“Absolutely not, Alex. I can’t let you do that.”
“It’s the only way to get the truth.”
She pauses for a beat, reading me before speaking again. “Why do you care so much?”
I stare at her, the answer dying on my tongue. The truth is, this is more for me than it is for her. That man has made my life hell, and I guess knowing there is information out there that I could use as leverage entices me the most.
“My father doesn’t do anything out of the kindness of his heart,” I answer. “There might not have been much, but I did find a name on the transfer and traced it back to an offshore account in the Cayman Islands.”
She snaps her gaze to mine.
“It’s at the bottom of the second page. There wasn’t much I could find on the company. They don’t seem to have much of an internet presence. Just a name and a barely there trail to the account.”
“What’s the name?” Sam turns the page to read the last line.
At the same time, I answer her. “Aurelian Ltd.”
She stands there, eyes wide like she’s seen a ghost. Then she’s on the move, heading straight for the nightstand next to the bed. Her phone rings, but Sam ignores it. I watch as the screen goes black then focus back on the folder that Sam pulls out of her drawer. She flops it on the mattress and aggressively flips through it until she lands on the page she’s looking for.
From here, I can see that it’s a photo, printed on regular computer paper. From the looks of it, it’s seen better days. Wrinkles riddle the page, and it crumples under her touch. She holds it out and stalks back toward me.
“Have you seen this picture before?”
I take in the image. It’s my turn to be confused.
It’s a picture of our moms—mine, Kane’s, Gracie’s, Christina’s, and, from the striking resemblance, Sam’s. They’re young, probably about our age now. They’re on campus, which makes sense given that my mother, Gracie’s, and Christina’s are alumni. But I never knew Kane’s mom was, too. He never told us much about her.
“No, I haven’t.”
Sam hovers close to me, damn near too close. Her signature scent envelops me, and I have to force myself to think straight. The phone goes off again, and again she ignores it. But this time there’s a twitch in her jaw. Her eyes flicker toward the phone, and her fingers curl slightly against the photo.
“Look at the name of the club.” Sam points to the fine print beneath our mothers’ faces.
“The Aurelian Circle,” I mutter. “Wait. You don’t think this is the same Aurelian as the offshore account?”
Sam shakes her head before throwing her hands up in defeat.“I don’t know what to think. But it’s a hell of a coincidence, right?” She shrugs. “It’s the only thing that makes sense. Because, believe me, I’ve been searching for days and nothing adds up.”
I take the photo from her and stare at it some more. It’s crazy staring at a younger version of my mother. The years hadn’t caught up with her, no grays, no crow’s-feet. I look at the date. I would have been born a year after this.
“Where did you get this?”
“The library archives. Gracie and I were trying to find out what we could about my scholarship and my mom, and we stumbled across it.”
“You had to search up your mom? Why not just talk to her?”
Sam drops her head. “I would if she was alive.”
My heart pits in my stomach. “Shit. I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
She shakes her head. “It’s fine. But she never mentioned being a student here. And now you find the club’s name on banking information. I… I’m so fucking confused.” She flails her arms around. “I’m supposed to be making something of myself so that I can fight for custody of my brother, but instead, I ended up in this never-ending rabbit hole. And—”
She’s spiraling, her breathing now erratic, and tears form in her eyes. That damn phone buzzes again.
I step forward, grabbing her by the shoulders to ground her. “Breathe, Sunshine.”
She swallows then slowly drags her eyes to mine.
“Just breathe. We’ll figure it out. I’ll ask my mom, and maybe we can ask Kane—”
