I glanced at my phone to check the time. It was eight o’clock. Only four more hours until this nightmare of a day was officially over, although if you asked me, tomorrow couldn’t come soon enough.

For now, I needed a stiff drink.

The last several hours had been a hellish whirlwind. After realizing she’d been caught out during the wedding ceremony, Libby tried to deny everything, but she couldn’t deny solid evidence, so the next step was to try and run. She didn’t make it far, though, because Bianca—who’d apparently been sleeping with Libby’s ex, unbeknownst to anyone else—started wailing on her with a bouquet. After the claws came out and the fight spilled over to the other bridesmaids, Libby tried to run again, but my mother stopped her. I’d never seen such an enraged look in Mom’s eyes before.

After that, Libby seemed to shrink before our eyes. It was over, and she knew it. She was done. She sank to the church floor, crying, but no one felt sorry for her. Especially not me. I’d spent years being on my sister’s side, being her friend and confidant (or so I thought), but that all went away the second I saw those photos. Libby had fooled everyone into thinking she was a different person, even her own family.

I shook my head at my obliviousness as I slinked into one of the resort bars and ordered a double shot of vodka. How could I be so blind to what Libby was really like? I grew up with her. I shared my life with her. I thought I knew her inside and out. But the whole time, she was the kind of sociopath who would marry a man just for a shot at… what, exactly? She already had Nate’s money, so what was the next part of the plan if things didn’t go awry? Fleece more cash out of Bobby?

I had no idea. I didn’t know what her plan was, how she’d come up with it, or how she managed to pull it off for so long. All I knew for sure was that nothing would ever be the same.

At least she hadn’t gotten away with it in the end. Right now, she was sitting in an island jail cell after someone called the local police during the wedding fiasco. Obviously we couldn’t just tell them to arrest Libby for the theft (because they had no idea who we were or what she’d done), but we’d managed to convince them to hold her for a while over the fight with Bianca.

After that, Nate managed to contact the case investigators back in the States. He told them who the people in the CCTV stills were, and after that, a warrant was immediately issued for Libby’s arrest. Seeing as the Bunbury Islands had an extradition treaty with the US, the warrant was valid here, and the local police could keep her locked up for longer, pending extradition.

During all of that, Nate was also taking care of Bobby, who’d almost passed out from shock back at the church. Right now they were holed up in Nate’s suite along with Bobby’s groomsmen, who were also trying to help care for their friend.

Strangely enough, most of the wedding guests were at the reception. A few hours ago, Bobby had weakly asked me to try and wrangle everyone into going, as the whole event was already booked and paid for. He said someone should enjoy all that food and champagne, even if he couldn’t. So while Nate stayed with him and took care of him, I went out to round everyone up and convince them to take advantage of the free canapés, dinner, and dessert so it wouldn’t all go to waste.

I didn’t attend the reception myself, though. I couldn’t face stepping into that decorated room with the tiered wedding cake in the middle. It was supposed to represent the love between my sister and Bobby, and now it’d turned out that one half of that love was fake. That was too sad for me to face right now. The mere thought of my sister’s betrayal was enough to make me want to break down in tears already, so seeing that cake would probably push me over the edge.

I didn’t want to cry. Not now. I just wanted to sit in silence, sip on my vodka, and try to think about something else. Anything else.

“I see we’ve had the same idea.”

I glanced up to see my mother standing near my table with a glass of wine, her face glum and weary. I nodded to a chair. “You’re not going to the reception either?”

She sat down and shook her head. “Can’t face it.”

“Yeah, same here.”

“Did you at least manage to get everyone else to go?” she asked.

I nodded. “Almost everyone. So it won’t totally go to waste.”

“Good.” She let out a heavy sigh. “I just got back from the police station.”

“You were with Libby?” I furrowed my brows.

“Yes. I wanted to know….” She trailed off for a second, shaking her head. “I wanted to know why. And how. I never saw this coming.”

She took a sip of wine, and I scooted closer. “No one did, Mom. Did she tell you anything?”

