Instantly, my mind leapt to denial. I staggered to my feet, staring at the phone.
Yet the picture didn’t change.
My bikini-clad half-sister, smiling in Dad’s lap.
Cameron swore, his eyes wide. “Rory?”
“But how? We very occasionally hung out together as kids, but Rory didn’t know about Dad. She has no idea he’s her father. That’s what he told me.”
Except there was no other explanation. The salacious claim my blackmailer wanted to make had no basis. Though Rory had been ignorant of the relationship, Dad never was. He was spending time with his daughter. The closeness in the picture declared that loud and clear.
I closed the photo and switched my gaze to Cameron. “Dad told me how he wished he could’ve spent time with her. Except he had been. He lied to me.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I don’t understand why he’d do that. And why the hell would she be in his lap?” My mind whirled over the threat.
The implications.
I choked over my words. “If this gets shared with the press, Rory is going to be exposed in the same way I was. She’ll be humiliated. My dad will be labelled a pervert and my sister his prey. It’s disgusting. I can’t allow it.”
Cameron caught me as I passed and pressed my fingers. “Exactly what the blackmailer intends. We need to talk to Gordain. And you’re going to need to talk to your sister.”
He was right. I couldn’t leave Rory in the dark. No matter the outcome.
We left the office. In the hall, Viola had her gaze fixed to a tablet screen.
“You’re done. Update! In case ye need cheering up. Kessler and Guy are both at the airport and will be arriving together at around midnight.”
She trailed off as she finally looked up and registered my expression. Leo, toting Baby G in his arms, turned from the window. Gordain crossed the room, talking to a phone.
All three stilled.
Gordain ended his call. “What happened? Did the police give ye a hard time?”
“The interview was fine, but I just received another blackmail email. They’re demanding I get back to Los Angeles or they’ll share this photo.”
Cameron’s uncle moved in, beckoning for my phone.
With my throat tight, I held it up and showed the picture. “It’s Rory. She doesn’t know that Dad is her father, too.”
“Or so ye think,” Cameron added.
The clunk of the castle door drew our focus.
Max stepped inside. “Ye and Rory are sisters? Holy fuck.”
My shoulders wilted. One by one, my secrets were being eroded. I’d hated carrying this one, and now, whether I liked it or not, it was going to be out there. “We are. I’ve known for years. Dad made me promise not to tell.”
Gordain glowered at the picture then read the email. “In the past few days, I’ve tried a number of approaches to find out who’s behind this email account. So far, nae good. They’re hidden behind layers of protection.”
I wanted to yell in frustration. “If I don’t go back, they are going to ruin my sister. I can’t allow that.”
“Ye mean give in?” Cameron asked.
Max joined him, his frown deep.
“Have ye replied to any of the emails?” Viola added. “Maybe if ye made a personal approach, they might give it up.”
Except she didn’t know who my main suspects were.
Cameron’s brow furrowed. “Even if they’re ignorant of the relationship between Rory and Elise’s da, they don’t care.”
He’d read my mind.
“You’re right. They don’t care so can’t be reasoned with. Which leaves me with two shitty options. The first is returning to LA. Which I can’t do. I won’t live that life ever again. But I can’t allow the second option, which is for Rory to be exposed like I was, even if I give up on trying to save Dad’s reputation.”
The same sickening, horrible feeling I’d got back home returned with a vengeance. “Which brings me to my list of suspects.”
From my purse, I found the notebook with my list. “I’m ruling out my first suspect, a stranger, because they know too much, they’re too close. It has to be someone I know. Next on my list is my manager, Janelle. But the more I think about that, the less it fits. If my career self-destructs, she’ll pick up another client. She’s done it before.” I moved my finger down a line. “Dad’s girlfriend could’ve sold stories and pictures at any point in the past year. She doesn’t give a shit about my career. Then my ex-boyfriend hates me. He might not want my story told, but I’d bet he doesn’t want to make movies with me anymore.”
Cameron pursed his lips. “The other person we talked about was Rory’s dad. I mean her stepdad.”
I shook my head. “He doesn’t have the means. None of this points to him. Though fuck, if Rory becomes a headline, you bet he’ll sell his story, too, and make his wife’s life even harder. But the last person on my list, all the evidence supports.”
I turned the page around for them all to see.
