. “No, but if I can’t pin Sean’s murder on her and see her rot in prison for the rest of her life, then she’ll have to forfeit it completely for the one she threw away.”

I shook my head. “Why are you doing this? It’s cruel! Ivy is dead! I’m telling you, she’s dead!”

“I think it’s an appropriate punishment, Alex,” Frankie agreed, ignoring me completely.

Ali…Alexandra…Trinitee… Whoever she was, she shook her head and pegged her gaze on me. “I wanted you to suffer more. That’s what you deserve, for what you did to me. That’s how much I hate you.”

“But…why? What have I ever done to you?”

Suddenly, out of the driving rain and wind, Sean appeared, his face beaten and battered, nearly as bad as Frankie. I wanted to run to him and soothe the pain he must feel. But I couldn’t. I was locked under Frankie’s control.

Sean was inexplicably calm, his hand out as he slowly approached the girl. “Please, Trin, I know how hurt and betrayed you must feel, but…what you believe, it’s simply not true. Knowing what I know now, I suspect Declan Ross lured Eden away from home with the promise of a honeymoon, then drugged her into early labor. Took her to a place where he’d already set everything up, a doctor and nurses he paid off to deliver her child, who drugged her again until she was practically unconscious, then stole her child.”

“No! That’s not true!” the girl cried out.

“Declan lied to Eden, told her the baby had died. The next day, she woke up in a different facility, a real hospital, where they confirmed what that doctor’s medical report already stated.”

She put her hands over her ears. “No, no, no, no, no! Stop lying!”

“Eden was devastated,” Sean continued. “She visited Ivy’s grave often, even took pictures of her son, Ian, sitting next to the grave stone, to mark the years as they went by. I’ve seen the photos, Trin. I don’t know how you ended up in a Mexican orphanage, but I’m reasonably sure Declan arranged that, so you’d never be found, and Eden would never discover his treachery.” Then, to me, Sean said, “I’m so sorry, Eden. I should’ve told you everything I knew, or at least suspected, but I just wasn’t sure, and I could hardly believe Trin was responsible for everything.”

I couldn’t comprehend what I was hearing. I turned my eyes to the girl and sobbed, “Ivy?”

She was crying hysterically, shaking her head, unwilling to believe any of it.

“Trin, listen to me,” Sean said, just loud enough to be heard. “You know how deceitful Declan Ross was. You know he was capable of doing all that. He wanted Eden, and he wanted his trust money, without being saddled with Jacob Mahoney’s child.”

“Shut up!” she screamed.

“You were the one who told me he’d arranged for Jacob to be killed, all so he could get his hands on Eden
and
his money. He did this, Trin. Not Eden.”

Time seemed to stop as reality shattered my heart into a million little pieces. I had no idea how to process what I’d just heard. I just sucked in a shocked breath and cried, “Oh my God!”

“It doesn’t matter either way!” Frankie interrupted. “Alex, we’ve killed three people already, both of us—”

“
You’re
the one who did the killing, asshole!” Sean argued.

“We have to get rid of these two, Alex,” Frankie continued, undeterred. “Or we’ll be looking over our shoulders for the rest of our lives.”

I shelved my disgust at learning of Declan’s vicious misdeeds and focused instead on the girl—
my
daughter! I shook my head and breathed, “Ivy…” as the rain and wind eerily calmed, and sirens blared close by.

“Listen to me, Trin,” Sean begged. “Frankie’s manipulating you. He has been since you were a child! You won’t have to look over your shoulder. Eden and I, we’ll talk to the police, tell them what happened, what Declan did to both of you. I can help you. I swear. Eden and I can both help you!”

“They can’t help you, Alexandra, and even if they could, that won’t do
me
any good, and I won’t go to prison for
your
crimes,” Frankie swore and dragged me right to the rail at the edge of the rumbling deck.

“
My
crimes?” Ivy challenged with wide eyes then closed the distance between them. “
You
killed your parents first then called it a home robbery
. You
were the one who hired that man to find out what had happened to me.
You
were the one who put the idea in my head.
You
told me I should get back at them.
You
started all this, you sonofabitch! You fabricated everything!”

She grabbed my arm and pulled me toward her to keep Frankie from hurling me over the railing. But he wrenched against my neck and tried to twist me away from her. I screamed out in terror, afraid of being thrown over the cliff, but also in pain as my shoulder dislocated with a loud pop. Ivy let go and hopped back when she saw the pain on my face.

Sean thrust his hands out. “
No! Stop!
”

Frankie shifted my weight to the side closest to the rail, preparing to toss me over.

