“That’s because he didn’t want it to be true,” Julia interjected. “He was such a shit to her.”
Danielle slapped her arms to her side. “He wasn’t, Mom! He’s been good to me.”
“Really?” Julia growled, her voice taunting. “Wow, he let you live on his property, but not in his real house. He let you hang around with his real daughter, let her lend you clothes and grace you with her presence, and you’re supposed to be so grateful? You should have everything she has!” Her voice rose to a high-pitched screech.
“I’ve made peace with that,” Danielle begged. Tears ran down her face. “I understand why he didn’t want to tell his wife the truth. I thought you understood, too. Mom, I thought you were done with him. I thought it ended when you moved out.” She took a step toward her mom. “Can you please put down the gun?”
Julia sniffed. “It’s kind of difficult to make peace after all I’ve done for that family. You don’t know the risks I’ve taken for them, Danielle. I thought I could earn my place—and I did. I earned it in spades at that end-of-summer party. I got rid of someone who would have destroyed them. And they still rejected us.”
Aster felt as though a bolt of electricity had shot through her. She exchanged a glance with Corinne and Rowan; they all seemed to be thinking the same thing. End-of-summer party. Got rid of someone.
“Are you talking about Steven?” Rowan ventured.
Danielle’s jaw dropped. She took a step away from her mother. “That man who drowned?” she squeaked. “What did you—”
Julia looked over at her daughter, keeping the gun trained on Aster and the others. “It’s not how it sounds, honey. Steven Barnett was a terrible man. He was holding something over Mason. If I hadn’t killed him, it would have ruined the Saybrook family.”
“What was it?” Aster couldn’t help asking.
Julia’s gaze swiveled to her. “You don’t know? What about you, Miss Hotshot Lawyer?” She whirled on Rowan. Rowan shook her head, her eyes wide with terror, and Julia laughed bitterly. “How typically Saybrook. You don’t even share your dirty little secrets with one another.” She took a step forward, keeping the gun aimed high. “The truth is, I don’t know, but I was still willing to kill for it. Doesn’t that sound like loyalty to you? Doesn’t that sound like someone who deserves to be part of your family?”
Aster glanced at her cousins. No one said anything. She suddenly felt foolish. Naive.
“It was that night, at the end-of-summer party,” Julia said, launching into the story. She clearly loved the fact that she had a captive audience. “I was with your father, and your father too”—she jerked the gun at Corinne and Aster—“in his office, doing . . . well, you know.” Aster shuddered. “Then, when someone knocked at the door, you know what he did? He shoved me into the fucking closet.”
“Stop it, Mom!” Danielle said, twisting away.
“But I heard them talking,” Julia went on. “Steven knew something—something big. He said he was going to expose it because he hadn’t been named president. I didn’t hear what it was, but from Mason’s reaction, it had to be terrible.” She turned to Aster and Corinne, a wicked glint in her eye. “I’d never heard your father worried like that, girls. He nearly lost his mind. Begged Steven not to do it. Tried to bribe him. ‘This will ruin us,’ he kept saying, ‘the family, the company, all of us.’ ‘Good,’ Steven said. ‘I want to ruin you.’” Julia paused. “The Saybrooks screwed him over just like they screwed me and my daughter.”
Aster shivered, trying to understand what Julia was saying. Next to her, Rowan was covering her mouth. Aster glanced at Danielle again, to see if Danielle had known about any of this. Her old friend was just standing there, sobbing quietly.
“I had to shut Steven up,” Julia said in an even, rational tone. “I did it for you, Danielle, for your inheritance. It wasn’t hard. I followed that drunk asshole later that night and pushed him in the water and held him there. Clean and simple.” Her face hardened. “I thought Mason would be grateful—I had just solved a huge problem for him. And how did he react? He broke up with me! He threatened me.”
“Mom, I—,” Danielle started to say, but Julia just talked over her, her voice getting shriller.
“He promised to take care of you, of course. But he told me we were through, for real this time. That I had crossed a line. Well, I had, and I swore I would cross it again. I was going to make Danielle a Saybrook if it killed me—or if I had to kill again.”
“You think I wanted in the family that way?” Danielle screamed.
Corinne stepped forward a little. “W-what did you mean when you said ‘kill again’?”
Julia smiled sinisterly. “What do you think I meant?”
Danielle’s mouth dropped open. Ice sluiced through Aster’s veins. She glanced at her cousins, who were pale and still.