Page 75 of The Golden Hour
“Enough games, Vivian. Let her go.”
“I thought we’d have a chat first. You know who she is, don’t you?”
I do. Her curly hair is dark, peppered lightly with gray, bedraggled and wild from a struggle. I recognize the shape of her nose and eyebrows. She’s younger than Molly, with a thinner face and brown eyes instead of blue. But there’s no mistaking the resemblance.
They took Meredith McCowen.
Finn’s mother.
Since she lives in Solstice Bay, they must have taken her days ago, which means…
“The ranch,” I deduce, focusing on Vivian.
“Smart girl. Of course, when Franco showed me the video of your little adventure up there, I’ll admit I was surprised by your choice of guests and venue. Whatever made you want to visit stables?” She waves away the question. “No matter. By dawn the bodies will be gone, that decrepit place burned to the ground.”
By dawn.
Dread sneaks through the cracks in my composure. Grinding my molars, I stay the course. “So you knew all along who Finn was? Who his father was?”
“Do I even need to answer that?”
“No,” I acknowledge.
She answers anyway, the invitation to hear herself talk too tempting. “He’s been sniffing around for years, but he wasn’t a nuisance until recently.”
I think of the private investigators Finn hired, one of whom disappeared without a trace. “His PI found something,” I muse.
Vivian sniffs. “Like I said, a nuisance. Does he really think we didn’t know he was the protected witness in Rafael’s case?”
Margaret whimpers, her eyes squeezed closed.
I make myself ask, “Why didn’t you kill him, then?”
Her features rearrange into a wounded expression. “You really think I’m heartless, don’t you? I’d never touch a child.”
More likely, she spared Finn because my father going to prison aligned with her plans to be head of the family.
“Any more questions?” asks my stepmother.
“Yes. Before today, did you know I staged my abduction just to get away from you?”
Her answer is a startled laugh. She looks away, but not before I see the truth in her eyes. A glance at Franco and the toothpick hanging limply from his lower lip confirms it—they never suspected. They were merely relieved fate had stepped in on their behalf, taking me off the game board.
All that time, I was safe and didn’t know it.
“What happens now?” I ask, looking around the room at my family. Lizzie won’t meet my eyes, but Enzo and Franco spear me with a clear message of what they’d like to do to me.
Turning back to Vivian, I muse, “When I wind up dead, you’ll have a pretty big mess on your hands. Especially with my detailed statement to the police today. Even if you manage to get rid of the evidence at the ranch, what do you think the public will say about the timing? About my eye-witness account of a human skull buried on your property? They might like you, Vivian, but they love me. Say goodbye to politics, your social calendar, and your famous friends. You’re done.”
Fury flashes white-hot in her eyes. “I should have killed you when I killed your mother.”
The room goes silent with shock.
And not just mine.
Lizzie gasps, “You killed her mom? That’s cold even for you!”
“She was spineless, just like her daughter. Not worthy of the Avellino name.”