I clawed at him with my one good hand as both Sean and Ivy rushed us. In a single moment, Sean slammed into Frankie, breaking his hold on me and, with his momentum, tipped him backward over the railing, where he fell headfirst into the deep canyon. Ivy crashed into me when Frankie let go, tripping over me as I fell forward, and tumbling over the rail, as well. Pure instinct propelled me after her, and I caught Ivy by the wrist and screamed in agony as I bent in two over the railing, trying with all my strength to hold on. But she was pulling me over with her. My feet lifted off the ground as a familiar voice called my name.

“Sean! Please!
Help!
” I bellowed over the storm as it ticked up yet again.

He was instantly at my side, holding me back and leaning over the railing with me. He grabbed for Ivy’s free hand as she dangled precariously, swinging about in the pounding rain and wind.

“Trin, grab hold!” he yelled.

“I can’t hold her, Sean! She’s slipping.
She’s slipping!
”

Ivy was crying and shook her head. “I’m so sorry, to both of you, for everything. Please forgive me, especially for Haley and Robbie,” she begged, looking straight at Sean.

“No! Ivy!” I cried. “I just found you! Hold on, please! Don’t give up!
Don’t you dare give up!
”

But, as an army of police converged on the scene, Ivy said to Sean, “You keep protecting her.”

Then, instead of trying to grab Sean’s outstretched hand, she pried my wet fingers loose and fell silently into the mist below.

With the storm still raging, and two bodies to retrieve from the rocks below, the local Eastside Fire Department set up a command hub, with a portable hardtop canopy two ambulances had backed up under. It shook and rattled as the wind continued to blow. Ropes and sandbags both held the cover down and kept the rain runoff from flooding the area. It was loud outside, but at least we were out of the blustery rain. One EMT secured my shoulder in a brace. Another dabbed at the deep gash along Sean’s forehead.

We sat along the back edge of one of the emergency transports, just outside its open doors. Opposite us, a police squad car had backed in so the trunk was protected under the canopy. Detective Reed stood next to it, his hands on his hips and censure on his face.

“I’ve never seen or heard two more foolish people than you clowns,” he admonished.

“Maybe if you’d believed us, we wouldn’t have been put in such a dangerous position,” I threw back.

“Or maybe, if you two chuckleheads had been more forthright about all the information you were privy to, I could’ve looked more deeply into Ms. Marsh and her lack of history, which would’ve taken this investigation down an entirely different path,” Reed suggested.

He shook his head and leaned back against the trunk of the squad car with his arms crossed over his chest. Sean and I exchanged nervous glances.

“Once you’re cleared by the hospital, I’m going to need each of you to come in—separately, mind you—and give full statements. And don’t think there won’t be at least obstruction charges levied on you,” Reed said to both of us. “But especially you, Mr. Bennett. You could’ve saved us all a lot of time and trouble, not to mention heartache, had you shared your suspicions.”

Sean had the good grace to bow his head without the slightest retort, though I knew he wanted to by the tic working in his jaw.

“How did you even find us?” I asked Detective Reed.

“Well now, Mrs. Ro—I mean,
Bennett
, it’s called detective work, and it’s what I do. In this case, when you answered my last call, we managed to triangulate your general location by determining which cell towers your signal pinged off of, placing you somewhere between Carnation, Preston, and North Bend, no small area. But, taking into consideration the likelihood you had, in fact, married Mr. Bennett, and recalling that photograph you’d taken at the falls a few weeks back, it wasn’t too much of a stretch to figure you’d returned here and were probably staying at The Salish Lodge.”

My brow rose high in respect. “Wow. You
are
good, Detective Reed.”

He rolled his head from side to side, adding, “Well, it didn’t hurt that Mr. Bennett called my cell and left the line open as you all argued back and forth about who killed whom and other such nonsense.”

My eyes grew wide. “So you heard everything then? You know what Declan did, and that awful young man, Frankie?”

Reed nodded. “Well, the storm did get in the way, but yes, ma’am, more or less. However, that does not absolve either of you of anything, not until we get your statements and investigate Ms. Marsh…or whoever she is…and her companion.”

“Alexandra Morro,” Sean offered. “Apparently that’s Trinitee’s legal name. And her adoptive cousin, Frankie Morro. I’m sure you’ll easily confirm both.”

Reed’s brow scrunched together. “Sal Morro’s kid?”

Sean shrugged. “I don’t know. I just remember Trin talking about him once when she had a little too much to drink. Why? Who’s Sal Morro?”

“Local crime family,” Reed explained. “He and his wife were killed in a sloppy home invasion a few years back, but I always thought it was a hit, not that it was my case. It was just a gut feeling. Guess I wasn’t too far off base if his kid took him out.”