Demon Inside

“…with the exception of one tenth interest, which will be given to my daughter Megan Alison Chase. Also bequeathed to Megan Alison Chase is one third interest, my entire holdings, in the lot at 1477 Pike Street, currently occupied by the Trubank Mental Health Center, which is now closed, and all documents pertaining thereto, which are currently housed in the front bedroom at number twelve Hampton Road.”

Tucker glanced up, inspecting the stir this bit of news had created. Gasps and murmurs broke out around the room.

“That can’t be right,” Diane snapped, all decorum apparently forgotten in her fury. “Check that again.”

“I wrote this myself, five weeks ago,” Tucker replied. “It’s all in order.”

Her mother continued to argue, with Dave joining in, but Megan barely heard them over the roaring in her ears, the pounding of her heart. Why would he do that? Wasn’t it bad enough not to love her, did he have to actively hate her?

He’d left her the land on which the mental hospital sat. The mental hospital where she’d been a patient for nearly six months, sixteen years ago.

Chapter 16

I don’t want it,” she said, but no one seemed to hear her over the argument. She tried again, louder. “I don’t—”

“Meg. Shush.”

“I don’t want it,” she whispered furiously. “I don’t want any of it.”

“You don’t know that.” Greyson leaned closer, but didn’t look at her, watching the reddening faces of her mother and brother instead.

“I think I do.”

“No. You don’t. Not until you know why, and what he gave Maldon in exchange for everything he got.”

It made sense, just like most of his suggestions, which was probably why it pissed her off so much. She pulled her hand from his and folded her arms across her chest.

“They’ll contest the will,” he went on, as if she hadn’t just distanced herself from both him and the conversation. “And when they do, you can make a decision and I’ll handle the legal stuff. But for now don’t make any comments on the record.”

“There’s no record. This is a will reading, not a trial.”

“You think that viper and her spawn won’t remember everything you say and try to introduce it?”

“That’s assuming I change my mind and fight them. I won’t.”

“You might.”

“You! What did you do to him?”

Megan looked up. Diane stood at the end of the table, her red-rimmed eyes blazing. “As if being a disgrace to our family wasn’t enough, you—what did you do? Blackmail him? Drug him? We always knew something was wrong with you, always thought—”

“Mrs. Chase!” Tucker’s voice cut through the diatribe, hoarse with shock. “Please, sit down! There’s no need for—”

“Don’t you tell me what there’s a need for! That little witch—”

“Mom, Mom.” Dave stood up and tried to grasp his mother’s arm. “Calm down. We can do this later. We can fight this. Right, Tucker? We can fight this?”

“You can contest the will, yes.” Tucker glanced at Megan and Greyson. “But we’ll discuss that another time. Please, Mrs. Chase, take your seat.”

Megan’s mother looked around, seeming to recall for the first time where she was and how many people were watching. Their gazes flipped from her to Megan and back again, as if they expected a slapfight to break out any second.

Diane subsided, then wiped at her eyes with a black-bordered handkerchief. The move, Megan knew, was a calculated one, to remind the rest of the room of her bereavement and bring home the stress she, the loyal wife, was under.

Almost without realizing it, Megan lowered her shields a tad and reached out. She’d probably never see this woman again after today, at least she hoped she wouldn’t. Weren’t there things she deserved to know, things she was curious about?

There she was as a child, a pretty little blond girl in a pink dress. Megan remembered that dress. She’d hated it, with its itchy lace trim…

“Mommy! Why does Mr. Grubman hate Daddy?”

“Don’t be silly, Megan. Mr. Grubman is our friend.”

“No, he’s not. He thinks Daddy’s an idiot and he wants to see you without your pants on.”

The slap had been so sharp and unexpected Megan’s eyes teared up just seeing it all these years later, but all her mother had felt was rage. Rage and a queasy kind of fear.

More images, more memories. Megan at six predicting her grandmother’s death. Grandma…she’d liked Grandma, and Grandma had liked her. Fu

Megan at twelve, wearing the baggy gray sweater she’d thought hid her embarrassing lack of development, while her mother tsked and pulled at it and finally gave up, upset Megan couldn’t even achieve puberty properly. Megan at fourteen, and Orion Maldon coming to their house to talk to David about something…

Oh my God.

She stood up, so fast she almost toppled forward over the table, interrupting again poor friendly Tucker’s attempt to finish the reading. “I need to leave.”

She didn’t care that they were all staring at her. She didn’t care what they thought. She knew it now, knew what she’d failed to ask Maldon, knew why all of this had happened to her, and she had to get out of that room before she did something she would really regret. The second heart in her chest pounded, furious, sending heat rushing through her body.

“I want to see those documents,” she told Tucker. “Can I see them now?”

“They’re in the house, but probate—”

“She’s not going into that house by herself,” Diane snapped. “I want the police there.”

Megan sighed. “Mother, you are such a miserable bitch, do you know that?” It wasn’t original or clever, but it was the best her stu

“Grey, you’ll be with her?” Tucker half-whispered in their direction, while the rest of the room stared at Megan in silence. Her mother’s eyes narrowed, hatred burning in their icy depths, but she said nothing.

Greyson must have nodded, because Tucker cleared his throat and spoke again. “Mrs. Chase, Mr. Dante is a highly respected attorney. He’ll be with Dr. Chase in the house. I trust him—and Megan.”

Dave stood up, holding out a set of keys. “Here, Megan.”

He didn’t look at her, but for some absurd reason tears threatened behind her eyes just the same. “The house is part yours anyway, right?”

Two hours. They figured they had about that long before everyone came back, and Megan had never in her life wanted anything as badly as she wanted to be out of the house before they did.

The will reading wouldn’t take that long, but the discussion they knew Diane and Dave would have with Tucker afterward just might.

Megan pulled boxes out from under the desk, lifting the lids, rifling through loose papers. The documents had to be in here somewhere. She needed to know who her father’s partners were in that land deal. She had one-third interest. Who were the other two? She thought she knew.

The blank walls in what used to be her bedroom stared at her as she worked, while Greyson set another box on the neatly made bed and started flipping through its contents. He’d barely said a word since they’d left the reading, but his silence wasn’t cold any more than his body was.

Her back started to ache from crouching by the time she found what she sought, by the time the names leaped out at her from the page. Every letter taunted her, answering questions she didn’t know she had but leaving more in their wake.