Jay shakes his head. “Barely. She never wanted to. I still don’t know what happened between them. But Helen, I don’t know, she actuallylikedMom. It wasn’t just that she felt obligated to help the woman her son knocked up. She even helped me get that scholarship. Anyway, when I showed Mom the picture, I also told her that I thought I might be in danger—that someone had been following me and could be trying to hurt me, and that this picture had something to do with it. Mom turned white as a ghost and called Helen. Soon a car showed up and took us to Helen’s house.” He chuckles, shaking his head. “It waswild. The house is as big as Jack’s. Couldn’t believe that was my family. Taylor showed up soon with Cameron, an undercover cop.”
“Wait, what? Taylor washelpingyou? I thought she kidnapped you! Why didn’t she say she was on your side? She was beingterribleat the yacht club.”
“Yeah, Taylor’s technically a good guy here, but that’s debatable. Anyway, they all explained that it’s true: I was in danger because Taylor’s dad was, like,obsessedwith me. Apparently, years ago, when they set up a company together, my father and Andrew Murray each set up trusts for their kids—or future kids—to pay for school. They put in clauses that if they didn’t have children, the money would go to each other’s kids. When Andrew sold his half of the company to Stephen, he dissolved his kids’ trusts because he wanted to keep the money forhimself, and he figured his kids would get Stephen’s trust since Stephen didn’t have kids.”
“Andrew didn’t know about you?”
Jay shakes his head. “Nope. Only Stephen and Helen knew about me. Until Stephen and Andrew were arguing in the Caribbean, and Stephen told Andrew that his trust would go to me. Salma’s son.”
“And Stephen was killed for it.”
“Andrew thought he deservedallof Stephen’s money—not just the trust—since he started the company with him. But yeah, learning that I would be getting the trust instead of Lance and Taylor pissed him off. Apparently, Andrewhatedthat Stephen was dating a Brown girl all those years ago. Anyway, when Helen explained it all to me, I didn’t tell anyone that I already knew about the trust. Ididsay I thought someone was going to do something to me that night at the yacht club. I assume they thought Jack tipped me off. Cameron was concerned that even if they were able to keep me safe that night, I would continue to be in danger. Andrew was the one following me in the Corolla, by the way.”
This is ridiculous. “For the love of god, if theyknewyou were in danger, why didn’t anyone tell you until then?”
He nods, also annoyed. “Iknow. My mother let them have it about that. Mostly Cameron was afraid of doing anything that could sabotage his fraud and money-laundering case. Andrew was the linchpin, but they really needed to get the names of the others involved. They thought I’d be fine. The police were following Andrew when he was following me.”
“He really wanted tokillyou so his kids could get your trust fund?”
“Yup. Their original plan was to bully me until I dropped out of school. Because then I couldn’t claim the money since the trust required me to be enrolled. But that plan failed because I didn’t care about the gossip.”
“Oh my god, Lance was the Birdwatcher?”
“Lance and Taylor did that together.”
I shake my head. “I don’t get it. I thought Taylor was on your side?”
He chuckles. “Lance and Taylor are on Lance and Taylor’s side. Their dad told them for years that Andrew’s trust would go to them. They were also pissed when they discovered I existed.”
“So they figured they’d get you to drop out of school so they could have your money.”
“Yep. It’s why they befriended me in first year. But their grandmother discovered what they were doing when my mom had a lawyer from her firm write that cease-and-desist letter to the Birdwatcher. Lance and Taylor’s mother apparently tore them a new one and threatened to cut them off financially if they didn’t stop bullying me. And when their father became obsessed withkillingme instead for the trust, Lance and Taylor told their mother what Daddy was planning. When they went to the police, they found out about the fraud investigation, and the kids officially joined the sting operation against their own father so their mother wouldn’t cut off their gravy train.”
I snort. “That’s wild.”
“I know.” He shakes his head. “These people aremessed up. You wouldn’t believe the drama. Helen’s cool, but the rest ... I cannotbelieveI’m related to them.”
I cringe. “It had to suck to discover you have a whole other family at the same time as learning they want to either bully you out of school or kill you to steal your trust fund. And then learn your father died before you knew him.”
Jay shrugs. “It did suck. But it was five months ago. I’ve come to terms with it. Besides, hewasn’tmy father. Just a sperm donor. He neverwantedto be my father. He figured giving me his money was enough.”
I shake my head. “But why does Andrew Murray thinkLancekilled you?”
“That was my idea. See, I knew what was supposed to happen that night—I was supposed to end up in the lake. So I made the suggestion to Cameron: What if we let Andrewthinkhis son killed me in the same way he killed my father? Then he’ll stop trying to murder me, and the cops could concentrate on the fraud case. So Lance called Jackand snagged an invite to his boat that night. Lance told his father he was going to take the opportunity to do to me what Andrew did to my father. I boarded the boat wearing an inflatable life jacket under my coat, and I deleted anything I didn’t want anyone to see on my phone. Should have written down my Instagram password, though. I’d been saving our screenshots to a cloud drive by then anyway. I had a submersible GPS tracker pinned to my pants. Cameron trailed me in a dinghy after I went over.”
“Why do it on Jack’s boat, then? Why didn’t Lance just tell his dad he was taking you out on the water and not actually do it?”
“Andrew is a paranoid ass. He insisted on being on the boat too.”
I snort. “Ha! I knew Andrew was on the boat! He drugged Jack with GHB!”
He frowns. “Holy shit, seriously? I thought it was strange Jack was so tanked. I’ll bet Andrew drugs girls in bars with that.” He cringes. “Anyway, when we reached open water, I discreetly took off my boots, then Lance picked a fake fight with me and pushed me off the boat. He pushed me hard ... I think he really wanted to hurt me. I don’t think he would have been the slightest bit upset if he actually did kill me.
“As soon as I hit the water, I pulled my coat off and inflated my life jacket. Lance sped away so Andrew wouldn’t see me. I can tread water forever because of water polo, but the water was fucking cold. Cameron showed up after about three minutes, and I thought I was going to die. Once we got back to shore, Helen and my mom were waiting with dry clothes and all the stuff I was able to get out of my dorm room using the secret stairs. Cameron drove me straight to Helen’s cottage that night. They said I wouldn’t be there long—just until they wrapped up the fraud case and arrested Andrew. They said a week or two, max. But I knew I’d be there at least five months because, well, I wasn’t back in your time.” He exhales.
“Holy shit. You’ve beenin hidingfor five months?”
He nods. “I was lonely as fuck.”
