Fidelity (Infidelity #5)

“No, sweetheart. Alton poisoned me or at least we think he did. I guess we’ll never know for sure, but I poisoned myself too. No more pain medicine. No more alcohol. I’m thinking clearer than I have in years and I like it.”

“But I don’t want you to hurt.”

“Tell that to the physical therapist who visits every day. He just left. That’s why I’m here on the sofa in front of the fire. The man is a tyrant, and instead of trying to help me, Oren and Silvia encourage him.”

We’d turned the volume down on the TV, but it was still playing. “I can’t believe they’ve arrested her. Do you think she really did it? The police asked us about Alton’s liquor. I think maybe he was poisoned.”

“Karma…” Momma said. There was no humor in her tone or her eyes, but the irony was there.

“I wondered if he could have done it to himself,” I said. “When the police first told us, that was my first thought. I mean, he was grasping at straws to save his kingdom and it was crumbling around him. Even Bryce.” I shook my head. “Momma, he’s lost it. Yesterday when Bryce pulled that stunt at the hotel, he proved how certifiably nuts he really is. He solidified public opinion of him. It will affect the murder case. Alton had to know that. He had to see it all dissolving around him.”

“I’m sorry,” Mother said, “for so many things. I have no excuse, except that I drank the Kool-Aid for so long that I believed it. I had to. I couldn’t face each day if I didn’t.”

I turned back to the television. The screen was filled with a picture of Suzanna. I recognized the sapphire-blue dress. The picture was from the engagement party only a week ago. “Damn, she was prancing around the manor like the queen bee, and now look at her. Did you know she fired Jane?”

“What?”

“I hired her back. There were so many things that happened.”

“I think she did,” my mother said.

“What?”

“I think Suzanna killed him.”

“He changed his will,” I explained. “Alton did, making Bryce his heir. My attorney said it was done only two days ago. That was the day he said he’d give you the divorce if I married him.”

Momma’s lashes fluttered as she slowly moved her head back and forth.

“Jane said they fought—Alton and Miss Suzanna. I saw how angry she was in the attorney’s office. She even cursed.”

“Saying he’d marry you over her was probably the final blow. She expected more, but she wasn’t good enough. No one ever was… he excelled at making people feel that way.” Momma’s eyes closed. When they opened, they were moist with new tears. “Alexandria… I’ve thought about his proposal to you over and over since you called. I need to know something. It’s true that I turned a blind eye to many things, but the one thing I tried to do, and Jane tried to do, was protect you. Did he ever…?”

“Do anything—sexually?” I asked, finishing her sentence. “No. I never felt that vibe, not until the proposal. And even then, it was a feeling. He didn’t actually touch me. It was the way he looked at me, and how he said Bryce couldn’t tame me, but he could. I thought I’d vomit right there. Nox went nuts. Suzanna went crazy, as I said, cursing and yelling.

“While I was growing up, he was demeaning and cruel, psychologically abusive. I never knew when he’d blow. He believed in corporal punishment. But no, thank God, he never made sexual advances.”

She closed her eyes. By the fire’s light, I watched as a tear trickled down her cheek.

“Were you and Suzanna really friends?”

“Yes,” she said. “I know that may be hard to believe. It even pains me to think of her arrested for Alton’s death. Part of me wants to thank her. She’s cleared a path for you with Montague, but the other part of me feels sorry for her. I was married to the man for twenty years, but she was the one who loved him.”

I scrunched my nose. “How could you be all right with that?”

“I wasn’t. I accepted it. If I’d loved him, I might have been jealous. As I said, I never did. My marriage was a business deal. I was nothing more than a bartering chip for my father to ensure the future success of Montague Corporation.”

“Do you think he loved her?”

Mother shook her head. “I’m not sure he loved anyone, except himself and money and power.”

“Momma, I’m sorry.”

“No, don’t be. I don’t deserve that. I almost did the same thing to you, and I’ll regret that for as long as I live.”

“Stop.”

Her blue eyes opened wide. She looked too frail. In the fire’s light, I could see her cheekbones, and the bones of her fingers as her hands clenched in the blanket’s edge.

“We’ve lived with enough of that. There’s been enough regret. Spend your energy getting better, growing stronger. Decide what you want to do about Montague Corporation.”

“Me? It will be yours.”