Though I desperately didn’t want this to be the case, the conclusion was obvious.
“It has to be my mom. She already made it clear that the business came ahead of me. And she must have hated how Rory arrived only a few months after my birthday. Proof that my father wasn’t even committed for those months she was pregnant. She had access to the key to the storage facility where Dad’s laptop with the picture was stored. If she was looking for methods to control me, this was a beauty.”
“Shite,” Viola said.
Leo echoed her sentiment.
Max squinted at the pad. “Do ye know it says ‘Mom’ across the top of your page?”
And then I saw it. Across the head of my suspects’ table, the oversized capital letters on motive, opportunity, and means spelled the word. I’d traced over them a number of times, highlighting the obvious.
The universe had been trying to tell me all along.
In the middle of a castle, in a foreign land, I let my worst fear out into the world. “My mother is blackmailing me.”
My voice came out choked.
Cameron bit out a growl and slid his hands around my face to bring my gaze to his. “Come with me.”
A wave of hurt nearly broke me, but I nodded, and he led me away, up the staircase and to a bedroom. There, he closed the door then took me in his arms.
He held me so close. So tight.
“I’m so sorry this is happening to ye. I cannae fix it, but I’m here for ye in every way. I willnae leave your side. You’re not alone in this. You’re mine, and I’ll do everything in my power to make your life better from now on.”
I raised my gaze to his.
“I love ye, Elise. The world can’t touch that. It’s yours and only yours.”
And somehow, just like that, his solidity became mine.
I stared in wonder at him. “I’ve never had this. Dad loved me, but he was flighty and hardly ever there. I thought Mom loved me, but I’m just an asset to her. My sister doesn’t know she’s my sister. You’re the first person to ever be mine. I love you, too, with everything in me. I hate that I’ve bought all this trouble down on you, but after this, I swear I’ll be the best girlfriend.”
The corner of his mouth lifted. “I already told ye that I like your brand of trouble. Ye make me feel alive, even just by breathing. For so many months, I’ve felt unsettled in my own home, needing to get away. It was all for needing this. Ye.” His gaze took on a more speculative look. “So here’s a thought. Ye have me from now on, guaranteed. How else do ye want your life to be? If we start from there, we’ll work back to navigating the mess your mother has caused.”
I considered the question. “I want Rory in my life, and unhurt. The rest of it, the career, the lifestyle, I don’t want. At least not in the same way. Do you realise I’m penniless from now on? Any minute, my money supply is going to run out. I’m amazed that Viola was able to book the flights on my credit card. I’ll be cut off one way or another.”
“We’ll work it out.”
I pressed up on my toes and kissed him. “Yes.”
We lost minutes in that moment. In the eye of the storm, Cameron was my anchor, and I was his.
He left me in the quiet space, and I perched on the end of the bed.
I found Rory’s name and sent her a message.
Elise: I need to speak with you urgently. Find somewhere private and call me, please.
Then I sat and waited her out.
It was early for Rory, and her first reply took a minute to come in.
Rory: Just hiding out. Mom and Dad asleep. Gimme a sec.
Before my call with the police, Cameron had set me up on the castle Wi-Fi, and Rory’s call came in over our messaging app.
I answered, my heart thudding. “Hey, I hope I didn’t wake you.”
“No! I’ve been dying to talk to you. Are you okay? Where are you?”
“Scotland. I had to leave the States in a hurry. There’s so much going on, I don’t even know where to start.”
“You’re with Cameron, then? Is he taking care of you?”
“He is. Listen.” I scrunched my eyes closed. “I have to tell you something about you and me. I don’t even know how to say this.”
Rory took a sharp breath. “Shit. You know.”
Her tone told me everything. “Wait, you know? Dad told you we’re sisters?”
“Not exactly. Oh God, please don’t hate me for not telling you.”
“I could never hate you!” I squeaked.
“Even though I’ve been lying to you for years?” Rustling came her end, as if she was getting comfortable. “When I was fourteen, Mom told me after Dad had been particularly shit to us. I think she was trying to make me feel better. She made it very clear that I couldn’t tell a soul. But then your dad, I mean our dad, came to my school with her one afternoon. He was lovely. I always liked him. He’s fun, you know?” Then her voice grew sober. “I mean he was. He told me it wasn’t safe to have our relationship public. I never really questioned why, but I didn’t want it to be public either as I knew my mom’s husband would make her life hell.”
