Page 9 of City of Liars

His reaction bemused me, but I obliged. “My grandma had no memory of her life before the adoption. And she’d been so traumatized, she’d lost the ability to speak, so she’d never told anyone her name. My great-grandparents brought her home, but then another woman showed up—a Jewish immigrant from the Lower East Side—claiming my grandma was really her daughter.”

Now Theo didn’t just look white. He looked sick. “And then?”

It was a strange story, true. But I didn’t get why it would bother him this much. I paused, wondering if I should stop, but he motioned for me to continue. Uneasy, I went on.

“There was a big drama, splashed all over the papers. Apparently, this woman had lost her daughter the year before, and she latched onto my grandma’s recovery as some kind of wish fulfillment. She started showing up outside my great-grandparents’ apartment, begging to see her kid. Then she accused my family of using our money and influence to steal their daughter, and my family turned around and accused her of harassment and extortion. Eventually it went to court, and my family won.” I drew a deep breath. “It was a giant mess, and it got me thinking about how something like that affects families for generations to come. Hence, my choice of career.”

Theo yanked his hand out of mine and stared at me, his expression hard. “What did you say your last name was again?”

“I didn’t. But it’s Brentwood,” I said, the uneasy feeling growing. “Olivia Carter-Brentwood, which I know is a mouthful. But everyone calls me Liv, except my mother and my grandma, which...what’s wrong?”

“Your grandmother’s first name.” He looked paler than ever. “What is it?”

“Ella,” I said, bewildered. “Why do you⁠—”

He shot to his feet before I could finish speaking. His chair clattered to the floor behind him. “The place she was kidnapped. Was it Gramercy Park?”

“Yes.” I peered at him, perplexed. “How do you know that?”

His mouth flattened into a grim line. “Allow me to introduce myself, Liv Carter-Brentwood. My name is Theo Dressler. And that woman your family decimated in court? She was my great-grandmother.”

My heart plummeted to my stomach. And then it was my turn to stare.

6

Theo

There was no denying it. In every possible sense, I was screwed.

I gripped the table, staring at Liv. She sat still, clutching her mug, color burning high in her cheeks. “Well,” she said at last, voice strangled, “that complicates things.”

“You’re a Carter,” I said, stunned. “I slept with a Carter.”

Last night, when we’d come in, I’d barely taken notice of our surroundings. I’d been too focused on Liv. But this morning, when I’d looked around on my way into the kitchen, I knew she’d come from money—or made a good bit of her own. This house wasn’t just decorated; it had been put together by an interior designer. I’d spent enough time in wealthy fuckers’ homes, negotiating deals over dinner, to know the difference. Which meant this house and everything in it had been bought by Carter money, whether Liv had earned it or not. I’d slept on sheets their money had paid for, drunk their fancy coffee. Had sex on their thousand-dollar coffee table.

Great sex. Maybe the best I’d ever had. Which only made things worse.

“What a mess,” I muttered, repressing the desire to kick something. The tastefully distressed kitchen cabinets, maybe.

Liv drew a deep breath, blue eyes wide with dismay. In her sweatpants and T-shirt, with her red hair tousled and her face scrubbed clean, she looked nothing like the sophisticated siren I’d met at the bar last night. But I didn’t find her any less desirable, God help me.

In a place like Atomic, pretty women were a dime a dozen. But there’d been something different about Liv. I’d been drawn to her, in a way I couldn’t pin down. Maybe it had been the glint of fire in her eyes, the sense there was a hell of a lot more to her than a gorgeous face and a body to match. Or maybe it was the way she’d seemed so moved by my music, she’d put her drink down to listen. Even across the room, I couldn’t help but notice.

I’d been with my share of women, but nothing that lasted beyond a night or two. I’d done a cost-benefit analysis and failed to see the value in it. If there was one thing I’d learned growing up, it was that commitment didn’t get you anywhere. People made promises, and then they left. I had no desire to ever feel that powerless again. Instead, I’d thrown myself into my work.

Money was a shield for me, a way to defend myself against the helplessness that had reverberated through my family when they’d fought to get Lily Dressler back and lost. All because some rich bastards had bought off the lawyers and the judge, then threatened my great-grandmother with a lawsuit if she ever tried to see her daughter again. They’d destroyed her, and she’d never been able to forgive them...or herself. The rest of my family had scattered to the winds. Four generations later, I was still dealing with the fallout.

And now I’d had sex with one of them. Repeatedly. Told her she was made for me, for Christ’s sake. Goddamn sang to her.

Liv cleared her throat and leaned forward, pushing her coffee aside. “So. May Dressler was your great-grandmother. Which makes Lily⁠—”

“My great-aunt,” I said, pausing in my circuit of the kitchen as a sickening thought occurred to me. “Oh, Jesus. Tell me I didn’t just have sex with⁠—”

She read the horrified look on my face correctly and sighed. “I’m adopted, Theo. So even if Grandma Ella were really Lily Dressler, we wouldn’t have committed incest, if that’s what you’re afraid of. But it’s a moot point, anyhow. She’s not Lily Dressler. She never was. The whole thing was an awful misunderstanding.”

I came to a halt in front of her. “You don’t know that.”

“Yes, I do,” she insisted.