Her Inconvenient Groom by Niomie Roland

Chapter 37

 

Chantelle heard the bathroom door open, and out of the corner of her eye saw Dennis exiting the bathroom, oblivious to what was happening.

But she couldn’t care less.

As Samantha struggled in her grasp, Chantelle’s other hand came up to slap Samantha hard on the cheek. Chantelle felt the force of the slap reverberate all the way up her arm, and it felt so good she did it again—harder.

“What the—”

Dennis was at her bedside, nonplussed, asking over and over what was happening, but Chantelle tightened her grip, feeling Samantha’s throat under both her hands, squeezing, squeezing as the woman gasped for breath.

Roast in hell? She thought. After you.

“Babe, no!” It was Dustin, throwing open the door, followed by her girlfriends and Tom. All of whom were clamoring for her to stop.

But they didn’t understand. They couldn’t know how she felt. She was incensed, out of her mind with rage and hurt. This lying, deceitful, two-faced bitch who had shared meals at her table had been slowly poisoning her water. Then had the audacity to set up Dustin to take the fall.

As he wrapped his fingers around her hands, she squeezed tighter, enjoying the bug-eyed terror on Samantha’s face as she struggled for air. “Leave us alone! Let me kill her!”

“No, no,” he said desperately. “She’s not worth it.”

“She murdered our baby!” Chantelle was sobbing, breathless. She was willing to give up everything she’d achieved, earned and everything she was, for the satisfaction of feeling Samantha go limp under her hands.

Dennis wrapped his arms around his wife’s waist, trying to pull her away, while Sienna held on to Chantelle’s, trying to do the same. “Let go,” she urged. “Let go and we will handle this. The courts will handle this.”

“The courts,” Chantelle scoffed. “The courts didn’t lose their baby.”

“We’ll have more, my love,” Dustin said softly. “We’ll have many more. We’ll have healthy children, raise them together and be happy.”

Chantelle stopped, not releasing her grip, but realizing that her cheeks were wet. Would they really, she wondered. Could they?

Her hesitation was all it took for Dennis to wrench his wife from her grasp. Samantha brought her hands to her bruised throat, coughing and gasping.

“What the hell is going on?” Tom demanded.

Dustin gathered Chantelle in his arms, rocking her as she cried softly. “Your sister-in-law just admitted to trying to kill my wife.”

“What?” Dennis gasped. “That’s the most ridiculous thing—”

“That’s a lie!” Samantha choked, still rubbing her throat. “She’s delirious. She’s sick!” Desperately, she added, “I never said any such thing!”

“We’ve got it on tape,” Naisha informed him. “And this woman is going to jail.”

He looked at her, perplexed. “What are you talking about, Doctor?”

Naisha looked down at herself, suddenly remembering she was undercover. She plucked the stethoscope from around her neck and tossed it to the bed. “‘Doctor’ nothing. I’m Chantelle’s friend.”

Tom spoke slowly, trying to process the situation. “This was a sting operation?”

Sienna gave him a triumphant look. “Yup. And your sister-in-law got herself caught in the web.”

Dennis set his wife back from him so he could look into her eyes. “Is this true?”

Samantha looked both embarrassed and mutinous. “She tried to take your place. I had to stop it.”

“God,” he murmured to himself. Then he looked at Chantelle. “Sis, I’m sorry. I had no idea.”

She nodded, but looked away, unsure of whether she was able to deal with him right now, even though he appeared to have played no part in this horror.

Then Dennis asked Samantha, “What have you done? And why?”

“I did it for you!” she protested, looking put out that nobody seemed to be acknowledging the sacrifice she had made. “All you’ve done lately is bitch and moan about missing out on the chance to be CEO. And complain about your rights being violated. How much better you’d be at heading the company.”

“I never told you to murder her!”

“It needed to be done. And you were just content to bellyache, and pull stupid stunts like calling a board meeting.” She snorted. “As if that would do any good. Can’t you see this woman is way too sneaky to allow something so simple to undermine her? She needed to be taken out of the picture completely. I knew it, even if you don’t have the guts to admit it.”

Chantelle felt a wave of nausea, just listening to the rantings of this distorted mind. She’d cared for this woman, treated her like the sister she never had. She felt Dustin’s arms tighten around her, and was grateful for their comfort.

“But not me,” Samantha concluded. “I did what you couldn’t!”

Dennis released his wife and stepped back, regarding her brokenly. Looking at her as if he’d never seen her before. “We may have had our differences, but she’s my sister!”

Samantha scoffed. “You mean step-sister? She’s just some other woman’s child. Just some kid your father was foolish enough to adopt—”

“That’s where you’re wrong,” Chantelle surprised herself by saying. “Dennis and Tom aren’t my step-siblings. They’re my half-brothers.”

Everyone in the room turned to stare.

“What?” Dennis said, turning even more ashen.

“Simon was my biological father too.”

“How is that even possible?”

She couldn’t believe she was telling them this. Simon had made her promise to not breathe a word of this ever. It could potentially destroy the company’s reputation to reveal the truth. But maintaining the lie had caused more trouble than it was worth, so the truth would have to come out.

“Do you remember when he was dying, how he asked to speak to each of us in turn?”

Both Dennis and Tom nodded.

“Well, he told me.” She wet her lips. “He admitted that he and my mother had an affair and conceived me years before they met again and married. He was in France on business when they met over thirty-three years ago. It was a brief relationship. My mom was married, but separated from her husband, Renaud. Simon was married to your mother and going through difficulties with his wife, who had recently given birth to a stillborn daughter. When he returned to the States to take over his father’s — our grandfather’s business — he left my mom behind. Pregnant. My mother reunited with Renaud and he raised me as his own until his death. Your father bought the French estate for my mother when he learned of the pregnancy, but didn’t divorce your mother on the advice of his father. Simon didn’t want to hurt your mom with the news of my existence, considering she’d recently lost her own child. Simon fixed things with your mother mostly for the sake of you two and took care of me financially from afar. Simon and my mother reunited after their spouses passed away.”

Just thinking about it made her throat tighten. Her mother had taken that secret to her grave. Chantelle thought back with pain on the months she’d spent being angry with Elodie for her deceit. How unforgiving she’d been. Now she felt she understood. And that understanding brought forgiveness, for Elodie, for Simon, for everyone.

“I can’t believe this,” said Tom.

She added, “Believe it. I did the test using hair follicles left on your brushes. We’re blood siblings.”

“I wish I’d known,” Dennis said quietly, still unable to look at his wife, and Tom nodded.

“I wish so, too,” Chantelle agreed sadly.

A sound at the door made everyone turn. It was two uniformed officers.

Samantha gasped and recoiled in horror. “What—?”  

Sienna held up her phone and waggled it at her. “I called the cops.” Her face split in a grin. “You lose, bitch.”