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“Where did he get that kind of money?”
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out. My first thought was you.”
“Nope. He never asked.”
“Of course,” I said more to myself than to Larry, “because he doesn’t know you have money.”
“Right.”
“Okay, then. Who does your father know who could have given him that kind of money?”
“How do you know he didn’t just pay it himself? Over time?”
“I have his financial records.”
Larry opened his mouth, but I gestured him to be quiet.
“Before you freak out, I found them in my old man’s files. I didn’t get them myself.”
“Why the hell would your father—”
“I have no idea. I can only guess that he had Jonathan investigated after Daphne and I told him she was pregnant. He kept files on everyone, from what I can see.”
“On your friends too?” Larry wrinkled his forehead.
“Oh, yeah. There’s one on everyone in the club. I haven’t looked through them yet. I’m more concerned with Daphne at the moment, and also finding Patty and figuring out who’s responsible for Murphy’s death.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold up. What’s up with Patty?”
“She’s missing. For two days now. She went shopping in Snow Creek and never returned.”
“Snow Creek? Someone invaded that little town? Hardly a hub for criminal behavior.”
“Apparently it is now.”
“And still no information on what happened to Sean?”
“No, and I’ve had the best investigators on it. My father hired them after the wedding. But I need to get back to why I’m here. Who does your dad know who could have paid for Daphne’s medical bills?”
“I have no idea, man. We weren’t exactly close. I didn’t see my dad a lot, and I hardly ever saw Daphne. I never really knew why she ended up hospitalized for so long that year.”
“You don’t know what happened to her?”
“Only a little. The story I heard was that she was bullied by a couple of girls.”
He didn’t know. Unless he was lying.
But maybe he wasn’t.
Maybe, to keep the truth from Daphne, Jonathan and Lucy kept it from everyone else as well.
Except…Wendy knew.
A conversation from months ago speared into my head.
“You and I, Brad. We’re connected. We’ll always be connected. Someday, we’ll have that baby that was stolen from us in high school.”
“No, we won’t.”
Her miscarriage had been tragic, but it had also been a blessing in disguise. I didn’t want to be bound to Wendy through a child. If I could excise her from my life with a sharp scalpel, I would, and I’d live with the scar, no matter how deep.
And it would be deep.
“Oh, we will. You can’t avoid destiny, Brad.”
“My destiny lies with someone else.”
“Daphne?” She shook her head. “There’s so much you don’t know.”
“I know everything.”
“About her year in London?”
I didn’t want to discuss Daphne with Wendy, but I couldn’t resist shoving it in her face. “She told me all about it.”
“Then you know she wasn’t actually in London.”
“As I said, she told me all about it.”
“That’s sweet. Really. But there’s no way she told you all about it. There are things even she doesn’t recall.”
“What the hell are you talking about? If you know something, you better fucking tell me.”
“Sorry, you set the rules, so you get to live by them. You said no more deals. You want to know the truth about your sweet little slut? You won’t get it out of me. Besides, it’s not my story to tell.” She turned and flounced toward the doorway.
“You’re telling me,” I said to Larry, “that you don’t know what happened to your sister?”
“Sure I do. The bullies. But that’s it. Dad didn’t tell me much else. I was already in college, and he was dealing with Daphne in the hospital. We didn’t talk about it.”
“Would it surprise you to know that Daphne doesn’t remember what happened to her?”
“No. Dad told me about the concussion.”
“Would it surprise you to know that the problem was way more than a couple of bullies?”
His eyes widened slightly.
“And would it surprise you to know that Wendy seems to know what happened?”
He let out a guffaw at that one. A true guffaw. “Steel, nothing that Wendy knows or does ever surprises me. It sure as hell shouldn’t surprise you.”
“You really don’t know what happened to Daphne?”
“Only what my dad told me. Are you saying that’s not what happened?”
“Not at all. I’m just wondering where your father got that kind of money to pay his share of Daphne’s medical bills.”
“He didn’t get it from me.”
“Would you have paid it if he’d asked?”
“That’s a moot point, Steel. He didn’t ask. He doesn’t know I have money.”
“I got my answer.”
Larry was right. It was a moot point. Why did it matter that Larry wouldn’t have paid for his half sister’s medical bills? Who really cared, in the long run? I already knew that Larry, Tom, and Theo were all profit-driven.
