“Yes, as best I can tell, he’s Sophie’s boyfriend. And he lives—or at least tries to portray that he lives—a very extravagant lifestyle.”
“How do you know all of this?”
“Long story short, lots of digging into her social media. And then his.”
“But I’ve never seen her post anything specific about him. Which she would, if she had a boyfriend. At least that’s what I’d think. She’s mentioned him by his name, that’s all.”
“Except Ryan is the kind of guy that would probably make Frank angry if Frank knew what kind of guy he was. I get the feeling that Ryan is the one calling the shots. Telling Sophie what to do. He might even be the reason she thinks she can be an influencer. He could be pushing her to do this.”
“But why would he do that?”
Maude took a breath. “I think because he knows that Frank has money, and he sees Sophie as a way to get to that money. I don’t really know that, it’s just a gut feeling.”
Essie felt sick. “You brought your computer. Is that so you can show me what you’ve found?”
Maude nodded, her face a mask of concern. “You’re upset. I’m sorry. I knew that would happen, but after I found this, I didn’t feel like I could keep it to myself.”
“I’ll be fine. I’m glad you’re sharing with me. If Sophie’s in trouble, we need to know so we can help her.”
“I doubt she thinks she’s in trouble. I’m sure she thinks things are just great. But this guy is…” Maude shook her head again. “I don’t like him. I don’t like him one bit. I think he’s what we used to call a player, but no clue what they’d call him these days. Let me grab my computer and I’ll show you what I mean.”
She got up and got her bag from the chair in the kitchen, then brought her computer back, opening up the laptop as she sat down. She angled it so Essie could see the screen. “Give me a second to get logged on.”
Essie took a sip of her lemonade. The tang of the citrus did little to wash away the bitterness coating her tongue. Sophie might not like her, but Essie wanted nothing but the best for that young woman. What happened to Sophie affected Frank and Essie wanted her husband to be happy.
The well-being of his children played a big part in that. Which brought Frank’s son, Chad, to mind. Once again, Essie wondered if this was something Chad might be able to help with. If Sophie wouldn’t listen to her father, maybe she’d listen to her older brother.
“Here’s Ryan’s Instagram account.” Maude moved the laptop slightly so the screen was aimed at Essie even more.
Essie leaned in. There was no sound as she watched a video of a very tan young man in a thick gold chain and big gold watchpartying on a boat with some other young men and women. He had a few tattoos, including a dollar sign on his right biceps. He held up a bottle of vodka to the camera and took a swig.
One of the young women in a skimpy hot-pink bikini came closer, smiling at him. He handed her the bottle and she drank, too. She had long blond braids and glittery sunglasses.
Maude pointed to the young man in the center of the video. “That’s Ryan. He posts videos like this all the time. And as you can see…” She pointed to the girl beside him. “That’s Sophie.”
Essie gasped as the young woman pushed her sunglasses onto her head and blew kisses to the camera. “That is most definitely her. And that’s Frank’s boat. I don’t think he’d be happy to know Sophie took all those people out on it.”
“That’s Frank’s boat? You’re sure?”
“Yes. He keeps it at the marina. We take it out once a month or so.”
Maude snorted as she paused the video. “Hang on. This video is about six months old, so was Sophie here then?”
Essie thought back. “No, but the boat was in Miami then. Frank originally thought he’d keep it there so we could use it when we visited Sophie, but he changed his mind when there was some damage to the boat. Sophie claimed she knew nothing about it. Frank thought the marina’s security was lax, so he had the boat brought up here.”
“This party might be what caused that damage but get this.” Maude tapped another button on the keyboard, then used the cursor to start the video over.
Sound played through the laptop, Ryan’s voice coming through loud and clear.
“Yo, what’s up, all you landlocked losers. I know you wish you were here with me on my killer cruiser, hanging with these baddies.” He drank from the vodka bottle again, shared it with Sophie, then pulled her in close, kissed her hard on the mouth.When he was done, he pushed her away, slapping her on the backside as he did.
Essie grimaced. “Frank willnotlike that. He won’t like any of this.”
“Well,” Maude said. “I hate to tell you, but there’s a lot more of these and in his latest video, he talks about how he’s got something big cooking. Says he’s about to ‘get paid.’”
The pit in Essie’s stomach opened wider. “That doesn’t sound good, does it?”
“The timing with the lawsuit is pretty interesting.” Maude frowned. “If I had to guess, I’d say he’s orchestrating this whole lawsuit thing in the hopes of getting Sophie some publicity. And him some money. That could mean Sophie’s going to make this lawsuit a big part of her social media content. If so, I’d think that would definitely get her the kind of attention she’s looking for. The kind Ryan might be pushing her to get. And once she gets some clout, there’s no telling what he might have planned. But he definitely likes her money.”
