Page 69 of Deadly Little Scandals
“You may pass it along to the Ames boy as well.” Mr. Gutierrez made that sound like an act of generosity on his part. “I know that he and my daughter have been spending time together.”
He hadn’t referred to Victoria by her name once. She was alwaysmy daughter.
“If you’re concerned about the amount of time Victoria and Walker are spending together—or theideasin her head—maybe you should discuss it with her,” I suggested.
Victor Gutierrez gave a wry shake of his head, with an expression that suggested that I was quite amusing. “Who do you think asked her to dance with Walker Ames at that silly fund-raiser in the first place? She is my eyes and ears.”
He told Victoria to dance with Walker?“What is your game here?” I asked. Why aim his daughter at Walker, then ask me to warn Walker away?
“I am an old man, Miss Taft,” Victor Gutierrez said contemplatively. “But not too old to remember the wounds of the past.”
He could beat around the bush all he wanted. I wasn’t obliged to do the same. “Sterling Ames knocked up your granddaughter. You weren’t happy about it.”
“She was a child!” He pounded his fist on the bar, then recovered his composure in the blink of an eye. “And do not tell me eighteen is not a child. You, Victoria—you’re all children to me. My Ana…”
He trailed off, and I thought about what Victoria had said about the rift between her father and his formerly favorite granddaughter. “You wanted her to come to you for help.”
He’d wanted her to beg forgiveness.
“I wanted toprotecther,” Victor said emphatically. “From her own judgment most of all.”
“And now you won’t even talk to her.”
“She gave away our blood.” Victor set his drink down on the bar, his voice softening. “I would have taken her in—her and the child, both. We are family. That is what family does.”
But she didn’t come to you,I thought. And then I realized why he would have found that so insulting. “Ana went to Davis Ames.”
“But for the money he gave her, she could have been made to see reason,” he told me, his dark eyes fixed on mine. “I implore you to see it now.”
“Imploring would be more effective if I had any idea what you actually wanted from me,” I said.
“Stay away from my Ana,” he requested. “You and that family of yours.” He smiled then and put a hand on my shoulder as he raised his eyes to the stairs. “Ah,” he said when Victoria descended. “There’s my girl.”
our father asked you to dance with Walker Ames.”
“I never said that he didn’t.” Victoria barely spared me a glance as she led me up the staircase and away from her father and the party preparations below. “I did tell you that Campbell’s invitation to the first White Glove event had nothing to do with the business between our families’ companies, and that was the truth. Now,” she continued, leading me into what I presumed to be her bedroom, “do you want to spend the next hour cross-examining me about Walker and my father’s grudge toward his family…” She nodded to her bed. “…or do you want to look at those?”
There were dozens of file folders, possibly hundreds, in neat little stacks.
“Dossiers,” Victoria informed me. “Our man is very…thorough.” She spoke like it was completely normal to have “a man” and refer to him as such, then gestured to the different piles of folders. “Those are the girls the White Gloves considered as Candidates but decided against. Next, we have the ones who made our initial pool, and finally, those”—she gestured to the last pile—“are the ones who’ve made it to the final round of selection.”
I reached for the folder on top of the last pile and flipped it open. Lily’s smiling picture stared back at me. Behind the picture, there was a report—a biographical sketch, notes on her parents, a summary of her dating history, which only included Walker. Behind the written summary, there were pictures—ofSecrets on My Skin.
Once upon a time, that had been the biggest secret—and vulnerability—in Lily’s life.
“Your PI didn’t say anything about her father’s affair,” I commented, skimming the file.
Victoria shrugged. “Perhaps he’s not as thorough as we believed.”
I looked from Lily’s folder to the others. “You have this information on all of us?” I asked. “And everyone you considered?”
“Date of birth, family history, known social ties, past and current relationships, and potential…points of interest?” Victoria inclined her head. “Yes.”
Without another word to her, I sorted the folders in all three piles by date of birth. My mom had said that it took Ana a little longer than her to get pregnant, but by December, when my mom had told Lillian she was pregnant with me, Ana was expecting, too. Casting a wide net, that put the date of birth for her child at some point in time between late July and the first week in September.
Once I had pulled the dossiers for all the Candidates and Potentials who had been born in that window, I started reading. I wasn’t sure what I was looking for. Three of the dossiers noted that the subject had been adopted, but all three also included copies of the adoption paperwork.
“Has it occurred to you,” Victoria said as I scrutinized the three folders in question, “that Ana’s child might not know they were adopted? That there might notbepaperwork?”
