I’LL BE WATCHING YOU Page 33

  ‘What is it?’ she asked.

  Reed brought his finger to his nose and sniffed, then he put his finger to his lips and tasted. ‘Blood,’ he said.

  ‘Ella! Where is she?’

  ‘We’ll search the house and if we don’t find her—’

  A voice calling Ella’s name came from somewhere to their left, off in the wooded area that ran along the riverbank. Cybil grabbed Reed’s arm.

  ‘Yeah, I heard,’ he whispered.

  ‘That voice …’

  ‘A woman’s voice,’ Reed said.

  ‘That’s Carolyn’s voice.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Carolyn. My sister Carolyn. What is she doing here?’

  ‘Your sister must have been the one who phoned me pretending to be you. She’s the one who—’

  A piercing scream rent the stillness of the humid summer night. Reed and Cybil ran down the porch steps and out into the woods, following the lingering echo of that terrified scream.

  29

  Viola Mull blocked Reed’s path. Stupid woman. Did she think she could stop him? As he drew closer, the moonlight reflected off the gun in Viola’s hand. Damn!

  ‘Stop right there, Reed Conway,’ Viola instructed.

  ‘Where’s Ella?’ Reed asked as he crept, inch by inch, closer and closer to Carolyn Porter’s companion.

  ‘It’s unfortunate that you arrived so early,’ Viola told him. ‘But no matter, we will simply have to readjust our plans. Perhaps we can arrange it so that it looks as if Ella was able to shoot you before she died.’

  ‘Where is she?’

  ‘Don’t come any closer,’ Viola said. ‘If you do, I’ll be forced to shoot you right now.’

  ‘You’re going to shoot me regardless,’ Reed said just before he rushed her.

  Taken off guard by Reed’s bold move, Viola didn’t get off a shot before Reed tackled her. They struggled on the ground, the gun held tightly in Viola’s hand between them. Suddenly the gun went off. Reed heard the shot echo inside his head. He rolled Viola off him and over onto the ground. She stared up at the night sky with sightless eyes. With only the moonlight for illumination, Reed could see her dimly, but well enough to believe she was dead. He felt for a pulse. There was none.

  Cybil ran toward Reed. He rose to his feet just in time to put his hand over her mouth.

  ‘Don’t say anything,’ Reed whispered.

  Cybil nodded.

  And then they heard the voice again. ‘Ella, did you hear that gunshot? Viola just killed someone. Do you think perhaps Reed showed up earlier than he should have?’

  Cybil’s eyes rounded with shock. ‘It’s Carolyn’s voice,’ she murmured. ‘How is it possible that my sister is out there in her wheelchair in the woods with Ella?’

  If Ella was still alive, that meant he had to get to her, had to save her from her own mother. ‘Viola is the one who’s dead,’ Reed shouted.

  ‘Reed!’ Ella screamed.

  Reed plowed through the dark woods, heading straight toward the sound of Ella’s voice. But if he could follow her voice, so could Carolyn. How the hell was the woman maneuvering in a wheelchair? The explanation hit him about two seconds before he came upon Ella struggling with her mother, both women standing upright.

  ‘Get away from her,’ Reed said as he zeroed in on the two.

  Ella shoved Carolyn, who just barely managed to remain on her feet. Ella slumped to the ground. Reed rushed Carolyn, but before he could overpower her, she stabbed him in the shoulder. Instinctively Reed grabbed his injured shoulder, and when he did, Carolyn whirled around and lifted her knife, bringing it down toward Ella.

  Reed lunged for Carolyn, but before his body made contact with hers, a gunshot blasted from behind him. Carolyn went limp when the bullet struck her in the back of her head. She crumpled into a heap as her life’s blood drained from her. Reed didn’t glance backward. He rushed to Ella, lifting her up onto her feet. When she fell against him, he swept her up into his arms.

  Cybil, still tenaciously grasping Viola’s gun in her hand, walked toward Reed. ‘Are you two all right?’

  ‘Yeah, thanks to you,’ Reed said.

  Cybil reached out and tenderly ran her fingertips over the wound in Ella’s back. ‘We have to get her to a hospital. And, you, too.’

  ‘Mother … Mother …’ Ella moaned.

