Page 63 of Deadly Little Scandals
“She didn’t come to him for help.” Victoria gave a little shrug. “And she didn’t ask for his forgiveness.”
Why would she?Delving into Gutierrez family dynamics wasn’t my top priority at the moment, but still, the question lingered.
“I might be able to get my father to talk to her,” Victoria said. “But we can’t count on it. It might be easier to find someone else Ana would talk to.”
“Like who?” Campbell asked, coming to sit on top of the wrought-iron table, right between Victoria and her brother.
Walker was the one who replied. “Lily,” he said softly.
I stared at him. “Are you kidding me? You’re actually sitting there considering asking Lily to talk to her father’s mistress?” That was the single worst plan I’d ever heard. “What the hell is wrong with you, Walker?”
Do you not care about her at all?
“She’s the one who broke up with me,” Walker told me quietly. “I’m not the bad guy here.”
Victoria laid her hand on the table, close enough to his that they almost touched. “Neither is she.” She allowed her eyes to meet mine. “Asking Lily to talk to Ana is out. What does that leave us with?”
Not much.That was where we’d been—whereIhad been—for months. There were questions I wanted answers to—more than I should have, probably—but there was no straight line to answers. This wasn’t the kind of problem that could be solved with determination, elbow grease, and sheer force of will.
We couldn’tmakeAna tell us the truth.
“What about,” Boone interjected, “and I’m just throwing this out there:a party.”
“How is a party going to help us find Ana’s baby?” Campbell asked him.
“I don’t know,” Boone replied. “That’s just how things work around here. Fancy shindig, scandalous happenings,murmur murmur, and voilà.”
Walker turned to Victoria. “You did say your mother wanted to host something. Do you think you could talk her into inviting Ana?”
“If my mother gets irritated enough with my father and brothers,” Victoria said, “anything is possible. I can work on a party—that’ll be White Glove convenient anyway—but Ana’s attendance is about as far from guaranteed as something can get.”
The mention of the White Gloves had me flashing back to that night on King’s Island.You’re here because we believe that there’s more to you than meets the eye,we’d been told.You’re here because you have secrets.
I turned that over in my head. “How do the White Gloves identify Candidates?” I asked Victoria.
She clearly wasn’t expecting the question.
“I imagine it involves a lot of research.” Campbell caught my drift with impressive speed. “How exactly does one go about putting together in-depth dossiers on Debutante types in three states?”
I remembered Hope rattling off my bio.Do I want to know how you know that I used to be a mechanic?I’d asked her.
“Do you do your own research?” I asked Victoria. “Or do you hire it out?”
“Does it matter?” Victoria asked pointedly.
“Ana’s baby would be our age.Myage, within a couple of months. And if Ana thought that the people who adopted her baby could give her child every advantage…”
“Then the baby probably went to a certain kind of family,” Campbell finished.
The kind of family that the White Gloves tended to recruit from.
“I can’t show you those files,” Victoria said, “even if I could get ahold of them without the others noticing. That information is private.”
Walker leaned toward her. “Vee.”
Vee?I was glad Lily wasn’t here. No matter how okay she claimed to be, no matter whose idea breaking up had been—hearing that nickname on Walker’s lips wouldn’t have felt good.
And I wasn’t sure how much morebadLily could take.
