Page 65 of Cruel Hearts

Probability of paternity 100%.

A palpitation reverberated across my chest, pumping bile to the back of my throat. I wanted to ball up my saliva and spit it in Lady Liddell’s smug face. Instead, I stilled my features and said, “I could have made this document on Microsoft Word and placed it in a sun bed until the edges turned brown.”

Lady Liddell sighed. “It’s hard to accept being a product of incest.”

She reached for the DNA results, but I lurched forward and snatched the paper off the table. Stepping back toward the window, I tore it in half, then into quarters, eighths, and sixteenths, and kept going until the pieces resembled cheap confetti.

“Do you believe that’s our only copy?” She shook her head, a smirk dancing on those cylindrical lips. “We had several made and stored in multiple locations precisely for this eventuality.”

“You know why this is bullshit?” I threw the pieces at her face, but they landed harmlessly on the floor. “Not even you would let a pedophile work for your academy.”

She flashed her teeth again. “Leave, or I’ll release the report to the police.”

I shook my head. “If word got out that you held onto that information for seventeen years, every parent who sent their kids to Templar academy would string you up by your scrawny neck.”

Her cold, blue eyes bore into mine. “Abigail Burgh made a report to the police of sexual abuse, but they didn’t follow it up because of a lack of evidence.”

My heart pounded. Mr. Burgh had told me something similar. After I was born, Mother had made him withdraw his demand for custody after threatening to tell the police that he had abused her.

Triumph flashed in Lady Liddell’s eyes. “Did I strike a nerve?”

“Only the one operating my gag reflex,” I snarled. “Is this how far you’d stoop to protect your stupid daughter’s drug-dealing?”

“It’s the truth,” she said. “Haven’t you ever wondered why your mother never returned to Templar? The memories of the abuse she suffered are too much to bear. Nobody believed her and she was doomed to return to her rapist father who eventually got her pregnant.”

I shook my head. “Mr. Burgh would never do that.”

“Maybe not to you.” She brushed an imaginary piece of lint off her shoulder. “A sexually-experienced seventeen-year-old from the gutter likely wouldn’t be coerced into sex with her own grandfather. But poor Abigail was an innocent child when he commenced his abuse.”

“This is a bigger farce than the drug raid.” I couldn’t keep the tremble out of my voice. Not because I believed her, but accusations had a way of sticking, and I wasn’t sure that the old man would be able to cope.

Lady Liddell stood to the door and paused to cast me one last glance. “Did you ever wonder why he didn’t introduce himself as your grandfather the moment you met?”

“Mother already explained.”

“That cocaine-addicted alcoholic who clung to her abuser for a steady supply of drugs?” she injected enough pity and condescension in her voice to make me ball my fists.

“With a bitch like you as a teacher, I’d need more than booze and blow to blot you out,” I snarled.

She tapped the side of her nose and gave me a knowing wink. “Mr. Burgh didn’t want your familial connection known so he could seduce you. My Elizabeth saved you from that predator when she exposed your familial connection.”

Nausea overtook my senses, and I shook my head, feeling like I should have a better response. Ninety-nine point nine-nine-nine percent of me knew this was a pack of lies made up to protect Elizabeth. But Lady Liddell had injected enough facts to make me worry for Mr. Burgh’s reputation when she exposed the lies.

“Don’t you think that’s scraping the bottom of the barrel?” I asked. “No one will believe something so far-fetched.”

“And you’re desperately clinging onto transparent lies because the truth is too much to bear.” Her face hardened. “Leave this academy, or I will leak this information to the press along with the address of every property your father-grandfather owns. I don’t know what they do to known sex offenders in Richley, but in Scotland, we burn them in their beds.”

I clenched my teeth. “Before you leave, you might want to ask your daughter why she steals the church collection money. Is it to gamble on horses or to fund her empire of illegal diet pills?”

Her back stiffened, and her shoulders rose to her ears but she didn’t turn around to deny the truth.

By the time Lady Liddell stepped out of the door, a volcano of frustration welled in my chest and angry tears gathered in my eyes. There was nothing remotely perverted about Mr. Burgh. But Lady Liddell was prepared to ruin the old man just to protect her daughter’s misdeeds.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone. It was time to demand the truth from the only person who knew what had really happened.

Mother.

And I would keep ringing until she answered my bloody calls.