But why?
Governor Thomas opens a door in the back of the room where a few people linger, but most of the crowd is up front. Heather walks in front of me and sits at a long table by her mother, but when Governor Thomas shuts the door, he stands.
“Someone want to tell me what is going on? Are you going to ask my daughter to marry you after one night? Listen, we have been through a lot,” he pinches the bridge of his nose. “And I understand if you think you two are in love after one night, but you have to give me and her mom time to come around.”
“Oh my god! We are going to plan a wedding!” her mom squeals, then throws her arms around Heather’s shoulders, crying. “I never thought this would happen. Oh my god, I’m so happy.” Her face says something else. She looks fucking miserable.
“While I’d love to come back to that, Sir, because I do plan on taking Heather as my wife soon—” her mom interrupts me by screaming again when she hears my affirmation. “But there is something we need to get out of the way.” I let out a deep breath, grab my mask, steal one last look at Heather. I need to see her face one last time. She’s as nervous as I am. I tug my mask free and toss it on the table.
The first thing I notice is the silence. Her mom is no longer crying out in joy. Next, there is a raging pain in my jaw as a fist slams against me. I stumble against the wall and Governor Thomas grips me by the lapels of my suit and lifts me up off the floor.
I’m not a small man, so that goes to show how big he is.
“You have some nerve,” he sneers, eyes watering as he stares into the eyes of the man, who he thinks, killed his daughter. “You’re a predator. Now, you’re praying on my little girl. My other daughter. My last daughter!” He hits me again and blood pools in my mouth. “I’m going to kill you and I’m going to enjoy it.”
“Dad, stop! Stop it, please, listen to him.” Heather strolls over as fast as she can in her high heels and dips under his arm to block him from hitting me again. “Don’t.”
“How can you be with him like this? After what he did to Grace. Is this the man who kidnapped you, Heather? Are you brainwashed?” His eyes swing from her to me. “You son of a bitch!” He lifts his fist again, but Heather blocks the punch with her shoulder. A shout of pain leaves her as she falls against me, and I struggle to get free from her dad’s hold, which doesn’t take long since he is mortified at what he has done.
“Heather, I didn’t mean to. What the hell? Why would you stop me? He is a monster.”
“No! I’m the monster,” she cries, then slaps her hand against her chest. “Me. I’m the monster. I lied. I lied under oath about Asher. I let him take the fall for something he didn’t do. I knew he didn’t, but I was so angry. I needed someone to pay, and he was there. I didn’t care that he said he saw someone leave the room.”
“They found—”
“Evidence. There was plenty of evidence to set Asher free, but my testimony was what threw away the key. I ruined his life, the least you can do is listen to him. Please,” she rubs her shoulder, grimacing. Heather lowers her voice, “Please, listen to him.”
“He didn’t do it? You’re sure?”
“I’d go under oath and revoke my testimony—”
“I wouldn’t allow her to do that or risk her future. I’ve done my time. I have a good job. I don’t blame her, but I need to talk you about what happened that night before we run out of time.”
“Believe me, please. I need you to believe me,” she begs her father. “You know how much he cared for Grace. I swear on my life, it wasn’t him.”
Her mom is crying in her hands and Governor Thomas starts to pace. He isn’t happy to be believing his daughter, but I think he does since he sits next to his wife and picks her up. He sets her in his lap as she sobs against his shoulder. “Explain before I change my mind.”
I stretch my jaw and a small pop sounds in the back corner making me groan when the edge of pain disappears. “I’m going to lay it all out on the table and start from the beginning.” I pull out a chair, sit down, and Heather tries to sit down on my lap, but her dad growls in warning. She takes the spot next to me instead.
For now, I can understand that. Still, I reach for her hand and she wastes no time lacing her fingers through mine. “I didn’t kill Grace. I swear on my life, I didn’t. When I got out of prison, I didn’t want to come back here, but there was a guy who was forming this group of misfits who were wrongfully convicted and he found me. He offered me a job. We steal from other criminals and that’s how we make our money. We donate a lot of what we find to charities to give back to the community, but we do keep cash. We aren’t saints, but we do our best.”
“It’s better than stealing from innocent people,” Heather defends me. “Go on.”
“A few months back, we attempted a heist to steal from this man named Richard. He has a vault dressed in explosives and it nearly killed all of us. Richard was on the hunt for the guys who tried to get in and somehow he got my name because one of the guards saw me and said I had slept with his daughter.” I met Mrs. Thomas’s eyes, “But I never slept with his daughter. I hung out with her, kissed her, but we never had sex. I was confused until I saw her picture.” I slide out my phone and click the message button and bring up Grace’s senior yearbook photo. “Apparently, I went to high school with her. I didn’t think anything of it because I wouldn’t have relations with an enemy. So I ignored it, until I found out Richard’s daughter was Grace.”
Governor Thomas tightens his jaw, but he isn’t as angry as I thought he would be, so he must have known. “Grace was not my daughter biologically, but she was mine.” A tear falls from the corner of his right eye. “What does she have to do with Richard?”
“He’s paid your wife in large payments up until the day she died.”
“We know. Richard wanted to be a part of her life, but I said no because of what he did. His life was too dangerous. He has too many enemies, so it was agreed he’d support her, but there was no need to support her after she died.” Mrs. Thomas’s chin starts to wobble from thinking about her daughter’s death. “Richard isn’t a bad man. He does bad things to make money, but he isn’t bad. If you tried to steal from him, he was only doing what he knew to do.”
“Okay, so Richard is innocent,” I say, which crosses off a suspect, which makes me wonder if my initial thought it correct. “How did you get into politics, Governor?”
“Timothy, please, since you didn’t kill Grace.” He rubs a hand over his scruff and then presses his hands against his eyes. “What are you thinking?”
“I think my dad killed Grace,” I state, throwing it out there instead of letting it boil. “The way he was looking at Heather tonight, I didn’t like it one bit. It was… evil. I saw a man my dad’s height and hair color leave Grace’s room.”
Timothy leans back in his seat and something clicks because when he stands from his chair, he slides back so fast it slams against the wall. “That’s why he paid for the election to go in my favor.”