chapter twenty-two
Lily
“GOD,” I GROAN, slumping over the tiny desk in my bedroom, blearily staring at the giant screen of my iMac. I was so tired, so freaking depressed and angry after I came back from Maui, I fell into bed the minute I got home and slept for hours. More like a day. I managed to make myself presentable and went to see Rose and Violet at Fleur—which was supposed to only be lunch but turned into an all-afternoon adventure with lunch and then the meeting …
That, surprisingly, went well. Daddy was pleasant. Grandma wasn’t there, so I didn’t have to deal with her. I love my grandma, but she knows how to lay on the guilt.
In an extremely thick layer that suffocates me.
I came home from the meeting only to crash again, sleeping through the entire night. Woke up in the morning, brewed myself a pot of coffee, and finally started to make an attempt to open the hard drive that’s included in my router so I can figure out exactly what’s stored on my stolen laptop.
And I’m starting to freak out.
My hand on the mouse, I open up the folder I forgot I’d created, the one entitled Naughty, and I click through the endless photos of me … naked. Cringing, I squint at the screen, shuffling through the pictures, my stomach slowly twisting and turning. They’re mostly of me topless, with a few butt photos mixed in. A series in particular featuring me standing naked with my back to the camera, hands on hips and sassy smile fixed in place as I look coyly over my shoulder.
I remember exactly who I took those photos for. A guy named John. Ten years older than me and richer than my daddy, he made me feel like I was special. He spoiled me rotten, took me shopping, bought me sexy shoes, sexy lingerie …
He was also a total pervert who loved to look at me naked—particularly my butt. Claimed he could stare at it all day.
Being the generous semi-girlfriend that I was, because we weren’t necessarily a couple but we were together one Valentine’s Day, I decided to send these photos to him via text.
Too bad his actual girlfriend found them. The one I didn’t know existed. The one who didn’t know I existed, either. Thank God John deleted all of those photos before she could do any major damage.
Did I learn from that lesson? Um, no, doesn’t look like I did. Not when the last photo appears, the image filling my screen in vivid detail. Of me sitting in the center of my bed, my head tilted to the side so my hair spills over my shoulder, covering one of my breasts, my nipple peeking through. A sultry smile curves my lips and my legs are spread wide, knees bent and feet planted firmly on the mattress, all my goods on blatant display …
I cover my face with my hands and make an inarticulate noise, trying to tell myself it’s all going to be okay. Despite the laptop being gone, these photos won’t show up anywhere. At least I didn’t save them to my cloud storage. I don’t trust the cloud, and for good reason. But hey, I’ll be fine. Absolutely, perfectly fine.
Inhaling sharply, I hold my breath then let it out, trying to calm my racing heart. But it’s no use. Whoever has my laptop—fucking Max, motherfucker—has access to those photos.
Those horrible, reputation-ruining, there’s-absolutely-no-mistaking-it’s-me photos.
My family is going to shit their pants if they’re ever made public. Daddy will disown me, Grandma will probably have a heart attack, and disappointing Violet and Rose … I don’t know if I can handle it.
And I have no one to blame but myself.
I scream into my palms as loud as I can but I don’t feel any better. My head is pounding, my hands are shaking, and if Max appeared in front of me right at this very instant, I would probably kick him in the face before I rammed my knee into his balls.
The violent thought doesn’t satisfy me one bit.
My cell phone rings, startling me, and I drop my hands to check the screen to see who’s calling.
Rose.
Dread churning in my stomach, I answer with a tentative hello, praying the shit hasn’t already hit the fan. Could it happen that fast? With the speed of information these days, yeah, it probably could. My naked ass could be up on a Times Square billboard for all I know.
“What are you doing?” Rose asks cheerily, like nothing’s wrong.
Which means nothing is wrong, right?
“Nothing much,” I say, my voice tentative. “Just … messing around on my computer.”
“Not changing anyone’s grades up, huh?” Rose laughs. She knows what I used to do; she’s heard all the old stories. “You don’t do that sort of thing anymore, right?”
“Actually …” I swallow hard, not sure how much I should confess. Or if I should confess anything in the first place.
“Lily, you’re not up to any trouble, are you?” Rose’s voice changes in an instant, full of worry and concern.
“No,” I say quickly—too quickly. “Why? Is something going on?” My entire body goes stiff waiting for her reply.
“No, I just … I don’t know.” Rose’s voice lowers, as if she’s telling me a deep, dark secret. “Caden says I’ve been jumping to conclusions lately and that’s unlike me. He feels like he’s always on the defensive when we talk, even about stuff like the weather. I told him I have no idea what he’s referring to.”
Now it’s my turn to worry. What if Rose’s handsome, charming devil of a husband is up to no good? “Is he acting suspicious?”
