Page 46 of Secrets (The Sins Trilogy 2)
“Her money wouldn’t have been enough. Your family’s rich, but she can’t access that much of it. You know her side of the family’s finances.”
Mother’s side of the family, including Sam, were comfortable middle-class folks. That’s why he kept entreating her; Mother was the only one with access to a significant amount of money. But that access wouldn’t have been enough by itself.
Jill continues, “The only people who could have invested enough as single investors were your father and Edgar, because they run Blackwood Energy. But her investment, plus her putting in some good words for Sam’s initial project, made all the difference. People knew he hadn’t been able to convince her before. So they figured he must’ve found a winning formula. And apparently they were right, because, along with your mother, he became rich.”
Edgar and Harry only said Mother gave him money, nothing about the rest. Neither has any reason to hide it from me, so Mother must’ve avoided telling the family what she was doing for Sam.
I close my eyes, doing some quick math. Nine years ago was when everything happened—the accident that “killed” Ivy and Mother’s financial arrangement with Sam. My gut says they’re related, but I can’t figure out how.
Mother had nothing to do with the accident. She was home that evening, and I can’t imagine her hiring someone to harm Ivy. Despite their arguments and differences, she still considered Ivy her daughter. Mother was so broken up over Ivy’s death that she had to be wheelchaired to the funeral. It was August—in Louisiana—and still Father put a lap blanket over her because she couldn’t get warm.
The only thing I know for certain is Sam was at the scene of accident, but I don’t know how that would help him convince Mother to invest with him. If he tried to blackmail her by keeping Ivy from her, Mother would’ve ruined him outright and reclaimed Ivy. Given my family’s power and connections, it wouldn’t have been difficult.
Jill adds, “Margot is still one of his staunchest investors. He’s made her a lot of money, too. It’s a mutually beneficial arrangement.”
Except Mother doesn’t need the money.
Suddenly, Sam’s taunt fleets through my mind…that the people who can wield the sharpest knives unseen are the people closest to us. Was he referring to Mother? But Mother and I are hardly close. She banished me to Europe eighteen years ago. She made it clear she didn’t want me back when I returned after graduating from college. I was officially and publicly disowned seven years ago, and as far as I know, she was pleased with Father’s decision to do so.
“He doesn’t need her anymore to raise funds for his projects, does he?” I ask.
“No, but he asks, and she invests anyway. It doesn’t look good when your first investor dumps you, does it?”
Hmm…“Do me a favor and dig a little deeper. Figure out why my mother still invests with him.”
“Money? She’s been making at least a ten percent return. That’s not bad.”
“It’s not, but she doesn’t need it. And she can’t stand him. She used to act like she’d rather burn a hundred-dollar bill than to give it to him, so it’s weird she’s investing with him.”
“Blackmail?”
“Possibly,” I say, not wanting to prejudice Jill, even though instinct says it has to be blackmail. But what kind?
If Mother were younger or more risqué, I might suspect she took some pictures she shouldn’t have and Sam got a hold of them. But she’s not. And I know for a fact there’s no affair. Mother adores Father. She’d never betray him that way.
So what the hell is the connection between her and Sam? What am I not seeing?
“I’ll look into it. Also, I have a list of the missing women.”
I pause for a moment, until I realize who they are. Anticipation fizzes in my veins. Maybe the connection isn’t Ivy, but the dead woman in the Lexus. That might be why Sam reacted the way he did at the pool.
“Want me to mail them to you?” Jill asks.
“Got photos, too?” I only need a strawberry blonde. Should be easy to pick a few that match the description Iris gave.
“Of course,” Jill says, like I’m asking her if the weather’s sunny in L.A. “Just so you know, there are over five hundred women.”
Damn it. I start to ask her to sort them by hair color, then stop. Women change colors and styles all the time. “Are they the latest photos of them?”
“Whatever’s publicly available, so not always the latest.”
“Send them to Wei.” He’ll know what to do once I explain I’m looking for a woman who had strawberry-blond hair around the time she went missing and was never found. He’s great at figuring out creative ways to solve problems.
“Sure.”
“Send the invoice for the work done so far as well.”
“Will do. I’ll call you when I have more to report.”
