VM: Had to know what?
CF: If it was possible.
VM: What do you mean?
CF: It should not have worked, (agitated) It should never have happened - it was just a test. To see ...
VM: What?
CF: No time, (whispers) I know what I must do now.
VM: But the Regis. He will want an explanation for my actions.
CF: Yes. I will take care of Lawrence. Do not worry. He, of all people, will understand why I did what I had to do. Now, listen to me. I am sending you to Corcovado....
"Sky, you look awful. What happened?" Bliss asked, finding Schuyler standing morosely at her doorway. Schuyler's eyes were red from crying, and she was blowing her nose with a tissue.
"Your maid let me in. I hope that's okay. Are your parents around?" Schuyler asked, still sniffing.
"No. They're at some campaign fund-raiser. What else is new. Come on in. Not that they'd care anyway. You know they like you," Bliss said. As soon as she said it, Bliss realized she wasn't sure if it was true. Her parents had never shown any interest in her friends. They still assumed she hung out with Mimi Force. That's how clueless they were. They'd never even met Schuyler or Oliver.
"Are you all right?" Bliss asked.
Schuyler shook her head. She followed Bliss into her bedroom and climbed onto her bed, leaning back on the pillows and closing her eyes. "Oliver hates me," she said with a strangled cry as she rubbed her eyes. "He saw...the...two of us...Jack and..."
"He knows." Bliss nodded. So that's what Mimi was telling Oliver that afternoon.
In answer, Schuyler grabbed a fluffy pillow from among the huge goose-down heap and put it behind her neck. "Yeah."
Bliss sighed. She picked up the television remote and started flipping through recorded programs. "Did you see the latest episode of The Beach?"
"No, put it on," Schuyler urged. The fabricated "reality show" about the lives of three vacuous and yet strangely fascinating blond girls from Los Angeles was their favorite.
"So how'd he find out?" Bliss asked, keeping her eyes on the screen. Then she paused the action and turned to Schuyler. "Although, I guess it doesn't matter. You know he would eventually."
"I know," Schuyler said. "I wish you wouldn't look at me that way. I know what you're thinking."
"I didn't say anything."
"You don't have to."
Bliss rubbed Schuyler's back. She was sympathetic, but Schuyler had known what she was doing when she hooked up with Jack. She'd alienated a friend, and for what - Jack Force? What did she see in him anyway?
"Look, I've got to tell you something: Mimi and I visited Dylan today," Bliss said. She repeated everything the doctor had told her.
Schuyler was astonished and confused. "So if it wasn't Dylan who killed Aggie and all those others - who was it?"
"Who knows?"
"Does anyone else know about this? That he didn't do it?"
"Other than Mimi and me? Yeah. Forsyth," Bliss said. She realized she somehow couldn't bring herself to call him "Dad" lately. "Dr. Andrews said he'd called him once the tests came in."
"But your dad didn't mention anything to you?"
"Not a word."
"Or to the Conclave?"