“No, no, no. He’s like, perfect. Almost too overprotective, but I have no business complaining about that, right? He loves me.” Rose sighs. “That’s the weird thing. It’s all me. I’m the one who’s acting freaky. I know exactly what Caden’s talking about, but half the time I pretend I don’t have a clue.”
My sister is making little sense. “Are you okay, Rosie? Seriously. You’re not acting right.”
“I know, tell me all about it. I blame the baby. The little monster is making me crazy,” Rose whispers. “I love my future little booger, but listen to me! I sound like I’m insane.”
She does. I can’t explain it, but I feel like she’s talking in circles and I can’t keep up. Though I’m thankful for the conversation because it takes the heat off me and focuses on crazy, pregnant Rose.
“The real reason I called is I wanted to go out to breakfast.” Rose pauses. “And I want you to go with me.”
“Okay.” I draw the word out, feeling unsettled. “When?”
“Now? Are you dressed? I’m already in a cab, headed toward your building.”
I glance down at myself. I’m wearing skimpy little sleep shorts and a tank top. My hair is a mess and I’d bet I have raccoon eyes since I slept in my makeup from yesterday.
If Grandma knew, she would have an absolute fit.
“I’ll need a few minutes,” I tell her. “Do you want to meet somewhere?”
“Yes, that little bakery down the street from your building.” Rose sighs. “They have the best cupcakes.”
“Are you talking about Piece of Cake?” They have good coffee at least. “And a cupcake for breakfast? Gross.”
“I’m craving frosting. Don’t judge.”
Double gross. Being pregnant is making my sister weird. “Give me twenty minutes.”
“Perfect, see you there.”
“OH. MY. GOD.” Rose sinks her teeth into the biggest cupcake I’ve ever seen, topped with a thick layer of pink frosting. She’s chewing slowly, like she’s savoring every bite, and she closes her eyes, a little moan falling from her lips that makes me vaguely uncomfortable.
As if she’s finding some sort of weird erotic pleasure from eating the cupcake.
“That good, huh?” I squirm in my seat, look anywhere but at my dreamy-eyed sister as she licks her fingers and then wipes them with a napkin.
“Thank God you showed up when you did. I was about to buy a dozen of these suckers to go and head back home.” Rose stares at her cupcake like she’s going to attack it. I seriously hope she reconsiders. “How’s your muffin?”
I bought a blueberry muffin but I’m not hungry. I pick at it, pinch a crumble off the top and then let it drop on my plate. “I’m not that hungry.”
“Hmm.” She eyes my plate hungrily, then returns her attention to hers, swooping her finger into the frosting. “What’s bugging you, Lily?”
“Nothing.” I give her a wan smile and take a sip of my coffee, pausing mid-sip when I see the way Rose is watching me.
Like she can see right through my lie.
“Tell me,” she says, her voice low, her fingers curled around the edge of the round table as she leans over it. Not that she can lean much, considering her growing belly gets in the way. “You haven’t been acting right since you came home from Maui. And I still don’t get why you went there in the first place.”
“Vacation,” I say, wincing at the dirty look she shoots me.
“You made me lie and act like I had no idea where you were when I did know the entire time!” Rose bangs the edge of the table, making the plates rattle, and she reaches out, grabbing hold of her cupcake as if she’s going to lose it. “Tell me why you went there.”
“I can’t,” I whisper, but Rose shakes her head, clearly not accepting my answer.
“Not good enough. Tell me.”
I try another tactic. “Aren’t I the big sister here? Isn’t it my job to be the bossy one?”
“Not when I’m the only pregnant, married one of the bunch. I trump both you and Violet.” Her voice lowers almost to a hiss. “Tell me.”
Glancing around, I make sure no one is nearby before I start in with a vague retelling of why I ended up in Maui, who I met in Maui … and what I think he stole from me before I left. In all, it takes fifteen minutes for me to tell my sad tale and by the time I’m finished, Rose has devoured every crumb and speck of frosting and she’s staring at me with her mouth hanging open.
“Are you freaking serious?” she finally manages to say.
I nod, chugging a huge swallow of coffee before I set my cup on the table. “I haven’t even told you the worst of it.”
“How much worse can it be?” She shakes her head and stares off into space, blinking hard before she looks at me. “What were you going to do, blackmail Pilar? I mean, she’s talking to Felicity Winston. She’s the freaking enemy, Lily.”
“I thought I’d blackmail Pilar, yeah, but then she got so weird on me. Her voice during that phone call was chilling. She scared the crap out of me, so I just … ran. I know it was a mistake, my leaving, but I panicked.” I cross my arms in front of my chest and heave a big sigh. “She’s still fucking that asshole Zachary. Daddy would flip if he knew that.”