“A bit. She didn’t want to talk at first, but you know me—I have ways of getting things out of people.”

I gave her a faint smile. “That’s true. I’ve compared you to a CIA interrogator in the past.”

She sniffed at that, but her lips turned up in a weak smile too. “I found out how it all started.”

My eyes widened. “Really? So did she target Bobby, or did she come up with the plan after she met him?”

Mom pursed her lips. “She targeted him.”

I sighed. “Shit.”

“Remember how Justin never seemed to think Libby was good enough, even though she was so smart? But she was just so obsessed with him,” Mom said. I nodded, and she went on. “From what she told me, it seems like she thought that coming up with some sort of plan to fleece millions out of someone would impress him enough to make him get back with her. Seeing as how money was the only thing that ever really impressed him.”

My forehead crinkled. “Right…”

“So she came up with this whole scheme. Apparently she wanted to go after Nate, but she thought that would be too obvious, so she targeted Bobby instead. The only reason they even met was because she made sure they would. It wasn’t some big romantic coincidental meeting like we thought. It was all planned.”

“Jeez…” I put my head in my hands. “I just can’t get over it. Like, aside from how crazy it is, how did she even do it all? She’s not a hacker.”

“But she was always good with tech stuff. She wanted to be a programmer when she was a teenager.”

“True.”

“Even after she decided to write instead, she still kept with up all the computer stuff. You know her—she likes to know everything about everything. So it wasn’t all that hard for her to figure out. Once she seduced Bobby and made herself a part of his life, she broke into his cloud account and got all his passwords. Some of Nate’s, too. And she knew Nate always left that personal laptop at the office, because Bobby mentioned it to her a few times, assuming he could trust her. As soon as she heard that, she knew she could easily get his money without even having to hack into the CryptX servers. All she really had to do was hack into the office security system to wipe all the data, so they wouldn’t be caught by the cameras. And with Bobby’s passwords, that was easy. Wouldn’t even call it hacking.”

“I see.”

“Plus, Justin was part of the plan, remember? Anything she didn’t know how to do, he did. He was the one who knew how to hide the money once she’d gotten into Nate’s computer, seeing as that’s pretty much part of his job—figuring out how other people steal it or hide it.”

I frowned. “So why go through with the wedding to Bobby at all? What was the point if she and Justin already had the money?”

“It’s like you said at the church—she wanted to make it seem like she and Bobby had a real relationship, even though she was in love with Justin all along. Just so no one would suspect the real reason she’d gotten with him in the first place. She was planning on filing for divorce in a year and officially getting back with Justin.”

I nodded slowly. “I suppose in the grand scheme of things, being married to someone you don’t love for just one year is worth it if you think it’ll help you get away with stealing ten million dollars. To a person with no remorse, that is.”

“Yes.” She sighed and finished the last sip of her wine.

“It all makes so much sense now,” I murmured, propping a cheek on one fist. “For such a smart girl, she was acting really weird and silly last week. She was saying all these things about having jitters and worrying that she and Bobby wouldn’t work out. Now I’m thinking about it, I guess she did that on purpose to manipulate me.”

Mom nodded. “She did the same to me; said the same sort of stuff. So the divorce in a year would be a surprise, but at the same time we’d all think ‘well, she always had a few doubts, so I guess it makes sense’.”

“Yup. God, she played us all.” I hesitated, shaking my head slowly. “I came so close to catching her out the other day, you know. I saw her texting Justin, saying something about Bobby ‘not knowing’ something. She played it off by spinning some bullshit story, and I fell for every word. She’s so freaking manipulative!”

“I suppose she’ll get what she deserves now. She’ll be all alone, too, even once she’s out of prison. Justin was happy to play along with her plan for the payday and keep it all hushed up, but he never intended on staying true to her. He’s been sleeping with Bianca behind her back for years, apparently.”

I snorted. “Why am I not surprised? He was always an asshole. Same with Bianca.”