  ‘God!’ Cybil glanced down at her sister’s lifeless body. ‘She could walk. She wasn’t paralyzed.’

  ‘She killed Junior,’ Ella whispered, then started coughing.

  ‘Hush, darling girl.’ Cybil caressed Ella’s cheek. ‘Time enough for explanations later. We have to get you to the hospital right away.’

  As Reed carried Ella toward the cabin, Cybil followed, the gun still clutched in her hand. Off in the distance, the sound of sirens grew louder and louder.

  Carolyn Walker Porter was laid to rest in the family plot at Spring Creek Cemetery directly following a brief private service. Only her husband, her daughter, her sister and brother-in-law attended. Carolyn’s funeral had been delayed at Ella’s request. She had asked her father to wait until she was released from the hospital – four days after her mother had tried to kill her. Viola Mull’s body had been cremated, as her will had requested, and her ashes left for the funeral home to dispose of as they saw fit.

  When the black limousine pulled up in the driveway at the Porter house, a police entourage kept the reporters and sightseers at a distance. Reed, who waited on the porch, came out to meet Ella. The moment she saw him, she rushed into his arms. He led her up the walkway toward her home. Her father, aunt and uncle followed, keeping their backs to the press and ignoring the shouted media questions.

  Little had been said among the family members at Carolyn’s funeral. Indeed, what was there to say? In the emergency room that night after the incident at the cabin, both Cybil and Reed had told Frank Nelson what had happened, and Ella had given a statement the following morning. The Junior Blalock murder case had been officially reopened, and it was only a matter of time before Reed was exonerated of all charges and given a full pardon.

  As she started to enter the living room, Ella caught a glimpse, in her peripheral vision, of Judy Conway standing at the end of the hallway, near the entrance to the kitchen. Regina was at her side. Ella stopped, turned slowly, and headed down the corridor toward Reed’s mother and sister. Reed went with her, but before they reached their destination, Webb Porter called out to them.

  ‘Ella, I asked Judy and Regina to come here today,’ Webb said.

  Ella approached Reed’s mother and sister.

  ‘I’m very sorry about Carolyn,’ Judy said. ‘She must have been truly sick in her mind to have been capable of doing the things she did. But if it is any comfort to you, I know that she once loved you very much.’

  Ella reached out and grasped Judy’s hand. ‘Thank you. I appreciate your being so kind, especially considering how destructive my mother – Carolyn – was to you and your children. She tried to ruin all your lives.’

  Reed tightened his hold around Ella’s waist. ‘This could have waited.’ Reed glanced back at Webb, his gaze accusatory, then looked straight at his mother. ‘Why did you agree to come here, today of all days?’

  ‘Your mother and sister are here at my insistence,’ Webb said. ‘I realize we could wait, but I see no point in continuing the lies one day longer. It’s past time for the truth to be told – the whole truth.’

  ‘I think we know the truth, don’t we?’ Ella felt certain that she knew all the hard, cold facts about her parents and about her own life. Her mother had been a murderer, a woman who had hated her enough to kill her. The father she had always worshiped had a biological daughter that he could now claim. No matter how much Webb Porter loved Ella, wasn’t it possible that Regina would now take her place in his heart? All she had was Reed, to whom she clung. But even her relationship with Reed wasn’t something she could count on. He had made her no promises, made no plans with her about a fut
ure together.

  ‘Mark Leamon is waiting in the den for us,’ Webb said. ‘Please, if all of you will bear with me, I’m prepared to put an end to a lifetime of lies.’

  When Webb held out his hand, it wasn’t to Judy Conway, as Ella had expected. Instead it was to her aunt Cybil, who gave her husband a sad, forlorn glance, then walked to Webb’s side and accepted his outstretched hand. Together they entered the den, followed slowly by a puzzled Ella, who still depended upon Reed’s comforting support. Within minutes the den was filled to capacity. Webb seated Cybil at his desk and took his place behind her, his hands resting on her shoulders. Mark Leamon nodded a greeting to the others as they filtered into the room, then motioned for Regina to come to him, which she did instantly. Judy Conway gazed at Webb, a wealth of love and sympathy plainly visible in her eyes. Ella searched for her uncle and found him standing in the doorway. Their gazes met. He smiled at her. Tears misted his eyes.