“Are you going to tell him? You need to tell him,” Rose says sternly.
“He probably wouldn’t believe me,” I say miserably. I’ve lied before, lots of times. Daddy wouldn’t believe me, especially since I’m ratting out Pilar. He won’t want to believe me. “And I don’t have the laptop, so it’s not like I have any proof.”
She nods, not bothering to deny what I say is possibly true. She knows Daddy wouldn’t believe me. She knows my past, how I’ve lied before just to try and get in our father’s good graces. My lies always backfired. Now I want to tell the truth and no one will believe me. “But how can it get any worse?”
My voice lowers to an almost inaudible whisper. “There’s naked photos of me on that laptop.”
Rose’s face falls. “Oh, Lily.”
“I know, I know.” I wave my hand, dismissing whatever lecture she’s about to give me. “It was stupid. I should’ve never taken photos like that, but most of them are old. Like from a few years ago old. Remember John?”
She shrugs, then shakes her head.
“Yeah, well, I took them for a guy, as a Valentine’s Day present. Then promptly forgot to delete them.”
“How could you do that? Why keep them on your computer?” Rose shakes her head, makes a little face. “I let Caden take a few photos of me on his phone a while ago but I made him delete everything. Then I made him go on the stupid cloud or whatever and delete them from there, too. Freaking cloud saves everything.”
“I keep nothing on my cloud, thank God. But they were on my Time Capsule hard drive, which means they were on the laptop,” I say miserably. “Once something has been done, it’s really hard to undo it. Not like the old days, when you could tear up a photo and destroy the negative.”
“Everything lives forever on the internet,” Rose singsongs.
“Exactly. It sucks.”
“So Pilar is scheming with Fleur’s enemy, sending graphic emails to Zachary and … what else? She’s not trying to do anything to me, is she?” Rose rests her hand against her chest.
“No, you’re not on her radar. It’s always been Violet she’s after. I think she wants Violet’s position at Fleur. And when she didn’t get that, she decided to go after the competition with promises of inside information.”
“Do you have proof she gave information to Felicity Winston?” Rose asks.
“No.” I shake my head and stare at the table. “They sort of flirted around the subject, but that’s it. I was about to go back into Pilar’s in-box when you called.” Truthfully, I became too distracted by the naked photos. I need to go back home and search what’s on my stolen laptop. See if Pilar actually offered information to Felicity. I want to believe that she didn’t, but we know who I’m dealing with.
Pilar doesn’t give a shit about anyone. She will do whatever it takes to get what she wants.
I glance up to find my sister staring at me, her expression serious, her entire body still. “You need to go home and see if there’s anything else in Pilar’s emails,” Rose says gravely, her gaze locked with mine. “And then you need to talk to Daddy and Violet.”
I wince. “They’re going to be furious.”
“Not at you. Never at you,” Rose says in a rush. “All of their anger will be channeled toward Pilar, and it’s justified. What that bitch is doing …”
“I know. She deserves every bit of their anger. Every bit of our anger. But …” I pause, chewing on my lower lip as I contemplate what I’m going to say next. “I don’t want to tell them yet. I need to confirm first that she’s being shady.”
“Right. Confirm away. But the minute you confirm, you need to tell them. Hell, this could blow up in our faces, Lily. Jayne Cosmetics could run with this information and make Fleur look terrible. They could release the colors before we do, with the same names and everything, and make Fleur look like they copied them. This could get bad. Really, really bad.” Rose leans back in her chair and rubs a hand over her belly. “The faster you tell them, the faster we can put a stop to all of this.”
“I need to talk to Pilar.” That is the last thing I want to do, but I must. I need to tell her she has to resign from Fleur and get out of our lives before I tell my father what she’s doing. That might make her think twice before she launches into another one of her schemes.
“That will be a complete waste of your time and you know it.” Rose sits up straighter, her eyes going wide. “What if that guy you met in Maui … what if he’s working for Pilar? Maybe he grabbed the laptop for her. Did you ever consider that?”
Yes … no. Fine, yes. I so considered it. “I don’t know what to think about him.” I hate him. If he were to walk into this bakery right now I’d probably body slam him to the ground and kick him in the nuts.
I seem to be rather bloodthirsty for his nuts.
“You’ve only told me a little bit, but from what I see, your meeting him, his taking the laptop from you before he disappeared … it doesn’t feel random.” Rose studies me. “You liked this guy, didn’t you? I can see it your eyes.”
“I did. He was different.” He made me feel, made me want … too much. I clear my throat, feeling like the world’s biggest fool. “But he betrayed me. If he was working for Pilar … there’s no way I could ever forgive him.”
Ever.