Mom nodded and drummed her nails on the table. “You can tell a lot about a person by the company they keep. I probably should’ve realized Libby had a nasty streak, considering what nasty little harpies her friends are.”

“That’s true,” I admitted. I’d never thought of it like that, but it all made a lot of sense now. Just like everything else. “Hey, and no wonder she looked so shocked when I first showed up here with Nate. Remember? She looked like she was about to faint.”

Mom nodded again, more vehemently this time. “We all thought she was so shocked because he’s Bobby’s estranged brother, but she was only really surprised because she’d just stolen all his fucking money!”

I raised my brows. “Since when do you swear?”

She waved her hand. “I just found out one of my daughters is essentially a sociopath. I’m allowed to say ‘fuck’.”

“Fair enough.” I gave her a sheepish smile.

Mom suddenly burst into tears. Her shoulders drooped, and her face turned red as she tried to wipe her eyes to no avail. I moved even closer and slung an arm around her. “Shh, don’t cry. This isn’t your fault.”

“Yes it is!” she said with a loud sniff. “I did something wrong, didn’t I? I raised Libby badly. Look what she turned into!”

“You didn’t raise her badly,” I said soothingly. “Some people just turn out wrong. You can’t control everything, and it’s not like any of us knew what she really was. We all thought she was a perfect little angel.”

“Oh, stop it, Georgina. I know I’m a bad mother. You can barely even tolerate me half the time.”

“That’s not true.”

“You hardly ever call me anymore. You always seem annoyed with me.”

I cocked my head to the side. “Mom, I only stopped calling you as often because in the last few years, you’ve harassed me about my love life every chance you get. I didn’t want to stop contacting you as much. It just really got to me, so it dropped off. I’m sorry, I’ll try harder.”

She blew her nose on a napkin. “See? I’m horrible.”

“I didn’t mean it like that.”

“It’s fine.” She sniffed again. “I know I’ve been hard on you. I know I might’ve seemed like a tyrant. But I didn’t mean to. I just didn’t want you to turn out like me.”

I frowned. “What do you mean?”

Mom waved a hand around. “Look at me. Look at my life. Married three times and nothing to show for it. I’m all alone.”

“You aren’t alone.”

“Yes, I am. I’ve always picked the wrong men. I never regretted marrying your father, because he gave me my children, but he wasn’t the right man for me. Neither were the other two.” She paused to dab at her eyes with another napkin. “I didn’t want you to end up alone and miserable like me. People like to act as if being independent is the best thing in the world, but sometimes you just need a person to share it all with. That’s all I wanted for my kids.”

“Oh,” I said softly.

“I’m sorry if I bullied you. I just thought if I kept nagging you, you’d see how important it was to find someone instead of focusing on work all the time.”

I felt awful. Sure, Mom had really bothered me over the years with her comments, but now I knew it all came from a place of love, not malice. I probably should’ve sat down with her and asked what was going on, instead of rolling my eyes and complaining every time she harassed me about being single.

“Mom, I get it. I didn’t realize that’s what it was. I thought you were just—”

“Just being an annoying old nag?” she said with a sigh. “Well, I was, wasn’t I?”

“No, I get it now. I just wish you’d told me how you felt. You’ve never said anything like this. I didn’t even know you were so lonely.”

“I didn’t want to admit it. It’s too pathetic.”

I rubbed her back. “You aren’t pathetic, Mom.”

“You don’t know the half of it.”

“Then tell me.”

“Okay.” She picked at the edge of one of the napkins, her cheeks turning slightly red. “I’ve done something very silly, Georgie.”

“What?”

She looked down at the table. “I’ve had no one these last few years. I haven’t even had any bites.”

“Mom….”

She held up a hand to shush me. “People don’t often tell you this, but when you get older, you start to feel as if you’ve become invisible. I don’t even remember the last time a man looked at me. So I thought….” She trailed off and coughed nervously, her face flushing a deeper shade of red.

I lifted a brow. “Yes?”

