Chapter 27 Chapter Twenty-six
ARA
As the helicopter began its slow ascent into the sky, my thoughts moved from one issue to another.
Something between Thayne and I was changing, and I knew it was selfish to imagine that something beautiful might come out of the nightmare that was currently my life.
As the buildings below us grew smaller and smaller, I let my thoughts drift to Darius Reedson and why he'd gone for Thayne's mother instead of something more.
Not that Thayne's mother wasn't ‘more’. Thayne's refusal to discuss her with me told me she meant the world to him.
But it just felt too personal for Darius to kidnap her. Something told me that there was something else. Why hadn't he gone for my sisters since he wanted to play the kidnap card?
“Munroe, where does Thayne's mother reside?" I asked, turning to face Munroe who was sitting next to me.
“I'm sorry, Miss Irvington, but I'm not in the best place to discuss her with you." Munroe replied, his voice a dull whisper compared to the loud roar of the chopper blades.
I steeled my expression. “Do you think I wouldn't have asked Thayne if he was sitting right next to me? I'm just asking where she lives. I've never seen or read anything about her in the news. Is she in New York?” I chose my words carefully, baiting Munroe to give me the clues I needed to join facts together.
“Yes, she is in New York. At least, she was in New York before Darius took her from the -” He caught himself, as if there was a forbidden piece of information he'd nearly shared with me.
I didn't know which was louder, my voice or the helicopter blades.
“Took her from the what? You have to finish now that you've started. I know you're really close to Thayne. I've seen the relationship dynamics between you too.”
“You're shouting, Miss Irvington." Munroe said, ignoring the matter at hand completely.
“I won't tell him you're the one who told me.” I mimicked zipping my lips and tossing out the key.
He sighed and shook his head. “Now I understand why he thinks you're insufferable and stubborn.”
I lifted my brows. "He discusses me with you?”
"I'm his best friend, Miss Irvington. He tells me everything.” He said, a wolfish grin spreading on his face.
"You're his what? Wait… you mean…." I was confused, shocked, surprised, speechless. Everything at the same time.
He grinned wider.
“This is one of the things you must not tell him I told you. In order to protect his interests, I pretend I'm his employee in public. I've been his personal bodyguard since his father officially named him heir.” Munroe's voice sounded less meaner the more he spoke.
"Tell me about Thayne's mother.” I pressed.
"It's true, you have the memory of an elephant. You never forget. He was damn right on that one.” He teased, earning a hard look from me.
He immediately assumed a serious facial expression and cleared his throat.
“His mother is in asylum. She's mentally unstable. But she wasn't always like that. Thayne's father abandoned her when she got pregnant because she refused to terminate the pregnancy. Even-”
"He asked her to terminate the pregnancy?!” I exclaimed, interrupting him.
Munroe nodded.
“He thought she would eventually terminate it, but she didn't. He never contacted her during the pregnancy because he never knew she kept the baby. When she delivered, she didn't inform him. She raised him on her own, even when her parents disowned her.”
Thayne's father was a heartless monster. He never contacted her during or after the pregnancy. What kind of man would do that?
I remembered the circumstances surrounding my birth and realized my own father had done exactly that and worse.
Now Thayne's coldness was understandable. It must have been hard for him, growing up without a father to protect him from the harsh realities of life.
“Five years later, somehow, he found out she'd kept the baby. They got back together, and Ursula came along. But by then, signs of her mental disorder were starting to manifest. Later, he sent her off to an asylum. He married Maggie only weeks after sending the mother of his kids to an asylum.” Munroe pursed his lips after his last sentence, as if he didn't want to say more than he already had.
"And Maggie raised them. But why didn't he have kids with Maggie?" I asked him, hungry for more.
“He was involved in an accident that affected his reproductive system. He would never be able to father a child. It was exactly why he didn't abandon Thayne and his sister."
At that moment, I got a flashback from when I'd been eavesdropping on Thayne and his father, after which he'd called himself an-heir-without-a-spare.
Now it all clicked in place.
Thayne's father realized he would need an heir to continue the Slade legacy, and so he'd had no other choice than to keep the kids under his roof.
“Maggie was cruel to them. Thayne spent a greater part of his time protecting Ursula from domestic abuse. For his sister, he was always on the receiving end of his father's wrath.”
I gasped. "The scars…" I whispered.
Munroe's eyes widened. “He let you see them?"
“It… We were…" How on earth would I explain that I'd seen it because we were in bed together?
“No need, I know already." Munroe said quickly, putting me out of my misery.
“So, she's been in asylum all this while? But why would Darius go after her?"
Munroe didn't answer. Instead, he leaned across the seat and pointed ahead.
“We've arrived." He announced.
We descended slowly, and my jaw joined in the descent as Thayne's family villa came into view.
Holy heavens!
This was opulence in its grandest form. Art, beauty, wild nature, aesthetics. Everything was present here.
Four cars were speeding up to meet the helicopter, and I was given little time to appreciate the view as Munroe transferred us to the limousine waiting at the head of the lineup.
In the limo, I drank in the view of the Slade Family Villa.
The massive black gates swung open on its own to let us through.
Munroe had to drag me out of the limo because I was utterly transfixed by the sight of everything.
So much wealth. This was how billionaires lived.
I was standing in front of the marble sculpture of a life-sized lioness when I heard someone call my name.
Munroe, who had been trying to drag me away from the sculpted work of art, also turned with me in the direction of the voice.
Right in front of the main entrance stood Maggie Slade, Thayne's stepmother and now ex-wife of Thayne Senior.
She was a middle-aged beauty with zero wrinkles and nonexistent laugh lines.
She wore light makeup, but that was because there was no need.
The woman was beautiful enough all on her own. She looked different from what the press usually gave us.
In pictures, she always looked friendly.
In real life? She looked mischievous and ready to cheat her way through anything.
Thayne's men immediately formed a protective circle around me even though the only threat at the moment was one harmless woman. Was she really harmless, though?
“You're not supposed to be on the premises, ma'am." Munroe said calmly.
Maggie rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. I haven't signed the divorce papers yet. But Thayne's father does what he wants. He proposed to Madison anyway. Everyone thinks I'll sign those ugly papers." She fingered the expensive diamond necklace around her neck.
“You won't?" I asked.
“Would you, Ara Irvington? He trapped me in this marriage for years! And now he just wants to dump me?” She asked, climbing down the stairs that led to the entrance.
Despite her tall heels, she had no problem watching her steps on the stairs.
"I'm sure you must be wondering, why this boring talk? But you of all people, Ara, should know what it feels like to be trapped in the stiff arms of a man who doesn't care one bit about you.” Her words hit home, and I hated that I felt inclined to agree with her.
When she finally reached the last stair, she paused.
“Call me diabolical, but I was the one who leaked Liliana’s asylum location to Darius.” She said, a malicious smile tugging her lips.
Liliana? As in, Thayne's mother?