Chapter Forty-One
Dominic
Since Tolyan isn’t going to satisfy my curiosity, I go another route—Shirley Pryce’s old household staff.
The woman Antoine finds me is petite, with a friendly face and a pair of wide-set eyes the color of coal. She’s apparently a seamstress and the owner of an alteration shop where Elizabeth and her brother Ryder get their clothes adjusted.
“May I help you?” she asks, her words lightly accented.
“Yes. I’m here to speak to Yu-Jin.”
“Yes?” She tilts her head, looking up at me with curiosity.
I give her my friendliest grin. “If you don’t mind, I’ll like to speak to you about Elizabeth.”
“Elizabeth?” Her eyebrows pinch together for a second.
“Elizabeth Pryce-Reed,” I clarify.
Her face closes. “I’m sorry, but I don’t gossip about my customers. You’ll have to go somewhere else if you aren’t here to get clothes altered.” She stares pointedly at my empty hands.
“I’m not here to gossip. I heard you used to work for Shirley Pryce. I only want to know what happened to Elizabeth ten years ago.”
“Ten years ago? I’m not sure what you mean. A lot of things happened ten years ago.”
“My name is Dominic King. Elizabeth and I used to date, a decade ago, but things fell apart.” The understatement of the century. “I have reason to believe that…events back then didn’t go as I thought. I’m only trying to find out the truth.”
“Dominic King?” She bites her lower lip for a moment, studying me, then finally asks, “What were you doing ten years ago?”
“Excuse me?”
“Your job. I need to make sure. There are a lot of rude and obnoxious people out there, digging for gossip to sell.”
“I was a bartender at a place near UCLA. I met Elizabeth there.”
“Ah, yes. That boy. I’m surprised it took you this long.”
“What do you mean?”
“Elizabeth seemed to believe that you were in love with her. And I think she loved you, too.”
She sits down, then very reluctantly offers me a seat, which I take. I have the feeling she only did it because she’s too polite not to.
“Were you very close to her?” I ask.
“Not really, not back then. But, you know… The staff hears everything. Shirley was very hard on her. She hated the idea of Elizabeth becoming an artist. She wanted Elizabeth to take over the foundation. And she found a way to control her when a friend ratted her out.”
“A friend?”
“Some girl. She had brown hair. I don’t remember her name.”
Marcella. It had to be.
But again, something doesn’t add up. If Yu-Jin knew about Marcella’s betrayal, Elizabeth must have, too. But when we ran into her outside of La Mer, Elizabeth behaved as though she had no bad feelings whatsoever.
“I know Shirley wanted to toss me in jail,” I say.
“Yes. She thought you were beneath Elizabeth. You weren’t rich and you weren’t from the right family. But Elizabeth didn’t want you to pay for her mistake. She said as much to Shirley many times, you know.”
“But what could she have done to stop her grandmother?” I say. Tolyan merely hinted at it, toying with me. But I have a feeling that Yu-Jin doesn’t play that kind of game.
“At first she begged her grandmother. I don’t know why she tried because Shirley wasn’t the type to forgive. And I think Elizabeth realized that, after an hour of pleading. So she stood outside her grandmother’s mansion in a show of protest. She didn’t move from the spot, not even to eat or drink. If she needed to use the bathroom…” Yu-Jin shakes her head. “She must’ve just held it because the gardener and the housekeeper and I saw her out there the whole time. I don’t even think she slept during that time because she just stood there, not moving at all, you know?”
My throat grows thick. “Yes,” I say only because Yu-Jin is staring at me expectantly.
“Four days later, she collapsed. I think it scared Shirley. She probably didn’t expect Elizabeth to be so stubborn. But she finally gave in and sent Elizabeth to the hospital to be treated for dehydration and exhaustion.”
I clench my shaking hands. So that explains what happened. It wasn’t my grandfather’s influence or Dorothy’s failure to find a DA willing to prosecute the case. It was Elizabeth, fighting for me, despite the vicious things I said that night.
Yu-Jin isn’t finished. “After Elizabeth came back from the hospital, she threw out all her art supplies and sketchbooks and decided not to go to Europe to study with her grandfather. I’m not sure about the exact details of the deal between her and Shirley, but giving that dream up was one. That poor child. To her grandmother, having a woman from the family leading the foundation was more important than Elizabeth’s happiness. And her mother wasn’t much better.”
“What did her mother do?”
“She wanted to control Elizabeth. Elizabeth was always a strong-willed girl. I think she humored her mother in some things, but not the ones that really mattered. Geraldine had a grand plan, you see. She wanted to show her ex-husband that she could marry Elizabeth into one of the finest and the wealthiest families in the world. And she forced the poor girl to take a more active role in that plan. I overheard their conversation once.” Her face flushed, Yu-Jin shifts her weight before continuing. “Geraldine said Elizabeth owed her one for overlooking what you did. So I think Elizabeth knew that, until the statute of limitations ran out, she had to do whatever her mother wanted. And that was date other men. It was strange to me because Elizabeth was so young at the time. And don’t Americans marry for love? Or is stuff like that different for rich people?”
“No one should have to marry for money.” I force the words out.
“That’s what I think too, but her mother…”
“How did Elizabeth cope? Geraldine must’ve been furious when Elizabeth remained single.”
Yu-Jin waves a hand. “Oh, that’s not how it happened. Elizabeth ran off for months after going out with a young man Geraldine chose some years ago. Shirley was angry at Geraldine for causing Elizabeth too much stress. When Elizabeth came back, she never had to go out with anyone again. That’s when she started spending a lot of time with Nate Sterling. It gave Geraldine some hope, I think, but…no marriage yet.”
I press my fists against my knees and inhale deeply—the scent of fabric and old, lingering perfume clogging my lungs. I can’t draw in enough air. The skin around my eyes heats. I’m the biggest fucking idiot in the world. What Yu-Jin said hollows me out. Of all the possibilities, this never crossed my mind.
Then I remember Elizabeth’s call five years ago, how she laughed and laughed on the phone, her breath hitching. Back then, I thought it was some sort of weird taunt. But now I realize it was her way of reaching out, because she couldn’t continue anymore.
I swallow the acid flooding my mouth. I couldn’t hate myself more than I do now. I misjudged everything…failed her so badly…
I have to fix this. I have to find a way to make it right even if I can never redeem myself…and Elizabeth loathes me forever…