“I thought if I had all these swanky new things, it would make me feel a bit better. You know I don’t have a huge amount to live on anymore, but I’ve been ignoring that and blowing through every cent.” She waved her hand. “And for what? Stupid diamonds and designer accessories, so I look like someone’s taking care of me and spoiling me? Even though I’m all by myself in the end.”

“Oh, Mom….” I reached over and clasped one of her hands.

“I’ve shopped so much that I’m in debt now. I might have to sell the house and move somewhere smaller, just to pay off the credit cards. How pathetic is that?” She blew her nose again. “I told you, I’m a stupid old woman. Those glamorous new things only made me feel better for a few minutes, and I’ve ruined my life over it.”

I squeezed her hand. “I can help. I won a scratch card thing a few weeks ago, so I have a bit of spare cash lying around. That should tide you over for a while.”

She jerked away from me. “No. I don’t deserve it.” Tears started slipping down her face again, and she covered it with her hands. “God, I can’t believe this is how I ended up.”

I chewed on my bottom lip for a moment. I never wanted to admit this to her, but if it made her feel better, it was worth it. “Mom, I know you feel like you’re the only pathetic one, but I have something to tell you that’ll blow you right out of the water. I promise.”

She peeked out at me. “What is it?”

I sighed. “I offered Nate five grand in cash to be my fake boyfriend, because I was so embarrassed about being single.”

She dropped her hands and widened her eyes. “What?”

I threw up my hands. “See? That’s truly pathetic. I had to pay a guy to be my date because I’m so bad at relationships.”

“But… you and Nate…” Mom spluttered out her words in shock.

“We’re actually together now, if you can believe that. But there it is anyway. I’m the queen of pathetic-ness, not you.” I shrugged a shoulder.

“I don’t understand. Is that story supposed to make me feel better?” Mom asked, tilting her head to the side.

“Well, yeah. You paid for a few pieces of jewelry you couldn’t afford. I paid for a freaking man.”

She smiled faintly. “That does take the cake, doesn’t it?”

“Yup.”

“It’s my fault, though. I harassed you so much you felt like you had to do that.”

I shook my head. “No, if I was any good at relationships, I could’ve found a real date to shut you up,” I said with a wry grin. “But ever since Matthew, I’ve been useless with men. I shut myself off and pushed most of them away.”

“Yes, I suppose you did,” she said. “But I’m still a bad mother. One of my daughters is a criminal, and the other one felt the need to fake an entire relationship. What does that say about me?”

I arched an eyebrow. “Mom, I forgot to return a library book one time. It hardly makes me a criminal.”

She rolled her eyes. “I meant Libby.”

“I know, I was kidding. Just trying to make you feel better.”

“I don’t deserve to feel better. I’m a horrible mother.” She put her head in her hands again.

“Mom, for the last time, you aren’t horrible! Do you remember when I finished school and told you what I wanted to major in at college? We got in a fight about it.”

“Yes. I wanted you to study business.”

“Yeah, but you still paid for my entire design course, and when I finished, you were the one who helped me get my first job back home. You didn’t agree with my choice, but you still supported me.”

“Well, yes, of course I paid for your education. I had the means to do so at the time, so why wouldn’t I? Any parent would if they could.”

My brows dipped into a frown. “No, they wouldn’t, trust me. One of my friends from college got cut off by her family, even though they were super-rich and could afford it, all because she decided to switch majors and not go into medicine like they wanted,” I said. “So let me support you now. Let me help you pay off your debt.”

“You really want to?” she said in a small voice.

“Yes!”

“That would be so helpful.” Mom’s shoulders sagged with relief. “But only do it if you absolutely want to. I won’t be offended if you change your mind.”

“I won’t. Besides, that spare cash was originally going to Nate. Now that we’re actually together, I won’t have to give it to him.” I paused and smiled. “He said he was never going to take it anyway.”

Mom nodded slowly. “I suppose at least one good thing has come out of this vacation. You’ve found someone great. I really like Nate.”

“You do?”

“Yes. He didn’t exactly make a great first impression, but he’s grown on me. He clearly cares about you a lot.” She leaned forward. “Also, he’s very handsome.”