  A knot of anxiety tightened in Ella’s stomach. Reed guided her toward the sofa, but she shook her head when he tried to help her sit. ‘I’ll stand,’ she told him.

  ‘Whatever Webb has to tell us, we’ll deal with it together,’ Reed told her.

  She nodded, then turned her attention to her father, who cleared his throat several times before he spoke.

  ‘I believe everyone here knows that I’ve been in love with Judy Conway most of my life.’ Webb gazed at Judy for just a moment, then visibly tightened his hold on Cybil’s shoulders. ‘And I think everyone knows that she and I had an affair that resulted in a child.’ Webb looked at Regina, who tilted her chin and stared straight at her father. ‘I intend to publicly acknowledge Regina as my child, and she, along with my older daughter, Ella, will become my legal heirs. Regina, I don’t know if you can ever forgive me for not claiming you long before now, but your mother and I thought we were doing the right thing for everyone involved, considering the circumstances.’

  ‘I don’t know what you want me to say,’ Regina told her father. ‘I’m really not sure how I feel about you.’

  ‘Fair enough,’ Webb said. ‘All I ask is that you give me a chance to be a father to you … because you see’ – he looked at Judy again – ‘when a decent amount of time has passed, I’m going to ask your mother to marry me.’

  Ella gasped. Reed squeezed her hand. Ella felt as if her entire life were evaporating before her very eyes, as if she had never truly existed. Her mother was gone – a mother who had wanted to kill her. And her father had a child who was truly his. And one day soon he would marry Reed’s mother and build a new life with her and their child.

  ‘I don’t understand why this family meeting was necessary,’ Ella said. ‘All of us already knew everything you’ve told us.’

  ‘There’s more,’ Webb said.

  ‘Perhaps I should explain.’ Cybil took a deep breath, then released it slowly. ‘Thirty-one years ago, Webb found himself trapped in a marriage to my sister. She’d been paralyzed in a riding accident and Webb wouldn’t leave her.’ Cybil looked point-blank at Jeff Henry. ‘I was young and foolishly in love – with a man who loved my sister.’

  Ella watched the play of emotions on Jeff Henry’s face. Shock. Disbelief. Amazement.

  Cybil continued. ‘After Carolyn’s accident, Jeff Henry thought that perhaps he had a chance with Carolyn. Even then, he still wanted her.’ Cybil breathed in and out through her nose as she clenched her teeth, obviously in an effort not to cry. ‘I hated Jeff Henry because he couldn’t love me, and I hated Carolyn because she toyed with Jeff Henry, keeping him emotionally on a string, not wanting him, but never letting him go. So I decided to seduce Carolyn’s husband.’ Cybil laughed, the sound hollow and sad. So very sad. ‘This happened a little over a year before I married Jeff Henry. I was only seventeen.’

  Ella’s gaze traveled around the room, studying the faces of the principal players in this game of absolute truth. She could tell by the expressions on their faces that whatever her aunt Cybil was about to reveal wasn’t news to either Judy or Jeff Henry.

  ‘Webb and I were both miserable. He loved Judy. I loved Jeff Henry. We couldn’t be with the ones we loved, so we turned to each other for solace – once and only once.’ Tears misted Cybil’s eyes.

  ‘Let me take over from here.’ Webb tenderly patted Cybil’s shoulders. ‘Cybil came to me a couple of months later, after our one night together, and told me she was pregnant.’

  Both Ella and Regina gasped. Reed glowered at Webb but never released his tight grip on Ella’s hand.

  ‘I concocted what I thought was a brilliant plan,’ Webb told them. ‘I spoke to Carolyn about our adopting a child, and to my surprise, she agreed. Cybil moved away, supposedly to college, until after the baby was born. Then my lawyer, Milton Leamon, arranged a private adoption. Carolyn never knew the baby girl we adopted was my biological daughter. Mine and Cybil’s.’

  Ella felt as if the world were spinning out of control. She heard every word of what her father was saying, and, on some level, she understood. However, the reality that Webb was truly her father and that Cybil was her mother seemed impossible to believe.

  ‘I don’t think any man could have screwed up his personal life more than I did,’ Webb admitted. ‘I’ve lived most of the past thirty years lying about everything that was important to me. Ella, honey, can you ever forgive me?’

  ‘Can you ever forgive us?’ Cybil asked.

