His words hit me hard. I’ve heard his and Sloane’s story time and time again. How he fell madly in love with her and practically claimed her. Stalked her and spoiled her until she conceded to him. They both had insecurities to work through to reach their happily ever after, but it was worth it, and anyone who knows them would tell you the same thing. There’s no doubt that they were made for each other.
With a sigh, I recount my troubles to Ledger. “Things were great, man. Too good, really. You know my situation, though. With my position in the family, I’ve never considered a partner. For starters, it’s too dangerous to trust someone new with so many lives on the line. But even if I could easily give another my trust, I always swore I wouldn’t drag anyone into the danger the Taranov name comes with…”
He listens as I tell him all about how I fell madly in love with Lucy, how I finally gave her my trust, then how I saw her in that café with Lawrence. How she claimed that it was nothing and that he actually ended up threatening her at the end of it. I leave out the parts about why she came to this city in the first place out of respect. And of course I leave out the fact that his mom has been paying us to fuck, posing as her and his late father…
“Alright, let me get this straight. You’ve never trusted anyone, and then Lucy comes into your life and gains your trust in just weeks. And then you saw her with someone nefarious, created your own narrative of the situation, and didn’t once think to look into the validity of her account?”
Well, fuck. When he puts it that way.
“I…I guess so. Yeah, that pretty much sums it up.”
Ledger chuckles and grabs a handful of gummy candy from a jar on his desk. “Alright, Sasha, I won’t give youmuchgrief about this because I was in a very similar position as you a few years ago. Our dear Jack talked some sense into me, so I’m going to try to do the same for you. Your first mistake, of course, was not learning everything there is to know about her from the moment you learned her name. Especially someone in your position who needs to know who they’re in bed with.
“Second, I need you to tell me the whole story. You’ve left out a major detail here that I can’t seem to get around. What grounds did this Lawrence guy have to threaten Lucy in the first place?”
I search his eyes for a moment, contemplating whether I should go ahead and tell him that Lucy is very likely his half sister. Ultimately, I realize if we are about to hack into her entire life, he’s going to find out anyway.
“Lucy…came here from California for a specific purpose. She received a pretty large sum of money from an anonymous trust, and the only clue she had to where it came from was that the lawyer who signed off on it worked for your father…” I pause, giving Ledger a moment to wrap his head around this news before continuing. “She…she was able to get a piece of hair from one of MJ’s bows to send for a DNA test, and I've seen the results. It’s a match. She shares the appropriate amount of DNA to be MJ’s aunt.”
“Shit.” He runs both hands through his hair as he releases an exaggerated breath. “So you’re telling me that Lucy is…my half sister?”
“Yes.”
His wide eyes narrow on me. “And you’ve been treating her like shit?”
“Hey, look, man, I’m just being honest with you,” I say, throwing my hands up in surrender. “I’m here now, though,right? I want to figure this out. I mean, for all I know, she fabricated the DNA test.”
Ledger rubs his temples before turning to his main computer screen. “Alright, let's do this.”
We sit in silence as he does his super secret spy shit, and in no time, he’s found something.
“For starters, the DNA seems fake. Years ago, I did one of those crazy ancestry things because I was convinced there was no way Father and I were related. It was one of the more popular companies. It looks like she also has an account, and we’re not matches.”
“Fuck.” That doesn’t look good for her, honestly. I slump down in my chair as my already broken heart cracks even more.
“I know it doesn’t look good, but let's keep digging, alright? You said she received a large anonymous trust? If it came from one of Dad’s hired lawyers, it would have been documented and digitized by now. I’ll start looking into the family archives to see if I can see anything.”
Time ceases to exist as Ledger types away, pulling up countless tabs. I know he’ll tell me when he comes across something important, but I have to restrain myself from asking him every couple of minutes nonetheless.
At last, he ends my torture. “Well, Sasha. I think you need to apologize to your girl. Her story about meeting Lawrence outside Henry’s office before she started working for Mom tracks. I went back through the surveillance, and everything adds up. I also hacked into her phone.”
He pauses, and my heart sinks. If he finds out about the work with his mom…Did we text about the time Blanche grabbed my dick?He raises a brow and smirks, waiting for my response, but I keep my expression neutral. He finally breaks our stare off with a laugh. “I didn’t go through your texts with her or anything. I just looked at the text thread with Lawrence. Here.” He turnshis screen toward me and hands me the mouse so I can scroll through their texts. “Everything she said tracks. It seems he really did come in super friendly and then turn on her.”
My anger rises as I scroll through the texts from that lowlife imbecile threateningmygirl. When I reach the end, I’m ready to go to war. He may have been able to slip past my radar recently, but after seeing this, his days are numbered. I look up at Ledger and know there’s more, and from the look on his face, it’s pretty fucking important.Fuck.
“What is it?”
“What did you say Lucy used for the DNA test? Where did she get the hair?”
“It was one of the girls’ bows. I think she said it was MJ’s. Why?”
Ledger pulls his computer screen back toward him and clicks on a different tab, then turns it back to face me. “I found the paperwork for the trust. It was Father’s lawyer who worked on the case, but it wasn’t for Dad.” He clicks through to another page with a notarized agreement. “Turns out he was doing his buddy a solid. Lucy’s mom didn’t want to take any money from her dad and only agreed to let him set that trust up if it was practically untraceable. Take a look…”
I scan the document on the screen and see that Ledger was right. It’s a written agreement notarized by the state. Signed by Donna Sommers and John F Carter II.
“No fucking way.”
“Yep.”
