Read Online Deceived 6 - Ultimate Deception by Eve Carter - Free Book Online Page B

package? A letter would be enough for her to rage about us.
    I opened a drawer and pulled out a knife. I looked at the box, contemplating the wisdom of what I was about to do. Technically, opening someone else’s mail was illegal. Not to mention that Nina would undoubtedly be pissed when she found out. But, I reasoned, if she was in contact with Anna, things had changed. My previous suspicions suddenly had more weight and I had every right to know if my life and the lives of my wife and daughter were in danger.
    My heart rate picked up as I slashed through the tape and opened the box.
    The first thing I saw was enough for me to sink onto one of the barstools next to the counter. I took out the newspaper clippings first and looked at each one. I didn’t have to read the articles to know what they said. The headlines were enough to tell me that each one was about the Baroness’s trial. After the clippings came print-outs of online articles, these with pictures. Some were of the Baroness while others were of me and Chloe. I even saw Ryan in one or two. Knowing that my sweet Chloe was under the watchful eye of that bitch made my stomach turn. My first instinct was to rush into Chloe’s room and get her out of this house now. No excuses, no questions, just get the hell out of here, but there was more in the box and I knew I had to look.
    Under the articles were file folders. A note had been attached to the top file.
    Nina, take these files to Louis.
    It was a short message, but I didn’t really need much more of an explanation. There it was. Nina was involved after all. Louis could only be Louis Nettle, the defense attorney who’d tried to get Anna’s sentence reduced after he’d failed to win his case. Whatever was in those files probably had something to do with the appeal I knew Louis was working on. The prosecutor had told Chloe and I not to worry about it and I hadn’t given it a second thought until now.
    I opened the files and flipped through them. They were financials and I supposed the Baroness was thinking that she could use them to prove some sort of wrongdoing on my and Chloe’s part, but I’d had a professional accounting firm go over the books with a fine-toothed comb to see if there was anything even remotely suspicious-looking, so I knew she didn’t have a leg to stand on. I hadn’t needed to hand over their findings, but I knew if Anna tried to use these files, it would be easy to disprove whatever claims she thought she had. Those were the least of my concerns at the moment.
    I stilled my raging anger as I put the files back and then returned the articles and clippings to their place on top of them. I was seething. All I wanted to do was throw this box of shit at the wall and take a sledgehammer to the rest of this mansion, but instead I simply closed the box and sat for a minute, trying to decide what to do next. The fact that Anna had sent things to Nina to be delivered to her defense attorney said that this was personal. They knew each other. Fucking son of a bitch, these two knew each other, which meant that Nina had known who Chloe and I were right from the very start. But how? What was their connection? I needed to know that before I made any decisions about where to go from here. Maybe Nina supported one of those charities that took on cases for people who claimed they were innocent. I snorted a bitter laugh as I stood. And maybe this entire thing was just a giant mistake and the Baroness had meant to send this box to some other woman named Nina.
    I had to take action. It was time to stop tiptoeing around this and aggressively look for answers. I glanced at the clock and a plan began to form in my mind. First things first, though. I had to get lunch back to Chloe or she’d start to get suspicious. I wasn’t going to tell her about the box with the files until I had some kind of solid evidence that Nina…and this whole fucked up mess was for real so I could take them all down. If the Baroness