The Final Vow Read online

  “I—”

  “Do you want your son to see his mother get shot? Because I can arrange that,” he hissed in my ear. “Those nightmares will haunt him for the rest of his life.”

  My heart rate doubled in speed. Of course that was the last thing I wanted to be imprinted on my son’s memory. “I thought you cared about Hayden,” I hissed back. “You’ve always been kind to him. How can you do this to him?”

  The gun on my back quivered. “I do care about the boy, but I care more about getting out of here than anything else. Now get up that ladder or I’ll give your son a nightmare that he’ll never forget.”

  He said it with so much menace that it turned my stomach. I’d always known Shepley was disgruntled, hard to please, and a difficult person, but I’d never thought him to be cruel. In that moment, threatening to kill me in front of my son, he was cruel.

  I put my hands on the rungs. Hayden waved at me from the hatch. I smiled at him as brightly as I could as I began to climb.

  As I crawled through the opening, Hayden met me, and when I was standing, he threw his thin arms around me. “I’m sorry, Mom. I know I shouldn’t have come up here. I just wanted to see it, is all.”

  I hugged him tight, tighter than I normally would.

  Shepley came up the ladder, and I placed my body between him and Hayden. “Hayden and I need to go back down,” I said. “His father will be wondering what happened to him.”

  Shepley had the antique revolver in his hand, but he pressed it against his right hip. “Might I have a word, Kelsey?”

  I saw the hand with the gun in it twitch. I kissed the top of Hayden’s head. “Hayden, why don’t you stand over there for a moment?” I pointed to the other side of the giant bell. “Be careful of the hole,” I warned.

  “How did that hole get there?” my son asked.

  I smiled. “The bell tower is old, so who knows.” Now was not the time to tell him that I’d fallen through the floor. “Just stay as far away from that hole and the open window as possible.”

  His smooth brow wrinkled. “Mom, what’s wrong?”

  “Nothing is wrong, honey,” I said. “Shepley and I were just looking over the church after the wedding to see what has to be done to clean up.” I cleared my throat. “You stand over there for a moment, and I’ll talk to him. We shouldn’t be long and we can go back to the party. Have you had any cake yet?”

  “No,” he said in a small voice.

  I smiled at him as brightly as I could. “Well then, we’ll get you an extra-large piece. I know one of the tiers is double chocolate.”

  Some of the fear left his eyes. “Double chocolate?”

  “Oh yes,” I said. “Krissie asked for a chocolate cake.”

  His heart-shaped face broke into a grin, and he walked to the other side of the bell as I’d instructed him to do.

  With Hayden’s view blocked by the enormous bell, Shepley raised the gun and pointed it at me again.

  “You have to let Hayden leave,” I hissed. “He knows nothing, and he’s just a little boy.”

  Now that the gun wasn’t digging into my back, I could see for sure that it was the revolver Piper had stolen.

  “Shepley,” I said in a voice that sounded unusually high for me. “Why don’t you let Hayden go down the ladder? Please?”

  “Mom, can I come over there now?” Hayden peeked around the side of the bell.

  I shot Shepley a look, and he hid the gun behind his back. Maybe he had a tiny piece of his heart left.

  Hayden came around the side of the bell. “Can we have cake now?”

  I stepped in front of him, again putting my body between Shepley and my child. “Sure, buddy. We can have cake. Let’s go back down the ladder.”

  Shepley stepped in front of the hatch, blocking our way. “Hayden, you can go down and have cake, but I have to talk to your mom for a little bit longer.”

  My heart rate kicked up again. He was going to let Hayden go. That’s all I wanted. I wanted my son to be safe.

  Hayden frowned. “I have to go down the ladder alone?” His eyes were the size of saucers. “It’s really far down. Mom needs to come with me.”

  “She can’t,” Shepley said, leaving no room for argument. I felt the barrel of the gun return to the small of my back.

