Total pages in book: 139
Estimated words: 128083 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 640(@200wpm)___ 512(@250wpm)___ 427(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128083 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 640(@200wpm)___ 512(@250wpm)___ 427(@300wpm)
“Is that all? Hell, I can get you that while I’m driving to the base.”
Rex managed a chuckle, even if it came out choked.
“Text me the info, and I’ll get right back to you. I hope it helps because then I’ve gotta go dark.”
“Thank you. I mean it.”
He hung up and texted Erik and then continued on to the address on his GPS where Cami had built her business. When he arrived at Flutterfly twenty minutes later, however, the front gate was locked. There were a few hazy lights coming from the butterfly garden in the distance, but the shop was dark.
Rex considered climbing the fence and checking the property—Flutterfly’s security was obviously lax. But there was no indication anyone was there, and he had this sick feeling that—especially now—running all over town was only going to waste time.
Chapter Fifty-Two
Cami stared at Seraphina, the words she’d just said repeating in her head. She knew? She knew who had meant great harm, even potential death, to an innocent little boy? “Who?” Her voice already sounded stronger, less slurred, even if her muscles were still heavy and partially numb. “If you or Hollis didn’t arrange Cyrus’s kidnapping, then who did?”
“Hollis’s mother,” Seraphina said.
Cami blinked, the vision of the haughty society maven blooming in her mind. “Felicia Barclay? She . . .” Her body seemed to sink even deeper into the plush leather of her seat.
“It was my doing, really.” Seraphina’s smooth brow wrinkled momentarily as if she was conflicted about that. But in what way, Cami couldn’t guess. “I printed that email for both Hollis and Mrs. Barclay. She asks that we cc her on everything, and it’s just habit. There’s nothing she’s not involved in.” She looked away. “Or maybe I included her because I didn’t trust Hollis to take any action whatsoever if that note turned out to be true. I printed it because I wanted to hand it to them myself and not wonder if it got lost in their personal inbox.”
“Meaning what?” What kind of action was Seraphina hoping Hollis took?
But Seraphina seemed to have zoned out slightly, like she was considering something she wasn’t sharing with Cami. “I knew Felicia was ambitious on Hollis’s behalf. I’d seen her use the weight of her legal team on those who challenged her. I knew she was driven and calculating. But I didn’t truly understand at that point the extreme lengths she’d go to to retain power and achieve more. I guess you could say I practically signed that little boy’s death warrant.” She smiled, a wry expression as though there was something ironic in what she’d said. And Cami could only take in the information because it was too much to try to organize, much less understand.
She knew Hollis had always been close to his mother. She had no idea if he’d ever shared what Cami had told Hollis about him being her child’s father. The Barclays never said a word to her or reached out in any way, so she figured either they’d done as Hollis had done and convinced themselves that the baby was not his, or they just preferred to leave it all behind.
Regardless of whether Mrs. Barclay had believed Hollis was Cyrus’s father, once Cami put him up for adoption, she must have believed he was gone for good. A closed adoption to another state. No connection to Hollis, at least none that had ever been recorded. No way for Cami herself to contact their son even if she’d wanted to.
He’d been gone. Unproblematic. Until he wasn’t.
Was that what Seraphina was telling her?
“She was willing to have Cyrus murdered rather than risk him coming forward as Hollis’s son?” The words slithered over her after she’d spoken them. If that was true, the woman was pure evil. And so was Seraphina if she was hand-delivering Cami to Hollis and Mrs. Barclay to do with as they would.
Seraphina hummed. “I’ve thought about why Felicia decided Cyrus needed to be taken care of. After all, I’m extremely well acquainted with the interest the media took in your story. The news of your son would be a new chapter. A reinvigoration of a media sensation that garnered the nation’s attention. Can you imagine? The press would have a field day. The baby Camille Cortlandt put up for adoption was Hollis Barclay’s all along. And if it came out that he knew it, well, I have to believe Hollis would be cast in a less-than-flattering light this time.”
Deservedly so.
Seraphina looked down and traced a loop in the pattern on her dress. This woman had everything to lose as well, even if she’d seemed to carry some guilt for what her mother had done. “Mrs. Barclay suggested the email was a prank, and Hollis willingly believed it,” Seraphina said.
That definitely tracked. “Are you surprised?”