Dan keeps going. “Why did you take the photos, Daisy?” His voice has gotten soft, almost friendly. He’s trying to put her at ease.
I’m afraid of what she’ll say next.
Slapping her palm down onto the table suddenly, she growls, “Because. Why does he get to do whateverhewants? Cavorting with students.” She pretends to shiver. “It’s disgusting.” Pointing at Dan, she adds, “He’s still fucking married to my mother.”
“I understand.” He says it so quickly I’d be surprised if she understood a word out of his mouth.
“It’s disgusting. Don’t you think?”
“Sure.” Dan nods.
I give her words some thought. Dorian’s relationship with Kara is definitely inappropriate, but disgusting? I can’t go that far.
I scoot my seat closer to the window. The urge to reach out and touch her is so strong I have to fight it.
“So, what did you plan to do with the photos?” Dan asks.
She shrugs. “I needed money.”
“From your father?”
“No.” She scoffs. “That penny pincher. Kara was going to pay me for them.”
“Kara? Why would she pay for the photos?”
“Because.” She rolls her eyes like Dan’s an idiot. “I threatened to tell her father about her little affair and about her sudden grade improvement.”
Daisy knew about Kara’s grades?
Dan asks, “Did you help your dad with his grades?”
Wait. She told me she hadn’t helped him.
“Of course.” Another hard eye roll. “My father is a lazy asshole. Hell, I write his books and papers for him too.”
Wait? What?
“Is that how you got the pink envelope? When you graded for him?”
“Yeah. Kara submitted her papers in it.”
Which is how it has both Kara’s and Dorian’s fingerprints. But here’s the part I wish Dan would ask her about. She writes for her father?
“You said Kara was going to pay you. Did she?”
“Some.”
“But not all?”
Daisy’s voice lowers, and she growls, “No.”
“Why not?”
She looks off to her right.
“Why didn’t she pay you, Daisy?”
“She said she didn’t have the cash, but I knew she was lying. She’d just gone shopping. She came home with a whole new outfit. A pretty flowered dress, shoes, the works.”