  I squeezed Hayden’s hand. “Don’t worry, buddy. I’ll be down just as soon as Shepley and I are done talking. It won’t take long.”

  “Then can I wait with you?” he asked.

  I shook my head. “No, I think you should go down and get started on that cake. Be sure to save me a piece.”

  Hayden stared at me uncertainly. I put the most reassuring smile on my face that I could manage. If my son’s expression was any indication, it wasn’t very convincing. Hayden looked down the ladder and then shuffled back. “Mom, will you go down with me? It’s really high.”

  “Your mom needs to stay up here with me to talk over a few things,” Shepley repeated.

  Hayden’s lower lip trembled. “But what if I fall?”

  I felt myself begin to shake. What was worse? To have Hayden climb down the ladder alone and possibly fall, or be shot? Neither were good options. “You won’t fall. I promise you. It’s just one rung at a time. I’ll watch you climb down—just keep your eyes on my face as you go.” Sweat trickled down my back.

  His lower lip trembled. “I can’t.”

  “Sure you can,” I said, taking a small step toward him. Shepley came with me, and I continued to feel the barrel of his gun in my back. “Remember all the times you climbed the big ladder in the visitor center to help string lights for Christmas? This isn’t any different than that. You’re a pro at that. Just keep your eyes on me as you make your way down.”

  “It’s a lot bigger than the ladder in the visitor center.”

  I nodded. “That’s true, but you’re a lot bigger now too. I know you can do it. You climbed up here. It’s not different from going back down.”

  He looked from me to the hatch and back again. He nodded as if to himself, like he’d come to some sort of decision. “Okay.” His voice was quiet but firm.

  I gave the tiniest sigh of relief. Now that Hayden had agreed to climb down the ladder, I had to make sure that he got down safely. I would give my right arm if it meant Shepley would let me go down with my son, but I knew that wasn’t going to happen.

  “You can do it, buddy. It’s one rung at a time,” I repeated.

  “Are you sure?” His eyes were so trusting that it broke my heart. I imprinted them on my memory, just in case this was the last time I would see them.

  I felt tears burn in the back of my eyes, but I wasn’t going to let Hayden see me cry in this moment. He would never go down the ladder if I did. “Yes. Trust me.”

  “Okay,” he said in that still, small voice again. Carefully he grabbed the ladder and swung his right leg, followed by his left leg, onto the top rung. I watched as he took the first step down. The ladder never wavered and he visibly began to relax. With his eyes fixed on me, he took another step downward. “It’s not so hard.” The light and cheer had returned to his voice.

  He stopped in the middle of the ladder, breathing hard.

  “You got this, buddy. You can do it. You’re halfway there.”

  He stared up at me with his father’s eyes and I suddenly was transported back to when Eddie and I were children, when we were just two young kids with skinned knees and sunburns running loose in New Hartford all summer long. Along with Justin, we’d gotten into a mess of trouble. The day Eddie got stuck in a manhole, he’d looked at me with that same fear, asking me for help. It was then, I think, that I fell in love with him, although I was too young to even know what that meant. I’d wanted to rescue Eddie. I’d always been a rescuer. I wanted to rescue Hayden in this moment as well.

  I licked my lips. My tongue felt imposs
ibly dry. There were so many people down below who could help us if they only knew that we were in trouble, but I couldn’t risk calling out for help if I wanted to keep Hayden safe.

  I held my breath as he made it all the way to the bottom. With two rungs left, he jumped to the choir loft floor. “Mom, I did it.” He waved at me.

  “Great job, buddy.” Every muscle in my body went limp, and the tears I was holding back threatened to spill over again. “Go get a big piece of cake. Remember to save me a big one!”

  “Okay!” he cried, and he ran for the stairs. A moment later the sanctuary door slammed after him with a resounding thud.

  I moved toward the broken window.

  Shepley pulled on my arm. “Where are you going?”

  “Can I at least go to the window to make sure he makes it to the reception tent all right?” I asked.

  “Fine,” Shepley snapped.

