The Silent Woman: A Thriller by Minka Kent

Author:Minka Kent [Kent, Minka]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Published: 2025-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

15

Sylvie

I’m striding down the upstairs hallway the next morning when I hear Wells’s voice trailing from below.

“This is the third time this month,” he says, tension spiking his tone.

I stop in my tracks, ears perked. Wells isn’t normally one to lose his temper.

“I think I’ve been more than generous with you over the years,” he says next. After a long pause, he adds, “I’m aware that’s how you feel. You’ve made yourself clear a number of times, but my stance hasn’t changed. I won’t be making another deposit this month.”

Exhaling, I continue on.

He must be on the phone with Mary Claire.

When Viviette passed years ago, she left 90 percent of her estate—Westhaven included—to Wells. Everything else went to various staffers and charities. Ever since then, Wells and his birth mother have been attempting to patch their tattered relationship, realizing that all they had left for family was each other. Somewhere along the line he purchased her a two-bedroom bungalow in Santa Monica as well as a Mercedes-Benz.

In addition to that, he gives her a monthly stipend, though he’s never shared exactly how much she receives. Given his generous nature, I can only imagine it’s a lavish amount. He says it’s a drop in the bucket for him, that it isn’t about the money as much as it’s about being the bigger person. He said he couldn’t live with himself if he pocketed all of Viviette’s money and let the woman who gave him life become destitute.

After Viviette’s passing, Wells claims he was just as shocked as Mary Claire was when Viviette’s attorney read her will to them after the funeral. Viviette and Mary Claire’s relationship had always been tumultuous, but writing her out completely was a cruel way to cap a lifetime of difficult and unresolved emotions.

I wish I could say I feel for Mary Claire, but after seeing the way she treats my husband, I can safely say there isn’t an ounce of compassion in my heart for the miserable, entitled woman.

I find him seated at the kitchen table, and I wait until he ends his call before making my presence known.

“Morning,” I say, sliding my hands around his shoulders from behind and depositing a quick peck on his cheek. Heading to the coffee maker, I pour myself a cup before joining him again. “Everything okay?”

Breathing out, he sinks back, staring out the window ahead, beyond the pool where the empty guesthouse sits. At one point, Mary Claire asked if she could sell the bungalow, pocket the funds to start some new business venture, and live there. When Wells told her no, that’s when all hell broke loose, and she’s been making life difficult for him ever since.

A few months ago, I suggested he go radio silent on her in the name of setting healthy boundaries. And he did. Until she had a health scare that landed her in the hospital for a week.

To this day, I’m convinced she manufactured each and every ailment, making some cocktail of symptoms into a mystery diagnosis requiring a myriad of tests and sympathy visits.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.