Rosalie nodded. “I knew you would want me to bring her over and make her feel a part of things, but I struggled to find the right explanation for her absence. So I thought it better to just not mention her at all.”
“Rosalie,” Ty said softly.
Liam’s grip on her arm had gentled, but he still didn’t let her go.
“That’s when Castro found out about my situation.” Rosalie sniffled, but her voice never wavered. “He offered to help me if I would be his ear in the Keller Estate. He said he’d pay my debts if I did a few tasks for him. He was the one who sent me the ad you posted looking for an assistant, Liza. He had my background check altered so you wouldn’t find out about my secrets.”
“What has Castro told you about his plans?” Ty asked when she stopped speaking.
“Castro doesn’t tell me anything,” Rosalie admitted. “I’m only meant to hide the microphones and pass back anything I hear.”
I reeled from that revelation. She might have just punched me in the gut.
“Rosalie.” I was shaking with anger and disbelief. “Where are the mics? Show us. Now.”
She blanched. She’d been caught, and now it was time to face the consequences.
“Okay,” she squeaked. “I’ll show you where they are.”
We followed her as she led us through the house, stopping every few steps to point out the tiny listening devices hidden in plain sight. In the living room, one was nestled between the pages of a book on the shelf. In the kitchen, another was concealed under the fruit bowl. Each discovery made the betrayal that much worse, and I struggled not to let my emotions get the better of me.
Rosalie reached up to pluck a mic from behind a painting in the hallway. As she handed it to Ty, I glared at her, my heart pounding.
“Is that all of them?” I asked with barely suppressed fury.
“Th-there’s one more,” she said, leading us into my bedroom. My breath hitched, and I felt sick to my stomach as she walked over to my vanity and pulled out the final mic, hidden within the delicate petals of a decorative flower.
Rosalie’s chest heaved as she sobbed uncontrollably. “I’m so sorry,” she said, wiping at the tears streaming down her face. “I never wanted to hurt you or your family. I just... I had to save my sister.”
My heart ached for her, despite the anger still simmering beneath the surface. The betrayal stung like a fresh wound, but Rosalie’s desperation had me tamping down my emotions. Her fear and the love for her sibling had driven her to make such terrible choices.
“Rosalie,” I said softly, wavering despite my best efforts to stay strong. “How much do you need to save your sister?”
She sniffed, her eyes red-rimmed and swollen from crying. “I… I don’t know,” she said, on the verge of fresh tears. “The debt is huge, and the interest keeps piling up. Castro sends me money to pay off the loan shark each month, but it only pays the interest. I’ve been trying to pay extra off, little by little, but it’s like I’m drowning.”
“Give me a number. How much would it take to get your sister back and put an end to this nightmare for both of you?”
“Seventy-five thousand,” Rosalie whispered. She looked up at me with a desperate expression, clearly expecting me to balk at the sum.
My heart dropped, then I steeled myself. “I’ll give you the full amount.”
Rosalie’s eyes went wide, her shock and disbelief evident on her face. “You... you will?”
“Only if you promise to take it and never show your face here again,” I said, heavy with anger and sorrow. I’d been betrayed by someone I had considered a friend, but I knew that her sister was in danger through no fault of her own, and I couldn’t just stand by and do nothing. At the same time, though, I couldn’t allow Rosalie to stay, not after everything she’d done.
Rosalie only nodded.
“Good,” I said, my own voice more unsteady than I cared to admit. I turned away from her, blinking back tears of my own. My heart felt like it was being torn in two. I wanted to help Rosalie save her sister, but I couldn’t forgive her for betraying our trust. It was a conflicting whirlwind of emotions that left me drained and hollow.
Rosalie’s face crumpled, and she looked at me with such raw vulnerability, it was almost unbearable. “I never meant to hurt you, Liza, I swear,” she said between sobs.
I wanted to believe her, truly I did, but the betrayal cut too deep. The pain squeezed my lungs, making it hard to breathe. “You were working for him,” I hissed. “You put us all in danger.”
“Only because I had no choice,” she cried in desperation. “If I didn’t do what he asked, my sister would have died.”
As much as I understood her plight, it was hard to accept her explanation when there was a knife twisting in my chest. Regardless of the hurt, I couldn’t leave her sister to suffer the same fate.
I turned to Liam, who stood silently at the edge of the room, his arms crossed below his broad chest. “I want you to make sure Rosalie uses the money to get her sister back. After that, escort her out of town.”