Years. She’d known for years.
“I found out around the time your mom got ill. I think Dad was worried that you’d be left with no one. He also told me not to tell a soul.”
Then realisation hit me. “I always assumed it was his pride, or maybe worry about your dad’s reaction, but now I’m thinking something else. What if he was really afraid of my mom? I’ve no clue when she found out, but she’d hate the insult it implied. It would make her look weak.”
As concisely as I could, I told her about the blackmail threats and my mother’s treatment of me. Then I bit the bullet. “The picture the blackmailer is threatening me with is of you, Rory. In a bikini, on Dad’s lap.”
“Gross! When did that even happen?”
“I’ll send you it now.” With a couple of clicks, I forwarded the picture.
Rory clucked her tongue. “Ugh. I remember. This was in Mexico. Our dad invited me to spend a week with him. We were never that physically close, but I’d perched there for a picture. If you look carefully, I’m sat on the chair, and he just has an arm around me. It was for a fleeting second while a waiter he’d made friends with took the shot. God, what a mess.”
“I was on that trip, too. I wondered why he’d wanted to stay there alone after I left.”
“To hang out with me. I wish he could have been honest.”
We both went silent for a moment, and I contemplated how our parents had fucked us over.
“I think my mother is my blackmailer,” I finally said. “She’s going to release that shot tomorrow if I don’t come home.”
“Don’t come back,” Rory bit out. “I don’t give a flying fuck if a picture of me in a bikini goes out there. Not if it means any compromise to you finally being happy. No way José.”
I could weep. “I don’t want this for you, not after what happened to me. This is going to hurt your life.”
“Don’t worry about me. Even if this blows up, people forget about me in a heartbeat.”
We both took a breath.
Then she chuckled, a delighted sound. “Oh shit. I’ve got a better idea. The best ever. No fucking way are we going to let them own us like that.”
Then she clued me in, my clever sister taking back the power.
In relief, I agreed, adding her suggestions into my mental draft of life-exposing notes.
“You’re a genius. I’m going to record an interview and play it live online at the same time as the premiere.”
“Boss move. Include this in that. You have to.”
A thudding came her end of the line.
“What’s that?” I breathed.
Rory made a puzzled sound. “Front door. But it’s barely seven AM, so who the hell can that be? Stay on the line, I’ll check it out.”
A bad feeling swirled in my belly. “Rory,” I whispered.
But no reply came. Instead, I picked up the sound of movement through her house.
A shocked intake of breath brought her back onto the line. “It’s your mom,” she whispered. “I can see her through the window. What the hell’s she doing here?”
“Don’t answer to her,” I shot back.
Rory swore. “I won’t, but Dad’s awake. I can hear him moving about.”
“Get out of there. Go out the back. Please, Rory. Don’t let her near you. I don’t know what she’s capable of.”
But my sister made no reply. Instead, with the phone clamped to my ear, all I could detect was shuffling and faint voices. A clatter came.
It took a minute before Rory said a word, a minute for my heart to freeze up.
“I left. I ran through the back yard and made it to the road. Lucky I was dressed and not just streaking through the streets in my panties, right?” Her breathing came hard as if she was running. “I’m going to hide out a friend’s house. Your mom sounded pissed when Dad answered the door. I was just booking it out the back, but I heard her demand to see you, and failing that, me.”
She’d got away. My heart started again.
“She thinks I’m at your house. God. She’ll try to find you if she thinks I’m with you. I need to call her off.”
There was only one way to do it.
I had to reveal my location to my mother. But that risked the people I was with, whose house I was in.
A tapping echoed down the line, followed by voices as Rory greeted her friend. She returned to me. “I’m safe. Don’t do anything risky for my sake. I don’t want to lose you after only just being able to call you sister.”
Sister.
“I love you,” I blurted. “I always wanted a sister and I’m so glad it’s you. Stay indoors, and I’ll call you as soon as I know she’s left Temecula.”
“I love you, too. Whatever you need from me, I’m here. Look out for messages coming your way soon.”
We hung up, and I left the bedroom to head back downstairs.
Just when I thought I had control of the situation, another curveball got sent. This time I wasn’t about to crumble.
