His eyes bore into Daisy and his brow furrows. ‘It’s you.’
We all give him varying looks of puzzlement.
‘What do you mean?’ Daisy asks. ‘What’s me?’
‘You have the money?’
She barks out a laugh.
‘I think I’d know if I had money, Blake,’ she scoffs.
‘Think about it. That’s the only explanation,’ he says. ‘The lawyers in New York. The Winters name on the paper we found. Your mom came from money. We know that because she wasn’t at Birchmore on a scholarship like Applegate was,andbecause she was engaged to John. His family wouldn’t have made those kinds of plans if the Winters weren’t on par with the Novelles socially.’
‘You know life isn’t actually likePride and Prejudice, right?’ Shade asks him, quirking a brow.
Blake gives him an incredulous look. ‘In your circles? Are you serious? It’s more similar than you think, my friend.’
‘So, where did it all go?’ Daisy asks, crossing her arms over her chest. ‘My mom had nothing.’
Blake shrugs. ‘Maybe it’s not gone. Maybe it was just never hers.’
‘Because they cut April off when she married Mark Evans!’ I exclaim.
He points at me, snapping his fingers. ‘Yes! Gorgeous, if you have money left to you, say, in a Trust…’
‘She might not know about it,’ I finish.
‘And it might not be hers until she marries,’ Blake says, smacking his palm to his forehead, ‘Fuck, this is old school. I feel like I’m in a period drama right now. This is just like a Regency Era plot to steal an heiress’s fortune!’
‘And, while a guardian wouldn’t be able to touch the money directly,’ Shade continues with the line of reasoning as he paces around the room, ‘he could keep the knowledge from you until you were an adult, make you marry, wait for your husband to control it, and then get his cut from the Bandervilles for making it happen. Everyone wins, Daisy.’
He closes his eyes, looking as disgusted by his family and the Bandervilles as I think we all are.
‘Everyone except you.’
Chapter Fourteen
Daisy
Isit down hard.
‘But we were so poor after my dad,’ I say. ‘If there was money, my mom could have used it to buy food, to keep the house she bought with my dad that she loved. Instead, we lived in a shithole in Philly.’ I throw my hands up in the air and shake my head.
‘Why didn’t her family help?’
‘Likely to punish her for marrying thewrong guy,’ Shade says quietly. ‘If the money is in a Trust for you alone, she wouldn’t have been able to touch it any more than John could. And you said she never talked about her family. It could be that she never even knew about it.
‘But John did,’ Blake snarls. ‘That’s what all of this has been about. Trying to make you marry Joe, and now Marcus. Andy must know about it too, and he has to realize how broke he is by now. That’s why he’s cutting off all the funding, cleaning house. He needs money, and he needs you to marry Marcus so the Bandervilles have access to the Trust and they can pay him for you, taking a cut for themselves.’
I stand up and walk around the room.
‘How do we find out for sure?’ I ask. ‘The lawyers won’t talk to me. They don’t even believe I am who I say I am. They think I’m some severely mentally challenged woman who needs constant care, and they won’t believe me without my guardian there. And Andy’s not going to do that, is he?’
‘If he wants your money, I’ll find out,’ Blake promises.
He stands and comes over to me, wincing. ‘Look, I… finally got into the flash drive.’
He doesn’t look happy and my stomach sinks. ‘And?’