I smiled. “He is, isn’t he? And speaking of handsome guys.…” I let my eyes drift over to the bar. “A very distinguished-looking man has been staring over here for the last minute or so. I think he’s looking at you.”

“Oh, don’t be silly.”

“He is! So much for you being invisible.”

Mom turned her head to the left to check out the tall grey-haired gentleman at the bar. He noticed, and he raised his glass and nodded at her.

“See?” I said.

She looked flustered. “But I’ve been crying. I look horrible.”

“He obviously doesn’t think so,” I said with a smile and a wink. I stood up. “I’m going to leave you to it and go back to my room. I’m exhausted.”

As I picked up my purse, the older man headed over to our table and extended a hand to my mother. “Hello, I’m Harold. May I buy you a drink?”

Mom fluttered her eyelashes. “I’d like that. I’m Margaret.”

I smiled. That drink should be a nice distraction for her. She deserved it.

I trudged out of the bar and took the elevator up to my room as waves of tiredness crashed over me. It was still early, but after such a harrowing day, I felt like I could sleep forever. At least in my dreams, my sister might not be a treacherous bitch.

With a heavy sigh, I stepped into my room. The door clicked shut behind me, and my gaze fell on the chair on the left side of the room. My old bachelorette party sashes were still there, sitting on top of the veil. I rolled my eyes. I’d brought those things to the island with some big plan to burn them and throw the ashes in the ocean as part of some symbolic healing process, but now that just seemed frivolous and stupid. I’d already healed. All I needed to do was find love in order to fully let my past go.

Now, the items were nothing to me but old scraps of satin and gauze. With a smile, I snatched them off the chair, crumpled them up and threw them in the trash can.

That’s where they belonged all along.

* * *

My door opened fifteen minutes later, when I was in the bathroom washing my face. I walked out to see Nate stepping inside. “Hey.” I crossed the room, my forehead wrinkling. “How’s Bobby doing?”

He rubbed his temples. “As expected. Pretty much stared into space for the last couple of hours. But he’s asleep now. Sully had some mini sedatives on him.”

“I guess those frat boy friends are good for something, huh?” I said with a wry smile.

Nate nodded. “Yeah. They’ve actually been really supportive. One of them is staying on his couch up in the penthouse until I get back there tomorrow morning.”

I raised my brows. “Tomorrow?”

He nodded. “I thought I should come spend the night with you. Bobby lost his fiancée, but you lost your sister, in a manner of speaking.” As he spoke, he put a hand on my shoulder and squeezed it. “So how are you feeling?”

“I think I’m okay. Guess it hasn’t really sunk in yet, like part of me is still too shocked to believe it.” I sighed and shook my head. “I just feel so bad for Bobby. Thinking someone loves you for so long, only to have them betray you so terribly… it’s one of the worst feelings in the world.”

“Yeah, it’s fucked up.” Nate ran a hand through his hair. “And she didn’t just manipulate and betray him. She did it to everyone. You. Your mom. Her friends.”

“Yup.” I pressed my lips into a thin line.

“She did it to me too, even though I didn’t even know her. Played my brother and me against each other perfectly. Wasn’t even hard. She knew our rough history, because Bobby confided everything in her, so it was easy to pull off—she set him up, and I assumed he took my money. I treated him like shit these last few months. All for nothing. I’m a fucking dick.”

“Nate…”

He held a hand up. “It’s okay. You don’t need to defend me. I can admit it—I was an asshole.”

“But you didn’t know the whole story. No one did.”

He rubbed his face again, his eyebrows dipping into a frown. “Well, we do now.” He crossed the room to the minibar and poured himself a small glass of scotch. After taking a sip, he turned back to me. “When I spoke to him earlier, he told me what he went through when Mom died,” he said in a gruff voice. “That’s what you meant the other day when you said I should talk to him, right?”

“Yes,” I said softly.

