Princess (American Princess #1)(42)
Author: Courtney Cole

“You’re with Harrison.  You’ve been in on it from the beginning.  You wanted me dead.  Why?” 

“Well, Sydney.  That whole kidnapping thing was your own fault.  If you had only decided to release a video to the press as Harrison had suggested, then I wouldn’t have had to draw you into this.  But once we had to kidnap you to get it, you sealed your own fate.  It’s a good thing I doubled your life insurance when I doubled your father’s years ago.”

She glanced sideways at Sydney.

“That was good foresight, I will admit.”  Her crimson tipped talon-like fingers gripped her gun tighter as she faced them.

“Mom,” Sydney interrupted frantically.  “You really intend to kill your own family?”

“I’ve never been much of a mother, have I, Sydney?  This shouldn’t surprise you too much.  My marriage was a lie from the very beginning.  Your father only wanted me as a decoration for his arm.  And then to find out that he has been g*y this entire time?  That was a slap in the face that was just too much for me to bear. But lucky for me, as far as anyone else knows, we’re still a perfect, All-American family.   Watch this!”

She quickly contorted her face into sobbing, as real tears streamed down her face.

“Oh my God…What will I do now?  My family was my life.  I wish it had been me instead!  If only I had known that Randall was involved with such a monster… Maybe I could have helped.  But now… it’s too late.  They’re gone…my precious baby Sydney…”

Her voice trailed off as she began wailing heaving sobs.  Then she abruptly stopped and grinned at her daughter and husband with wet lashes and a devious smile.

“Convincing, right?”

Sydney stared at her mother in disbelief.  She was just as crazy as Harrison.

“Our marriage wasn’t a lie, Jillian.  You know that I’m not g*y.  I’m sorry that you didn’t feel appreciated in our marriage, but that is no reason to call it a lie.  You and I were in love once.”

Randall kept his voice calm as he tried to reason with his wife.  Sydney didn’t miss the fact that he had subtly moved in front of her, as if shielding her from Jillian.  She appreciated the gesture, but didn’t figure that it made much difference at this point.

“Yes, once.  We were in love and everything was perfect.  But then you started dilly-dallying with your assistants and you never made time for me and I finally realized that you never really loved me at all.”

Jillian sounded tortured for a brief moment before she steeled her tone again.  Randall sighed, as if they’d had this same conversation a hundred times before.

“I did love you, Jillian.  I wouldn’t have married you if I didn’t.  We simply grew apart, and that happens sometimes.  You didn’t want to put the work in to get our relationship back—you just wanted to order me to love you again.  And that doesn’t work.”

“Save it Randall.  Just save it.  You know that we couldn’t have gone to counseling because that would have leaked to the press.  I’ve wasted more tears on you than I should have. And trust me, I haven’t cried over you in a long, long time.”

“Okay, Jillian.  I hear you. You’re upset with me- you hate me.  That’s fine.  Maybe I deserve that.  But our daughter… Jillian, she didn’t ask for any of this.  You should let her go.  Right now.”

“I can’t, Randall.  How in the world would I go about that?  It’s too late. She shouldn’t have gotten pregnant and caused me a headache.  If you think about it, she really brought all of this on herself.  And so did you, Rand.  If you had only loved me like you should have, I wouldn’t have been forced to turn to him.”

Jillian’s voice turned to a whimper and Sydney’s heart felt as though it had stopped beating as she realized the extent of her mother’s delusion.

Her mother’s glittering blue eyes had lost any semblance of logic or reason.  Instead, they had the glazed-over gleam of a psychopath.  Panic overwhelmed her as she glanced at the door.  She kept expecting help to arrive at any minute, but so far the door frame had remained empty.

“Are you expecting someone, Syd?”  Her mother’s smile was malicious. “I wouldn’t.  While you were taking your leisurely soak, I put a sedative in everyone’s tea.  They’re peacefully sleeping while we wait for Harrison to arrive with Paul.  Don’t worry, no one will feel a thing.  They won’t even wake for their last breaths.”

Jillian laughed a maniacal laugh as Sydney’s heart started furiously skipping beats.

“Not Stephen.  Right, mother? You haven’t hurt Stephen?”

Jillian only laughed and Sydney’s shoulders slumped as all hope abandoned her.  The love of her life was dead or very close to it.  She had lived through a kidnapping only to be murdered by her own mother for which her father was going to be framed shortly before being murdered himself.

This couldn’t be happening.  But it was.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

“Drink it.” Jillian thrust a heavy glass at Sydney.

They were standing in the cheerful, sunny kitchen, after Jillian had forced Sydney and her father downstairs at gunpoint.  The atmosphere was anything but cheerful, however.

Jillian’s expression was murderous and Sydney’s stomach was quivering now to the point that she thought she was going to vomit.  Randall seemed as though he was on the verge of strangling his wife regardless of the gun in her hand.  He wasn’t accustomed to being rendered powerless.

“No.” Sydney shook her head.

“Drink it.” Jillian repeated through gritted teeth. “You won’t like the consequences if you don’t.”

“Or what, mother?  Will you kidnap me?  Too late.  You’ve already done that.  Will you kill me?  Oh, wait- you’re going to do that anyway.  You just want to do it when I can’t look you in the eyes.  If you want to kill me, do it now. I want to be awake for my last breath.”

Sydney couldn’t keep the sarcasm and bitterness out of her voice as she stared her mother right in the eyes.  She was exhausted, her mother was going to kill her and she was terrified that Jillian had already killed Stephen.  This was the mother of all bad days.