Desiree shook her head. “You are so much likehim. Always wanting to help. Always nice. Always wanting me to be good, be better. That’s what my mother wanted. For me to be likeyou. Likehim. I wasn’t supposed to know. But I overheard them talking. Mom heard you screaming. Again.Hewanted to do something.Hecouldn’t stand it anymore. Knowing and doing nothing about it, because you werehis.”
Lucky couldn’t seem to process what Desiree was saying. It couldn’t be. Desiree was lying again.
“Mom warned him that if he went over there and interfered, it could all come out. Then your dad would really want you dead, because my father was your father.”
The whole room seemed to freeze in silence.
Lucky’s heart pounded against her ribs, making it hard to catch her breath.Oh God.This was so much worse than she thought.
Desiree looked so pleased to drop that bomb and distract them from what she’d done. “You’re so stupid. Didn’t you ever wonder why our parents pushed us to be friends so hard? We’re sisters. Once you know, it’s not that hard to see it either. We both take after our moms, for the most part, but we both have his nose and chin and the arch of our eyebrows.”
Lucky stared at Desiree’s face, trying to see the similarities but her mind just wanted to shut that down. It couldn’t be true.
Sheriff Collins was her father.
And he abandoned her to a monster.
Desiree shrugged and kept spilling her guts. “I don’t know how it happened. I just know it did. So when he caught me in your house that night…” Her gaze sharpened and filled with rage. “He wouldn’t let me finish the job. Because he lovedyou. Becauseyouwere his. He told me that once he was gone, all I’d have left is my dear sister. You’d be the one to stick by my side like you always had. I didn’t want to give Neil back to you. I didn’t want to share him with you anymore. But we were sisters and that meant I had to choose you. And then when I found out about Krystal, I realized Daddy was right. I did need you. And if something ever happened to me, Krystal would need her aunt. So I let go of my anger and I tried to be your friend. But you make it so infuriating! You can’t do anything right. Look at how you botched getting me and Lincoln together.”
“He doesn’t want to date anyone right now,” Lucky said, because that was the truth and not her fault and her brain knew that for sure when everything else felt like a scrambled mess in her head.
“Right. He’s got it bad for someone else. Story of my life. Neil wants you. Guys in the bar are always looking past me at you.Hawk, a guy who’s so far out of your league…you show him those puppy dog eyes all filled with tears, boo-hooing that your life is so hard, and he falls at your feet.”
Hawk leaned forward, his forearms on his thighs. “Watch it. I won’t let you disrespect Lucky in her own home.”
Desiree rolled her eyes. “I guess you like the pathetic ones.”
“You’re the one desperate for attention. She stayed your friend all these years, trying to make your life a little bit better along the way. But you…you just tear her down because you know you’ll never be even half as good as her.” Hawk’s words touched Lucky so deeply her heart overflowed with the love she had for him.
Lucky met her sister’s hostile gaze. “Why did you kill Danny?”
“Daddy always said I should be a helper. Do good things. Putting you all out of your misery was a mercy killing. I wasn’t sure I could do it, but after your parents, it was so damn easy.”
“And not the first time.”
Desiree grinned. “You think you know all my secrets, don’t you?”
“Why not get it all out in the open?” Lucky taunted. “You said it yourself. Your mother always compared you to me. That had to infuriate you.”
“I hated it! Why did I have to be like you? We are who we are. I just wanted her to seeme, instead of always worrying aboutyou.Poor Lucky has it so bad. She doesn’t deserve that.” Desiree fisted her hands and let out a frustrated huff. “Shedidn’t do anything about it. She kept Daddy from doing anything about it, because she was afraid your crazy ass father would retaliate against them. Your own mother refused to leave the bastard, afraid that if he found out you weren’t his, he’d kill her. And you.”
Lucky’s heart sank. “That was definitely a possibility.”
Desiree seethed. “I could only take so much. Mom kept saying how strong you were. How independent. But she worried youwere so sad and all alone and needed someone who really cared and protected you. We were driving together when she confessed what I already knew. She wanted to take you in with us.”
“You didn’t want that.” Lucky already knew. That would have set Desiree off to have her in her house, right under her nose, the focus off her, their attention divided.
“I wasn’t going to share my mom and dad with you. Bad enough I had to share your boyfriend.”
“You didn’t have to kill Danny. He was mine. And you took him from me.”
Desiree’s head fell. “I will admit, after I calmed down and the adrenaline wore off, I was sorry for killing him. He was a cute kid. Too bad he probably would have grown up to be like your father.”
“Not if I’d gotten the chance to take him away, the way Neil and I had planned.”
“Yeah, you two were never going to live happily ever after. Not after he cheated on you. He was so mired in guilt, he was going to spill that secret soon enough. That would have been the end of you two and possibly the end of you and me. Which is why I made sure he never told you.”
Lucky wouldn’t let her get away with anything. “And to keep your mother from bringing me into your family, you rammed your car into a tree?”