“I had no idea. I grieved pretty normally. Never knew it wasn’t the same for him. I thought he’d just turned into a prick. So yeah, I’m an ignorant dickhead.”

I shook my head. “When he lashed out at you all those years ago, you didn’t know the underlying reasons. You took his actions at face value, and that’s not your fault. Most people would do the same.”

His jaw twitched. “I could’ve talked to him. Could’ve figured it out. I essentially cut him off instead.”

I sighed. “Look, you both messed up. Sure, maybe you could’ve figured out what a hard time he was having after your mom passed, but he said some really heinous things to you, and that made you not want anything to do with him. He knows that, and he doesn’t blame you at all. He just wants you to forgive him.”

“I do. I forgive him. But what now?” He shook his head slowly. “I’m fucking worried. He could be prone to depression, right? Seeing as he’s had it before. Now all this shit has gone down… what’s gonna happen to him?”

I sighed and stepped closer, slipping an arm around his hips. “I think he’ll be devastated for a while, but if he has a lot of support, he’ll get through it. Last time, he kept it all to himself, so he didn’t get much of that.”

Nate nodded, his jaw steeled. “Whatever it takes, I’ll do it. I owe him that support. So if he needs me to hang out with him every single day so he’s not alone, I’ll be there. Or if he needs the world’s best therapist, I’ll fly them in to see him.”

I smiled. “See? You are a good brother.”

“Trying to be. Been a while.” He held out the scotch glass. “Want some?”

I shook my head. “I already had some vodka. Probably shouldn’t mix drinks.”

“At the reception?”

“No, I went to a hotel bar downstairs. I was with Mom.”

“Oh, shit, I forgot to ask. Is she okay?”

“She’s pretty much in the same boat as me. Shocked. Sad that she never really knew who Libby was deep down. We talked for ages, but I ended up leaving because she attracted an admirer. Figured she could use the distraction.”

“What’s the guy like?”

I smiled. “Looks about her age. Well-dressed. Very polite. And guess what?” I leaned in closer. “His name is Harold.”

Nate’s lips twitched. “You’re kidding.”

“Nope.”

“If today hadn’t been the shittiest day ever, I’d be laughing my ass off right now.”

“Me too.”

He wrapped his arms around my waist and murmured softly in my ear. “You sure you’re feeling okay?”

I nodded, but it was a lie. I pulled back, sat down on the end of the bed and put my head in my hands, my chest and shoulders shaking. The tears finally came, hot and furious, spilling out and running down my face in briny rivulets. “How could this happen?” I choked out between sobs.

Nate sat down next to me, one arm slung around my left shoulder. “I don’t know,” he said softly.

“Shouldn’t I have seen this coming? How could I not know my own sister properly?” I wiped my face on the back of my hand.

“It’s not your fault,” he said. “Libby’s obviously a narcissist. They always seem smart, charming and perfect, but it’s all a mask. Hers dropped today. It had to, because she was sprung, and for once she couldn’t talk her way out of it. She finally ran out of lies.”

“I guess so.” I sniffed weakly. “It’s just so....” My voice trailed off.

“It’s fucked up, no getting around that.” He rubbed my back. “But I’m here for you. I love you.”

My eyes widened as I looked up at him. “You…” I was too surprised to even finish my sentence.

“Yeah. I love you,” he said gruffly. “Probably didn’t pick the most romantic moment to say it, but it’s true, Georgie. I’ve been falling for you from the second we met. I know it’s too early to say it, and I—”

I cut him off, blurting out, “I love you too!”

He grinned. “You do?”

“Yes! I don’t care that other people might think it’s too early to say it. I know how I feel,” I declared. “I just didn’t know if you were there yet.”

“Well, now you know. I am,” he said. “And with all this Libby shit—don’t worry. It’s over now. We’re gonna get on that boat tomorrow to go home, and we’re gonna get back to our normal lives without all this crazy shit. Only we’ll be together. That’s something, right?”

I nodded. He was right. The vacation, the fakery, the living nightmare of a wedding day… it was all over now.

But we’d only just begun.