Page 88 of Unhinged Cain

“Tell me,” I said and knew that he would.

“She knows who your real father is,” he said, and my heart jumped in my chest.

My mother’s eyes went wide, and she was terrified for the first time ever. “That’s not true, I don’t know what this guy thinks he knows, but I don’t have a clue. I told you it was a one-night stand.”

“So, you keep saying, but since you haven’t exactly been honest about anything else, you’ll have to forgive me if I don’t believe you.” I looked over my shoulder, and my eyes locked with Cain’s. “Do you know who it is?” He nodded. “Tell me.”

“Don’t you dare.” My head whipped around to look at my mother.

“I’m pretty sure you’re in no position to order anyone around.”

“Your father is none other than Director Kyle Mulligan.” My mother gasped and squeezed her eyes tight. That was all the confirmation I needed. I turned to look at Cain and felt a little faint.

“My father is the head of the FBI, like thee head of the FBI?”

“Yes, and not only that but….” Cain flicked through his phone and handed over the images of an account with more zeros than I could count. “This account is a blackmail account. Your mother has been blackmailing him since she got pregnant and funneling the money away into an offshore account. On top of that, she’s managed to use the information to get promotions even when she didn’t have as much experience as the other candidates.”

My brain fritzed out. It was like I just comprehend how evil and conniving my mother was. I’d always known her to be a cold-hearted bitch, but this was way beyond that. How often had she said that she and Mulligan didn’t get along because he was a chauvinistic jerk who didn’t want to see her succeed? How many times had I cried on her shoulder that I missed my dad, and she said, ‘obviously, I wasn’t special enough for him to keep in touch?’ It was all lies. Everything she’d ever told me was a lie.

“Don’t listen to him. He has no proof.”

Cain took a step forward and placed a hand on my shoulder, giving me a reassuring squeeze. Turning to face my mother, Cain stepped into the dim light so she could see his face clearly, and her face was screwed up. I could see the wheels of confusion spinning as she looked him over. She really had no idea who he was, and there was something so poetic about that to me.

“You hired a mechanic as your P.I., and you think you should believe him?” My mother laughed, but my face stayed serious. “You can’t be serious? You’re seriously going to believe the ramblings of this random guy over your own mother?”

“Yeah, I am.”

My mother shook her head back and forth, and I could see the disgust in her eyes. She’d never loved me, not really. I’d been nothing more than a pawn in a much larger chessboard in her life, and I was disposable if she needed to move her Queen.

“I’m sorry I had to be the one to tell you all this, but I thought you needed to know,” Cain said, and I looked between my mother and Peter and thought about how perfect they were for one another.

I took a deep breath, wrapped my arm around Cain’s waist, and looked up at him. He lowered his head and gave my lips a soft kiss.

“Ah, well, this explains it all. A money-grabbing mechanic seems about right for your taste. So how much money do you want?”

“No, not quite,” Cain said. “I took the liberty of cleaning out your account, so Kirby has all your money now. Never trust a hacker near a computer. Luckily for me, I have a few that owe me and like money.” He smiled, and I stifled a laugh. “The money you stole from her father as you clawed your way to the top is all gone. I felt it was only fitting that it would go to her since it should’ve been hers in the first place.” Cain shrugged.

“You what?” My mother screamed, her face turning tomato red. “I’ll fucking have you thrown in jail for this, you thief. That money is mine.”

“I think it’s time I formally introduced the two of you,” I said.

“I don’t want to meet this guy formally, I want you to untie me right now, and I’m having him arrested.”

A smile curled up at the corner of my mouth as all the emotions washed away and left me feeling empty and used.

“Well, I’m going to introduce you anyway, and I have to tell you this is going to be fucking ironic for you, and it brings so much fucking joy to my soul.” My mother’s face twisted into confusion, but I continued before she could spout off any more of her bullshit. “Mother, this is Cain Buchanan. You know him as the mechanic you interviewed, but you already know him. More specifically, you know his work. I want to introduce you to The Chameleon.”

My mother laughed and then stopped as she looked between our serious expressions, and hers slowly fell. Cain stepped forward, and the cold mask of the killer was pulled into place.

“It’s finally nice to meet you as the real me, Mrs. Lawson. I’ve enjoyed watching you very much as you chased your tail to find me.”

The way he spoke sent a chill down my spine, and it wasn’t even me he was directing it at—I watched my mother swallow hard as her eyes grew wide. Cain knelt down so he was at eye level with her.

“Your theory about there being two killers was correct. I thought you might like to know that and wanted to congratulate you on your persistence. I happen to have a twin with peculiar tastes, but we’ve worked together since children to perfect out teamwork. It’s too bad all that information will be destroyed soon. All your hard work going up in smoke…figuratively speaking of course. Right now, as we speak, your computers are sadly experiencing difficulties as a virus makes its way through your system and destroys all your precious files.”

“This can’t be real.”

“I’d like to thank you for your daughter. She is….” Cain looked up at me, and my heart warmed. “She is exceptional, even if you don’t see it, and I’m going to enjoy spending the rest of my life with her.”