“What?” I question with vexation. “Stop looking at me like that. If you want to say something, just say it.”
“You can’t take that money.”
“Why not? Do you have any idea the hell I went through to get it?”
“But why? For what purpose, really? Because unless you’ve left out some important detail, Bennett was, by all accounts, an innocent man.”
“Innocent?” I yell as heat creeps up my neck. “His lie took my father from me! His lie put me in that foster home! His lie raped me of the life I deserved!”
“He was a child, for Christ’s sake!”
“If you want to rationalize this, do it with someone else.”
“I saw the way he looked at you, Elizabeth.”
“Stop.” My voice is cold and hard and blatantly demanding.
“He loved you.”
“Stop.” I shake my head, blocking his words and refute, “He loved an illusion. He loved Nina, the woman who molded herself to be everything he ever wanted in a wife. It was a con, so don’t you make me feel guilty.”
“But the con is over.”
“It may be over, but my feelings about him haven’t changed.”
“I see that,” he finally concludes. “I understand your need to pin the blame for all this, it’s just . . . you’re blaming the wrong person.”
“What does it matter? He’s dead. It’s not like I can hurt him anymore even if I wanted to.”
His eyes are sternly focused on me when he repeats, “You can’t keep that money. I killed him; I don’t want that on my hands. You may not see this clearly for what it is, but that doesn’t mean I don’t.”
I shake my head, not wanting to lose everything my brother and I worked so hard for.
“It’s just money. Money you don’t need because you have me.”
“That’s not the point,” I tell him. “And besides that, how do you suggest getting rid of that amount of money without raising suspicion?”
“What about his parents?”
“Are you kidding me?” I exclaim. “His father took my dad out. They worked together and he used Bennett’s claim to ensure my dad would be out of the way so he could move up the chain and make more money. Bennett’s father hated him!”
Declan lowers his head and pinches the bridge of his nose. I know he’s stressed trying to digest all this information I’m throwing at him. It’s generations bound by a twisted web of deception and fraud. Everyone is a con in someone else’s agenda.
“If I found a way to get rid of the money, would you do it?”
I look at him as my mind goes to Pike. I think about all he gave up for those few years while I worked the scheme with Bennett. I think about his life in that shithole trailer, about the days, weeks, and sometimes months we’d have to be apart. This is as much his money as it is mine. Am I really going to just toss it away as if everything we sacrificed wasn’t worth it?
“Tell me your hesitation.”
“Pike,” I blurt without thinking first.
“Your brother?”
“He earned that money too.”
Declan reaches over and takes my hands in his as his eyes immediately soften. “Elizabeth, you’re making decisions based on people that are no longer alive,” he tells me as gently as he can, but his words still hurt. “When people die, the world changes whether you want it to or not. Your refusal to change with it is doing nothing but hindering the future. A future you deserve. But I’m telling you now, I can’t live in the past where you still are.”
He motions for me to come to him, and I do. Pulling me onto his lap, he wraps me up in a strong hug, and I hold him close. I need comfort, because I’m not sure if I can continue to carry the weight of my world anymore.
“I need you to let go of the past. I’m not asking you to do it all at once, but you’re with me now. I’m your future. Can you do that? At least try to?”
I loosen my arms and pull back to look in his eyes.
“Start with the money,” he tells me.
“Don’t hang on to this for me. Let the money go. It isn’t worth pushing Declan away.”
“Okay,” I agree with a boulder of reluctance, but Pike is right. I can’t take a step back with Declan when we’re finally moving forward.
He smiles, repeating, “Okay.”
“I GOT THE address,” my buddy tells me when I answer my phone.
I’d be stupid to email, fax, or deliver this manifest in any other electronic way. I don’t need my ass getting busted for this breach of security with the FAA. With an address, I can payoff some random Joe to mail this off from any location.
But more importantly, I now have a point of contact.
“Thanks. I’ll get this overnighted.”
Now, I need to start making a few calls because I need a PI, and quick.
“I’LL GET YOU added to my accounts so you can go shopping. I don’t want you touching Bennett’s money any more,” Declan says when I zip up my luggage.
“What are you talking about?”
He eyes my bag, asking, “Those are all your belongings, right?”