His smile is genuine despite the current situation. “That’s amazing. Congrats to all of you. Did he send a picture yet?”
“Not yet.” I get my feet back under me so that I can stand, and he rushes over to pull me up into his arms. I accept the help but then step back to maintain some distance and toss my phone onto the comforter. “They should be meeting the baby within the hour and promised to send a million pictures.”
He frowns down at the space between us as he tries to close the distance to hug me, and I deflect again. “That’s great,” he says, but the sadness in his tone does not match his words.
“Are Val and Ollie still coming?” I ask, too emotionally drained to pretend that I didn’t overhear.
“That’s what I was coming over here to ask. I invited them over before asking you, so I wanted to see your thoughts before I text them the address.”
Every cell in my body is begging me to step forward into his arms to accept the comfort we both desperately need right now, but I don’t trust myself to keep the distance that I promised my curse I would uphold.
Even though Jalen is objectively right, I agree with Cameron that there is no way that Val is the killer, and Ollie was already cleared by the footage. I make up my mind. “If Ollie is having a hard time, I think we should have him over to check on him. Heis probably carrying a lot on his shoulders right now, just like you are.”
Cameron takes a small step forward. “I’m more worried about you and what you’re going through.”
I look away to focus on the framed abstract painting on the wall. “Well, I could also use a distraction from everything, so it’ll be helpful for me too.”
“If it’s a distraction that you need, then I’ll make sure you get it,” he says. “I am going to make a few phone calls if you want a couple more minutes to yourself. I can come get you when Ollie and Val arrive.”
I nod as he goes back to his room and pick up my phone to call Monika.
Chapter forty-five
TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE
“Hey,Iwasjustabout to call you,” Monika answers. “Congrats on officially being an aunt!
“You too.” I smile. Scott must have called her right after he got off the phone with me. “I can’t wait for the pictures to see what he looks like.”
“I’m sure he’s super cute. How did the questioning go?”
“Bad.” I lie down on the bed to look up at the ceiling. “Please tell me that you found something.”
“Lots, actually. Is it a good time?”
“Yes. Tell me everything.”
“Everyone’s social media was private, except for Valentina. But I still found a lot of good information, so I’ll go in alphabetical order. Oliver Adams. You said he was cleared by the footage, but I looked into him anyway. Nothing out of the ordinary, seems like a nice enough guy. He has worked for the same winery for quite some time. No immediate red flags.” I nod, agreeing with her assessment of Ollie. “I’m sure he is whohe says he is, but I’ll send through his picture from the winery website so that you can confirm, just in case.”
I hadn’t thought about someone being at the retreat under a false identity, so I consider it confirmation that bringing Monika into this was the right choice.
“Next was Delaney Atwood,” she continues. “I know she’s not a suspect, but I figured looking into her life might give us a clue why someone would be out to get her. I scoured her LinkedIn profile. She had a lot of random jobs before settling into working with Cameron’s mom at Ravenwood, which means there are tons of possibilities of people she could have dated or maybe even pissed off. I need more time to dig into her, though, because nothing is standing out to me yet.”
“Okay,” I say, to let her know that I’m following.
“Next was Valentina Cielo.” I hold my breath, since Val is on her way over as we speak, but I am relieved at the warmth in Monika’s voice as she tells me what she found. “Man, that chick is cool. I think I might have a crush on her. Did you know that she does cosplay modeling on Patreon? I paid for one of her videos just to see what it was all about and spent an embarrassing amount of money to watch a few more before realizing it was cheaper to just subscribe. She stays really accurate to the characters. It’s incredible.”
I smile as she gushes over Val. “So, she’s pretty successful?”
“Yes. From my research, it looks like she is in the top ten percent of creators on Patreon. She’s probably a millionaire, easy.”
“Any red flags?”
“I mean, an amateur might see that she swings swords and daggers around just as easily as the plastic lightsabers and wonder if that means she is capable of using weapons in real life, but I really don’t get that vibe from her.”
“So, no red flags for Val?”
“None so far.”