  What could she say? ‘I don’t believe this.’ But she did believe them. It made perfect sense, didn’t it? This was the reason she’d always felt so close to her aunt Cybil, why she’d always felt as if her aunt and uncle were like a second set of parents. And this was the reason that she was so much like Webb, why they thought a great deal alike. And why she’d often thought she actually resembled her adoptive parents.

  Ella glanced at her uncle. ‘You knew, didn’t you?’

  ‘Yes, Cybil told me once, years ago, when she was drinking and crying and calling for her baby,’ Jeff Henry said. ‘You were about three years old at the time.’ Jeff Henry came forward, moving directly toward his wife. He hovered at the edge of the desk. ‘Why didn’t you ever tell me that you loved me? All these years, I’ve thought you loved Webb.’

  ‘You silly, stupid jackass.’ Tears streamed down Cybil’s face.

  Jeff Henry turned to Ella. ‘She loves you more than anything. You must know that. And you must understand why she did what she did. It was for you, so that you could grow up as part of our family without the shame of illegitimacy hovering over you like a dark cloud.’

  Cybil rose from the chair. ‘Ella? Darling girl?’

  Ella jerked her hand out of Reed’s and met Cybil as she rounded the edge of the desk and held out her arms. Ella went into her mother’s arms – her real mother. By the time mother and daughter had hugged and cried and hugged some more, they both noticed they were alone in the den. Everyone had disappeared.

  ‘I know I’ll never win an award for Mother of the Year,’ Cybil said. ‘I’m no prize. But I love you. I’ve always loved you. And I tried to be as big a part of your life as I could.’

  ‘I know.’

  Cybil clutched Ella’s chin in the curve between her thumb and index finger. ‘You mustn’t let Reed get away. If you love him, then tell him. Don’t waste one more day of your life without making a commitment to each other.’

  ‘But—’

  ‘No buts.’ Cybil turned Ella around and headed her toward the door. ‘All this past history can be sorted out in the weeks, months and years ahead. What’s important right this minute is your happiness.’

  Ella found Reed in the gazebo, standing alone with his back to her. ‘Reed?’

  He turned slowly and faced her. ‘Are you okay?’

  She nodded. A weak smile hovered on her lips. ‘I will be.’

  ‘So, what now? Things won’t ever be the same for you once the whole town knows all the family secrets.’

  ‘I don’t care about the family secrets being rev
ealed,’ Ella said as she stepped up and into the gazebo. ‘Don’t you think it’s apparent that what people think of me isn’t that important. After all, I’ve already ruined my reputation by having a love affair with you.’

  Reed grinned. ‘So you have.’

  Ella draped her arms around Reed’s neck and pressed her body to his. ‘What about you? What are you planning on doing with the rest of your life?’

  Reed cupped her buttocks and pressed her against his erection. ‘I’m not sure what I want to do with the rest of my life, but I thought that after our honeymoon, you could help me decide.’

  ‘What did you say?’

  ‘I said that after our honeymoon—’

  ‘You haven’t asked me to marry you.’

  ‘Oh, you’re right,’ Reed said. ‘Just an oversight, I can assure you.’ He kissed her quite thoroughly, then ended the kiss when they both were breathless. ‘Ella Porter, will you marry me?’

  ‘No candlelight and soft music? No diamond engagement ring?’

  ‘Nope. Sorry. All I have to offer is myself.’

  ‘Well, it just so happens that that’s all I want.’

  Epilogue

  Two years later …

  Reed Conway walked his mother down the aisle. Waiting for her at the altar was her groom, Webb Porter. At Webb’s side stood his son-in-law, Mark Leamon, the best man. The wedding was a small affair and the guest list kept to only family and close friends, like the newlyweds Heather and Dan Gilmore. An intimate ceremony suited the recently retired senator and his bride, who wanted a more private lifestyle in the future.

  Ella thought her father looked handsome as always in his black suit. And Judy, whom Ella had grown to love dearly in the eighteen months she’d been married to Reed, looked beautiful in her pale ivory suit. But no one could outshine her husband. Reed was utterly, devastatingly gorgeous. She knew that as soon as the reception was over, he’d divest himself of his tie immediately. Even in his job as a teacher at the local community college, Reed never wore a tie.