My heart falls. “I didn’t think of that. Neither of us look a lot different. I had a few more zits back then.”
“For God’s sake, you’ve never had an acne problem. Get over yourself already.”
She’s right. Just because Pat Lamone called me the ugly duckling sister doesn’t mean I am the ugly duckling sister. Pat Lamone is an idiot.
“Sorry. And you know what? We’ll get Brittany Sheraton or Kayla whatever the fuck her name was to come forward and admit when the pictures were taken. Admit what they did to us. Donny will pay them off if we have to.”
“Yeah, okay.”
“You don’t sound too excited about that plan.”
“I just wish we could handle this ourselves. I hate that other people even have to know about it.”
“I agree. But there’s no shame in taking help from people who want to help us.”
“Lamone told Donny and Raine that we’re gold diggers.” Rory sighs. “So what do we do now? We take help from the Steels, which equates to taking their money.”
An epiphany shoots through me. “We were after the reward money ten years ago. That’s why we needed the evidence, and that’s where Lamone got the idea that we were gold diggers. Damn. But why would he lie about you sleeping with him and me being next in line?”
“Hell if I know, but he has evidence, after all. Naked photos of both of us.”
“That proves nothing,” I say.
“True, if you want to get technical, but naked photos are easily spun.”
My sister’s far from wrong, but what if there’s something much more sinister behind all of this? Why, after ten years, would Pat Lamone come back here and stir all this up again? We’ve pretty much determined he’s not here to dredge up the past. He’s here to mess with the present and the future.
But why?
What on earth does he have to gain?
Hush money from the Steels, sure. But is he only a mercenary? Or is there something larger at work?
I draw in a deep breath. Best to stick with the issue at hand. “Donny wants to help us. And I want to help him with things he’s going through.”
“What the hell is Donny going through? He’s a fucking Steel.”
“I think we’ve had the wrong idea about the Steels all this time. Yeah, they seem golden on the outside, but they harbor just as many secrets and issues as any other family.”
“They do?”
“They do. I’ll ask Donny how much I can tell you.”
“No, please don’t. This may sound selfish, but I don’t want to get in the middle of anybody else’s drama right now.”
“Fair enough. In the meantime, we do need to check out Pat Lamone. I have the sinking feeling that all the crap that’s gone down in our lives isn’t just a coincidence. I mean your breakup with Raine. We already know he played a hand in it.”
“Raine and I were already over. She didn’t believe his lies.”
“I know that. But Pat Lamone certainly didn’t help the situation. He tried the same thing with Donny and me. And I’m wondering… That fire… Our winery and vineyards get destroyed, and all of a sudden Pat Lamone is back in town? Having stolen our evidence?”
Rory stays silent.
“Rory?” I say.
“Sorry. Just thinking. Why? Why would he come back ten years later, just to destroy us? All we did was get evidence of him saying that he drugged the punch that poisoned Diana Steel. That’s it, and we didn’t even hand over the evidence, because he blackmailed us with the photos. So why? Why now?”
“He probably got wind of the fact that I’m dating Donny Steel and thought he could make a buck. That’s the only thing I can think of on the surface. But there’s more. I feel it.”