“Sometimes,” he conceded. “The spotlight always has to shine brightest on her.”
Lucky nodded. “It always felt like anything good that happened to me, she wanted to take away. Danny, because I spent time with him, time she wanted me to spend with her. Neil, because he loved me. She wanted to be the only one I turned to for everything. She wanted the love I so desperately needed.”
“She loves you, even when she hates you.”
Desiree treated him the same way. They’d had some epic arguments over the years.
“Right. It’s a twisted kind of love. One where she needs to be in control, where she gets everything she wants and I have nothing.”
He held his head in both hands. “I don’t know what happened to her.”
“Her mother died and she didn’t want to lose anyone else.”
Something changed on his face, so fast she almost missed it. Grief mixed with pure fury.
“Wait a second.” She held her hand up, pointing her finger at his chest. “You. She lovedyouso much. Such a daddy’s girl. She’d get upset when Gayle got between you two. She always wanted your attention. You spoiled her. But Gayle…she was the one who doled out the rules and consequences and pushing Desiree to be kinder, to think before she speaks, to get better grades, be polite, get a job, think about her future.”
“Like you,” he whispered.
It all made so much sense now. “Gayle compared her to me.”
“All the time. She thought you were something special. So studious and willing to help. You even worked with your mom, you had a plan for college. You wanted to be a nurse. Desiree lived so in the moment, she didn’t think about consequences or the future, just having fun and getting whatever she wanted. You were the only one who could see through Desiree’s insecurities and shake off her meanness and just be her friend.”
“You didn’t do anything about my father because you knew my mother would have taken me and Danny to be closer to her family. She’d wanted to move for years, but my father wouldn’t hear of it. He needed to keep us away from anyone who would challenge him and what he was doing to us. You needed me to be Desiree’s friend.”
His chin hit his chest. “Yes. She needs you.”
“Even though she spends half her time making herself feel better by taking little swipes at me?” She held up her scarred arm. “They don’t make me bleed like my father’s cuts, but they still hurt.”
His eyes pleaded with her to understand. “She’s gotten better.”
“She tried to kill me! She drugged me, stripped me, then dumped me down a hill and left me to die!” She raked her fingersthrough her hair and paced back and forth. “No wonder you didn’t come to see me in the hospital.” Her eyes went wide with the revelations popping into her mind. “No. You sent Jase. I’m your daughter’s best friend,like a daughter to you, and this is how you treat me.” She stopped pacing and glared at him. “You knew it was her.”
He shook his head rigorously. “No. I don’t know that at all. From what you reported, they were both there. If your memory is even correct.” He was gaslighting her, making it seem like she didn’t know what was going on. It made her even angrier.
“You don’t want to believe that she’s capable of all this. But you have to wonder how your wife died in that car crash and Desiree walked away without a mark on her. Desiree was driving. She lost control of the car. But she was on a road with a speed limit of forty miles an hour. Yet the car hit that tree on the side, smashing it in so hard that Gayle died.” More revelations hit her. “She must have been speeding recklessly. Or more accurately, purposefully to hit that turn and slide into that tree, crushing her mother.”
His gaze dropped away again, tears sliding down his cheeks.
“Oh my god. She did it. She killed her mother.”
“I wasn’t there. I don’t know what really happened.” He bit out the words, a world of rage in them.
“But you had your guys on the case investigating. You saw the photos and evidence. They’d covered up so many other things she’d done. You had them by the balls. So they did what they expected you wanted them to do and they declared it an accident.”
The fact that he couldn’t meet her gaze spoke volumes.
“I just spent two minutes thinking about it and the answer is so obvious now—you think your whole department was stumped for years? Please. We can’t all be blind and stupid.”
“You don’t know anything. The accident reports are clear. It was an accident.”
“Bullshit. You let her get away with murder. Literally. She killed your wife. Her own mother. And then she killed my family and tried to kill me.”
He didn’t say anything for a long time, then his head came up and he looked her right in the eye and confessed, “Gayle was gone. The only person I could try to save was my daughter. She’s all I have left.”
“No. You have a granddaughter who needs you. Because Desiree is never going to stop being who she is. I’ve been thinking about all those reports in my file. The things that have happened to me over the years. They were all preceded by some kind of argument or perceived slight with Desiree. At the time I never saw it. I never suspected her. I thought she was my friend. But you’re right, she doesn’t want me to be happy. She wants me clinging to her. My only friend. The only one who’s stood beside me through everything. She likes to smack me down, then pull me close. It’s a twisted game with her. Except this time, she tried to kill me, steal my boyfriend, and pin it on Neil. Again. Who does that to the father of their child?”
Bob’s eyes went wide. “She told you.”
