“Jack had her so brainwashed that she actually thought he loved her. Even after everything he’d done.”
“What did he do to her?” Vin asks, his voice sounding deadly.
“I’ll get to that, trust me boy, everything is so tangled together and this is the first time I am unravelling it for anybody.” She looks at me and smiles, so much like Aunt Debby. “I am doing this for you because I don’t want to see anything happen to you. I made some big promises.”
I don’t have the slightest idea what she’s talking about but all I know is I want to hear more about my family.
I nod to her and she continues, “Raphael sent me Trent-who at the time was just a fresh addition to the Rampage at sixteen-and a few other men.”
“Wait,” Emmett interrupts. “You know Trent?”
“Yes, Trent and his family mean a lot to me. I survived because of him.” She looks at Emmett and smiles. “I helped his family out of Cartel and gave them jobs to help me hunt down the head of Cartel.”
“Trent is a double agent?” He slaps his hands on the table, the betrayal is evident on his face. “Is he the one who gave Wade’s guy the knife that stabbed Ember?”
I will give him this, he connected things a lot faster than I did and now my mind is reeling with all the possible things Trent could have done to protect Talia and betray us.
“He very much loves you.” She says to Emmett and then looks at me. “He wasn't the one who put the knife in that cage. If I can continue, we will get through everything.”
“Let’s hear the rest.” I say to Emmett, eager to hear more about my family.
He nods, still looking skeptical and I don’t blame him. All of this can be intricately woven lies and we’re actually sitting at the table with our greatest enemy.
“Thank you.” She nods and continues, “that day will always be a hard one for me. Like I said at that time I wasn’t a murderer, honestly, I’m still not.”
Her voice shakes a bit and I will give it to her, she’s either being real right now or my acting skills come straight from her.
“We got in our Rolls because your grandfather loved to flash our wealth and drove the ten minutes to the country club. About five minutes in, we’re sideswiped by a large industrial van and we roll a few times into the ditch.
“Your grandfather wasn’t much for seatbelts-deeming himself above death-but Constance and I were, thankfully. I couldn’t tell you if he survived the initial crash, but if he did he wouldn’t have survived much longer, he was pretty beaten up. Constance was alive and screaming for Jack. I remember undoing her seatbelt and begging her to get out of the vehicle with me. She refused.
“I tried forcing her but Constance was much larger than me. We ended up struggling, me trying to get her out and she just hating me in general. I knew we didn’t have much time, that the second phase of my plan was coming and there could be no stalling. I tried to drag her but she kept trying to get to the front to Jack. You see, us lowly women were to always ride in the back, never up front with him.
“Finally, I got a hold of her dress and yanked her back.” I watch shocked as a few tears escape and roll down her cheeks. “She fell back into the backseat with my effort and her body hit the side door. There was a piece of protruding metal and it sunk easily into the back of her neck. She was dead instantly.
“What you won’t read in those reports given to you by McKay is that they covered that up. They didn’t think it necessary to tell the town every detail because it was gruesome. They also covered up this next part.”
She lifts her bottle but it's empty and Adri gets up to get her another.
“Thank you.” She smiles at her like a sweet old woman and drinks some. “Trent dragged me out of that car, even though the deal was for me to get out or I would die as well. I was just so overcome with grief at what I’d done.”
“Why would you be so overcome with grief?” Vin asks her. “Didn’t you hate her?”
“God no!” She shakes her head vehemently. “I’m not telling this well. Constance was my only friend in Whitsborough. Yes, she hated our situation but she knew I didn’t love my husband. She also knew he would never leave me and marry a black woman, that’s just how it was. I had to cover my own heritage and was accepted because I was white looking enough.”
“White enough looking?” Travis echoes.
“Yes, I am actually Spaniard. My maiden name is Talia and my family sent me here to Whitsborough to marry into a rich aristocratic family. Jack’s family knew he was a deviant just as the whole town knew and they wouldn’t find him a wife anywhere close by. But, they also wanted that wife to come with wealth and good breeding.”
“You were a mail order bride.” Adri says and I snort.
“Essentially,” Talia answers and fires me a look to behave.
I squirm in Vin’s lap because that look is so much like the one my mother would use on me.
“I was heart broken as I watched Trent and his men douse the car in gas and set it aflame. But I couldn’t give up, I had to continue.”
“There were three bodies in that car.” I interject. “And your dental records matched one of