  To my relief, I saw Hayden skip into the reception tent. He was safe. That was all that ever mattered.

  Shepley yanked me back from the window, and I fell to the floor at the foot of the bell.

  thirty-three

  Pain shot through my injured leg. I remained on the floor for a moment and rubbed my elbow where I’d landed on it. I had to think of a way out of this situation. I could jump out of one of the steeple windows, but that hadn’t ended well for Vianna, so I discarded the idea. The ladder was the only feasible way out. Yet Shepley stood between me and the ladder, and I knew that even if I made it out the hatch, I would be a sitting duck for Shepley to shoot me as I made my way down.

  “Stand up!” Shepley ordered.

  I struggled to my feet. “Why did you kill Vianna? Was it over the garden? I told you to ignore that letter.”

  He glared at me. “It’s not just a garden, or the letter. It’s my whole life. She had the power to take away my whole life.”

  As he said this, I knew it was the truth. Either by fate or by his own doing, Shepley had never found anything else but the garden to comfort him after the loss of his family. But why hadn’t he felt reassured when I’d told him not to worry about Vianna’s letter?

  “I don’t know how Vianna could have taken away your garden,” I said cautiously.

  “Because she was the heir. She was the Cherry heir,” he spat.

  “You knew that?” I tried to keep my voice level.

  “Of course I knew.”

  I blinked at him. “But how?”

  He sniffed. “I heard her telling that assistant of hers. The girl with the blue hair.”

  “How did you overhear their conversation?” I asked, stalling. What I needed right now was time, and maybe a miracle.

  “I wanted to talk to her about her order to remove all the plants from the grounds for the wedding. That’s when I heard her talking to the blue-haired girl.”

  So that was what had cost Vianna her life. If she’d never placed the letter in Shepley’s mailbox, he’d never have gone looking for her, and would never have overheard her talking to Piper. Vianna would still be alive.

  As if he read my mind, Shepley said, “What was I supposed to do? Let her take away everything I’ve worked for these last twenty years? Is that what you expected me to do?”

  “You killed her to save the Farm?” I asked.

  “It’s my Farm.”

  I didn’t see much point in arguing this point with him, especially since he was holding a gun. Artifact or not, the gun might still be able to put a hole in me, and I really wanted to avoid that. “But we talked about it,” I said in the calmest voice I could manage. “I said to ignore her order. I care about the Farm too. Don’t you think I would fight for it? This place is important to me too.”

  “What could you have done? Cynthia Cherry’s will was clear. The control of the Foundation would go to her nephew Maxwell, and if he were gone, any children he might have. Everything you’ve done since Cynthia died would have been for nothing. You should be thanking me for getting Vianna out of the way.”

  I refused to believe that. “Even so, I could have talked to her. I could have done something. There’s always more than one way.”

  Shepley laughed. “You’re one to talk. The Foundation tricked you into planning your ex-husband’s wedding, and that wouldn’t be the last demeaning task they’d make you do once Vianna was in charge.”

  As he spoke, the music picked up below, as if to remind us that the wedding was still in progress and that everyone in the safety of the reception tent was having a wonderful time. The music was a fast song. Shouts and cries of delights rose from the dance floor.

  I thought of Hayden, and I thought of Chase. How long before he’d come looking for me? Would he come looking for me at all, after the terrible fight we’d had? I didn’t know that I would, in his place. But that might just be the difference between Chase and me. Our differences were a chasm too wide to traverse, yet I realized, standing there with death just one bullet away, that I wanted to see if we could make it across the chasm.

  Shepley began to pace. “Vianna had a plan for us all. I heard her tell the girl with the blue hair that. She was going to change everything. She was going to get rid of everything I’ve worked for.” He stopped midstride and pointed the gun at me. “After my family died, I vowed to myself that I wouldn’t allow anyone to take anything from me ever again. I’m not going to lose this Farm.”

  The anniversary. The anniversary of the death of his family had been the day Vianna died. It all started to make even more sense.

