Her Silent Revenge novel Chapter 126

"But why?" Mom wails. "Why, Archer?"

"Because she could, Mom." My voice is a sword. Everyone in the room looks at me. Maybe I shouldn't state the obvious. "You showed her the jewelry years ago, didn't you? You two shared everything. Did she know about the appraisal?"

Weeping, Mom pinches her eyes shut and nods painfully.

"Yeah. She knew we had money and she needed it. That's enough.

That's the entire fucking reason."

"Language, Patton," she snaps. "Your father raised us better. We can't panic and go to pieces now."

"Dad's dead," I tell her, striding past them all into the sunroom. It's quiet and dark here and I don't bother flicking on the lights.

She's redecorated plenty since I lived here, but I still know my way around.

Evelyn sat here with Mom and Salem and Arlo not long ago. Evelyn pretended to care while she hatched an atrocity.

The wind howls against the huge glass windows.

Every part of me feels just as cold as I burst through the French doors, walking to the small shelf near the door leading into the backyard. The world holds its breath, silent even though the light from the sitting room soaks across the potted greenery inside.

They're plants they must've picked up from somewhere recently, lined up in a neat row. Mostly flowers by the look of them, perched inside here for another week or two until it's warm enough to put them outside.

"Patton." Dexter calls my name. "I don't know what you're planning, but it's a bad idea."

"Slow down and think. We looked high and low. We couldn't find anything related to that plant," Archer says. They've always been on a different wavelength from me, my brothers, and it's never been such a stark contrast.

I suck in a cooling breath of night air. "I'm going to find that backstabbing bitch."

"Sure." Archer's voice is skeptical. "But we need hard evidence to make sure she's nailed down."

Dexter puts a hand on my shoulder that I shake off. "Cool down before you do something stupid," he warns. My jaw is so tight it might snap. I'd welcome the pain.

"Something stupid? You mean like going after Evelyn myself?" "What, you think you're a bounty hunter now? The police are—"

"The police are useless in a case that's international," I snap. "Look, I'm not about to leave this shit to a police report and some FBI case file that moves like a sloth. She could've killed my son."

Shit.

Archer staggers backward and Dexter freezes.

"And now my son's in the hospital. Because of her." I shake my fists before I punch something. "I missed out on years of his life and Evelyn did her best to make sure I'd miss his future."

"Patton—" Dexter starts.

"No. I don't give a fuck whether you think it's a bad idea or not," I tell them, shoving my way outside. I need to breathe. It's so cold my breath clouds in front of my face. "If she'd just stolen money or jewelry from us, whatever. I'd let the police handle it. But not this. This is too personal."

Archer nods, the only other person who gets it when he's a father himself.

"Okay, what's your plan? You must have something in mind after we turned this place upside down to make sure we didn't miss anything. Go."

He doesn't have to tell me twice.

I'm at the hospital by visiting hours the next morning, fueled by coffee and distilled rage.

It's not as overwhelming as it was last night, which gives me time to think over everything.

Archer would be fucking proud.

As I approach Arlo's bed, I flag down a nurse and ask her what the situation is. She looks tired as hell. Really, everyone in this hospital looks like they've been pulling sixteen-hour shifts—the staff shortages in medicine are real—but she gives me a warm, faded smile.