Chapter 8
Ashley was out.
The police had warned me.
She was dangerous.
Desperate.
And she had nothing left to lose.
Thomas arranged for security.
Two guards at the cottage.
Twenty-four hours a day.
Bradley came to stay with me.
He brought the children.
We weren't taking any chances.
That night, we sat on the porch.
The guards were patrolling the property.
The lake was calm.
The stars were bright.
But I couldn't relax.
Ashley was out there.
Somewhere.
Watching.
Waiting.
Planning.
"Mom," Bradley said. "Maybe we should go somewhere else. A hotel. Somewhere she can't find us."
I shook my head.
"This is my home," I said. "Your father built this place for us. I'm not running. Not from Ashley. Not from anyone."
He nodded.
He understood.
The next day, Sarah and her family arrived.
Her husband, Mark.
And their twins, Ethan and Emma.
Ten years old.
Bright.
Curious.
Full of life.
Sarah was even more beautiful in person.
She had Daniel's eyes.
His smile.
His mannerisms.
When she first walked into the cottage, she stopped.
She looked around.
And she started crying.
"It feels like him," she said. "I can feel him here."
I hugged her.
"He is here," I said. "He's always here."
We spent the weekend together.
Talking.
Laughing.
Crying.
Getting to know each other.
Sarah told me about her life.
About growing up without a father.
About always wondering.
About meeting Daniel five years ago.
"It was wonderful," she said. "We spent the whole day together. He told me about you. About Bradley. About the cottage. He said you were the best thing that ever happened to him. That he'd never loved anyone the way he loved you. And that he was sorry he'd never told me about you. Sorry he'd been too much of a coward to tell either of us."
She paused.
"He wanted to tell you," she said. "He was going to. He was going to bring us all together. But then he got sick. And everything happened so fast. And he never got the chance."
I cried.
Daniel had been planning to tell me.
He'd been going to bring us all together.
But he'd run out of time.
I showed her the cottage.
The places Daniel and I had worked on together.
The porch swing he'd built.
The dock he'd rebuilt.
The little wooden fish he'd carved beside the back door.
She ran her fingers over it.
Just like Daniel used to.
The twins loved the cottage.
They ran on the beach.
They swam in the lake.
They made friends with Lily and Noah.
By the end of the weekend, they were calling me Grandma Marianne.
And my heart was full.
Full of love.
Full of hope.
Full of family.
Ashley was forgotten.
At least for a little while.
On Sunday evening, as Sarah and her family were getting ready to leave, there was a commotion at the gate.
The guards were shouting.
A car was trying to force its way through.
I ran to the window.
It was Ashley.
She was driving a truck.
She was drunk.
Or high.
Or both.
She was screaming.
"Let me in! I want to talk to her! I want my cottage!"
The guards tried to stop her.
But she rammed the gate.
The metal bent.
She kept coming.
"Call the police!" Bradley shouted.
Sarah grabbed the twins.
She took them and Lily and Noah into the bedroom.
She locked the door.
Bradley and I stood in the kitchen.
Waiting.
The front door crashed open.
Ashley stumbled in.
She was holding a bottle.
Her hair was messy.
Her eyes were wild.
She saw me.
And she smiled.
A crazy, desperate smile.
"There you are," she said. "You think you can take everything from me? You think you can replace me with another daughter? You think Daniel's secrets make you happy? Well, I have more secrets. More than you can imagine."
She pulled something out of her pocket.
A gun.
Bradley stepped in front of me.
"Ashley," he said. "Put the gun down. Please."
She laughed.
"Or what? You'll stop me? You're weak, Bradley. You've always been weak. You couldn't even protect your own mother. How are you going to protect her from me?"
She raised the gun.
"Move, Bradley," she said. "Or I'll shoot you first."
Bradley didn't move.
"I won't let you hurt her," he said.
Ashley's hand was shaking.
She was crying now.
And laughing.
And screaming.
All at the same time.
"I loved you," she said to Bradley. "I really did. Or at least, I loved what you could give me. The money. The cottage. The perfect family. But you ruined it. You chose her over me. Your own wife."
She looked at me.
"And you," she said. "You think you're so much better than me. So perfect. So moral. But your husband was a liar and a cheat. And you're just a sad old widow who can't even hold onto her own son."
She raised the gun higher.
"Goodbye, Marianne."
She pulled the trigger.
But nothing happened.
The gun jammed.
She looked at it.
Confused.
And then the guards burst through the door.
They tackled her.
They wrestled the gun away.
They handcuffed her.
She was screaming.
Fighting.
Crying.
The police arrived a few minutes later.
They took Ashley away.
This time, there would be no bail.
No technicalities.
She was facing attempted murder charges.
On top of everything else.
She would spend the rest of her life in prison.
It was over.
Really over.
I sat down on the kitchen floor.
Bradley sat down beside me.
He held me.
Sarah came out of the bedroom.
The children were okay.
Shaken.
But okay.
Sarah sat down on the other side of me.
She held my hand.
And for a moment, everything was perfect.
I had my son.
I had my new daughter.
I had my grandchildren.
I had the cottage.
I had my memories of Daniel.
And Ashley was gone.
Forever.
But as the police were leading Ashley out, she looked back at me.
And she smiled.
A strange, knowing smile.
And she mouthed something.
I couldn't hear her.
But I could read her lips.
*The bank.*
What bank?
What was she talking about?
I didn't know.
But I had a feeling there was one more secret waiting to be uncovered.
May you like
One more thing Daniel had left behind.
And I was going to find out what it was.