  “Don’t get any ideas about getting away,” he said. “Put your hands in the air where I can see them.”

  I did as I was told, but I kept talking. “I don’t understand why you’re doing this now, Shepley. You don’t need to do this. Vianna is dead and Piper has been arrested. You got away with the murder.”

  He steadied the gun with his other hand. “I heard you telling Laura you’re determined to find out who the real killer is. I knew I had to get rid of you. I know you. You don’t give up. Just like me.”

  I didn’t want to be “just like” Shepley. I wanted to be nothing like Shepley. And I needed to get out of there. The gardener was becoming more desperate by the second.

  My eyes flicked in the direction of the bell. Below it was a long rope that the sexton would have pulled to notify the town that the church service was starting, or to warn the townsfolk of a fire nearby. It was used as a beacon and as a warning.

  It was just what I needed.

  The rope was only two feet away from me. But would it work? I wondered. The bell hadn’t been rung in decades, and I could make things much worse if I ended up pulling it from the rafters.

  “What are you looking at?” Shepley snapped.

  I stared at him. I couldn’t let him know my plan, no matter how unlikely success might be. My eyes fell on the gun in his hand.

  I wrenched my eyes away from the gun and moved them to his dark eyes. Shepley’s gaze had never been welcoming, but at that moment, it was downright deadly. He was capable of murder. I knew that. He’d killed Vianna. He’d had enough rage in him to attack her and push her through the window. Now he was brave enough to kill me in cold blood.

  “I know you lost your family,” I began. My arms were tiring from holding them in the air, but I didn’t dare let them fall. I had no doubt that Shepley would shoot me. He’d wanted to for years.

  “Don’t talk about them.” He choked out the words.

  “I know it was an accident. I know you tried to get them out.” I did my best to keep my voice even.

  His breathing was ragged. “I did try.” His eyes glazed over. “But the fire was too hot. The flames too big. I heard their screams.” He pressed the heel of his left hand to the side of his head. “Do you know what that’s like to hear the dying screams of your wife? Of your child?”

  A chill ran down my back. “No. It mu
st have been horrible.”

  “It was worse than horrible. It was hell.”

  I believed him.

  “My only solace is these gardens, these flowers, and that woman wanted to take that away from me. I couldn’t let that happen. Don’t you understand?” His voice was almost pleading now.

  “Did you tell Vianna that?” I asked.

  “Yes. I saw her go into the church with the lights. I knew she was planning to hang them in the bell tower. I followed her.”

  “Did you see anyone else?” I thought of Piper, arriving at the church around the time Vianna fell.

  “No,” he snapped. “I figured it was my best chance to reason with her. I didn’t come here with a plan to kill her. I was only going to tell her why she was doing the wrong thing, how she was ruining what Cynthia built.”

  I swallowed. “How did it go?” Since Vianna was dead, I could take a wild guess, but I needed to buy time so that I could find the perfect moment to grab the rope.

  “I tried to reason with her, but she laughed at me. She said that I would be the first to go after she was given control of the Foundation. She said she had the proof that she was Maxwell’s daughter, and that she and the Foundation would make a joint announcement after the wedding.”

  Vianna’s proof was the paternity test, I thought.

  “You should be happy I got rid of her. She said that if it weren’t for the stipulation in Cynthia’s will that allows you to be the director, and live here, she’d fire you too. You really should be grateful.”

  I shook my head. I knew this was true, but it didn’t make what Shepley did right. “Still, she didn’t deserve—”

  “Don’t tell me what she deserved!” He bellowed. “I don’t care what people deserve. Did I deserve to lose my family? Did my wife and my—” His voice caught. “Did my wife and my daughter deserve to die?” He lifted the gun and held it level with my chest.

  My mother had always told me that if you’re going to make a mistake, err on the side of compassion. That’s what I’d always tried to do in my life and my work. Perhaps it was why I’d gotten into so many scraps.