Chapter 4

I got to the window in time to watch the locket break apart on the pavement below.

Traffic rolled over the pieces, and in a heartbeat there was nothing left of it.

My eyes went wide, and every bit of rage I'd swallowed came loose at once. I threw myself at Felix.

The words came out of me slurred and shapeless, but they were threats.

Felix ducked behind Helena, covering his mouth, smiling over the top of his hand.

"Helena, what did I tell you?

"Push Simon hard enough and he talks."

Helena's eyes darkened, as if she were actually weighing whether the method might work.

When I came at him again, she shoved me back.

I'd already lost too much blood. I went down and couldn't get up again, no matter how long I fought for it.

She seemed about to step toward me. Then Felix spoke, sorrowful all of a sudden.

"Helena, today's the anniversary of when Rocco died.

"You promised me you'd find him somewhere beautiful to rest.

"I think Willowridge would be perfect.

"I just don't know whether Simon would be willing to give up the plot.

"That's where his mother is, after all."

The sound that tore out of my throat wasn't a word.

I lunged for him, wanting nothing in the world but to shut that mouth.

I never reached him. He was already falling backward.

"My heart. It hurts.

"Helena, I was only teasing him. I wanted to help him talk again.

"How was I supposed to know he'd take it seriously? He knows about my heart, and he still shoved me—

"He wants me dead. That's what this is.

"I don't care if I die. But my mother's still in prison, and now I'll never see her again."

I watched him work through it, badly, and tried to defend myself. Nothing came out but noise.

Helena's eyes on me went colder by the second.

"Simon, so all that meekness was an act.

"What you actually wanted was Felix dead."

She called for someone to get him to the emergency department.

On her way out, she looked back at me with open disgust. "If anything happens to Felix, I will never forgive you."

I stayed where I was on the floor. I didn't have anything left.

Half an hour later, the director of Willowridge Memorial Gardens called.

"Mr. Caldwell, I'm calling about Eleanor Caldwell's plot. Circumstances outside our control have forced us to close that section.

"The remains have to be relocated immediately. Please come now. If you delay, we can't be responsible for their condition."

A high ringing filled my ears.

I didn't stop to think. I called a car and went straight to Willowridge.

By the time I got there, the grave was already half open.

I threw myself in front of the shovel.

Felix shrank back into Helena's arms as though something had frightened him. "Helena, the adviser was right. There's something buried here that's making me sick.

"The second Simon showed up, my heart started hurting again."

I went down on one knee in front of Helena, shaking my head, and dragged two words up out of my throat by force.

"Don't. Please."

Helena was quiet for a moment. Then she told Marcus Vance to pull me back anyway.

"Simon, Rosalind gave everything she had to this company. I'm not gambling with her son's safety.

"Don't worry. I'll find your mother somewhere just as beautiful."

Two men held me at the side while I watched them dig up the woman I'd buried weeks before.

While nobody was paying attention, Felix leaned in close to my ear.

"You still don't know, do you? Eleanor didn't die of her illness.

"She saw Helena kissing me, and it killed her right there.

"Same hospital bed we used today, actually. Eleanor was next door, listening to the two of us, a long time.

"That night Helena had you cleaning up a mess I made at work, so you never picked up your mother's call.

"You work so hard for me, Simon."

I screamed.

I tore loose from the men holding me and got both hands into Felix's hair.

Somewhere in the struggle, a boot caught me in the stomach.

The pain went through me white and total. I looked up.

Helena stood over me with my mother's urn in her hands.

I got both hands around my own throat and forced it out. "Give. My mother. Back."

She laughed at me, short and cold. "So you were pretending after all.

"If it takes pushing you to make you talk, then I'll keep pushing."

Then she threw the urn straight off the cliff.

It broke apart on the rocks, and my mother went out into the wind.

"Mom—"

I went after her down the slope, and the men caught me again and held.

Helena gave the order the way she'd order lunch. "Keep him here until he can put a full sentence together. Then let him go home."

She turned Felix's wheelchair around and walked away.

She never noticed the helicopter coming in low from the far side of the ridge.

When I got a look at who stepped out of it, my eyes burned.

Helena got home distracted.

Felix said her name several times before she answered.

"Helena, everything we did today was to get Simon talking again.

"Don't worry about it. He isn't going to hold it against you."

Helena lifted her head. The unease wouldn't leave her.

She was reaching for her phone to tell the men to bring me back when Arthur ran in, out of breath. "Ms. Ashcroft, someone just delivered certified copies of your divorce decree."

Before she could react, Marcus Vance's voice came through the open line, and there was panic in it.

"Ma'am, we have a problem—"