Mom reached out for my forearm. “Sweetheart, Joseph Ryker got into some troubling stuff as a child, and he dragged your sister into it because she loved him. He manipulated her, and--.”
I stood to my feet and addressed my sister. “You might have pulled the wool over their eyes, but you won’t do it with me. Those boxes up in your closet? They weren’t full of ex-boyfriend memorabilia, were they?”
She stared at me coldly. “He’s really got your mind twisted already, hasn’t he?”
“What is she talking about?” Dad asked.
I came out from around the kitchen table. “Maggie, I don’t hold you responsible for anything that happened. People don’t get into peddling drugs simply because they want to. They trust the wrong people, and I think that’s what happened.”
She scoffed. “Yeah, I trusted JoJo, and it fucked me over.”
“You and I both know that isn’t true.”
“Why? Because you’re fucking him?”
“Maggie!” Mom exclaimed.
“Wait, is that true? Are you dating Joseph Ryker?” Dad asked.
Maggie grinned. “She practically fucked him against his car at the family reunion. I saw the whole thing.”
A shiver worked its way down my spine, but not the good kind. “Maggie, what happened to you wasn’t your fault. No one’s blaming you. But you have to stop blaming JoJo. I know his father is the one that paid everyone off to get you out of trouble. I have a feeling that he’s controlling you and pulling the strings in the background, just like he’s doing with JoJo. And if that’s true, we can fight it. You and me, together.”
Her eyes raked down my body. “You really believe all of the shit you’re spouting, don’t you?”
When Mom and Dad didn’t get onto her about her language, I knew I was a fish out of water. I knew I was the only one ready to defend JoJo’s honor, and I wasn’t sure how that made me feel.
“Sweetheart,” Dad said as he stood, “is it possible that he put you under his spell like he did with Maggie?”
I scoffed. “Not in the slightest.”
Mom cleared her throat. “He’s quite convincing, you know. He’s like his father that way.”
The grin on Maggie’s face grew and that’s when it hit me: JoJo wasn’t the manipulative one. JoJo wasn’t the bad guy. My sister was.
She was the manipulative mind behind all of this bullshit.
“All I want is the truth,” I whispered.
Maggie stood toe to toe with me. “You already have it. The question is, are you going to believe it and stand with your family? Or are you going to side with a traitor and abandon us in our time of need?”
“I know you’re an addict.”
Dad snickered. “You can’t hold that over her head. Recovery is hard, Rebecca.”
I scoffed. “At least they know that truth.”
Maggie shrugged. “It’s not my fault that he’s still playing his game with our family. I tried to get out when he blackmailed me into continuing. I tried to leave when he did everything he could to sabotage my life to get me to stay, including siccing his father on this family. That’s the only reason why he was invited to the family reunion, you know. To keep the peace in the hopes that he won’t screw us over for the rest of his pathetic existence. But go ahead, keep talking like JoJo’s the innocent party in all of this.”
“So, he came to you that night and blackmailed you into helping him dispose of a body?”
She nodded. “And when I said no, he beat me until I could barely see, and that’s why I caved. I’m more than convinced he would’ve beat me until I died had I not given in.”
“Enough,” Mom hissed.
I shook my head. “You have them fooled, Mags, but not me.”
And that’s when Dad finally jumped in. “Get out.”
