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Chapter Forty
The weekendafter Lilly was discharged, we were in sitting room number three at the Hamlin estate. Number three was the one with direct access to the backyard. Wes and I had numbered all the duplicate rooms after missing each other twice when we were going stir-crazy waiting for Nate to find his sister, and ‘I’ll meet you in the living room’ was a one-in-four chance.
Natty, Lilly and I, together with Nate, had been playing board games all afternoon. It was something we used to do a lot before everything went down the shitter three years ago, and having Nate join us was one of the most bizarre experiences of my life—not counting the whole kidnapping and almost-dying thing, of course.
Nate had left a few minutes earlier. He was all vague and secretive about his whereabouts and whispered something in Lilly’s ear that made her eyes bulge and hug him tight.
He placed a kiss on the top of her head. "I'll be fine."
Lilly didn't look convinced, though. "Call me after."
He nodded and walked toward the garage. She could read the guy as well as she read me.
"What was that about?" Mom, who sat in one of the armchairs, scrunched her eyebrows.
"He is going to end it with Margot." Lilly sounded...sad.
Oh.
"Why?" I couldn't stop myself from asking. Not that he had spent any time with his fiancée, nor had he answered her calls in days. Hell, he barely left the house. He even slept here instead of his own mansion the size of a medium-sized apartment complex.
"It's not my place to tell." She smiled softly at me. Her loyalty to her brother was admirable. But that was Lilly. When she loved someone, she loved fiercely and never betrayed the person's trust.
Mom asked Natty to help George make dinner—the man could actually cook like a Michelin Chef—and then turned to me. "Can you two meet Dad and me on the back patio?"
Uh. A hollow sensation settled in my stomach. Sending Natty to George and asking us to come outside...not good.
Lilly was right behind my parents, but I followed at a slower pace. Much slower. Maybe if I took my time, they would forget whatever they wanted to say. Unlikely, but worth a try. Subconsciously, I already knew that I wasn’t going to like what I was about to hear.
"RHYS!" my father’s bark assaulted my ears.
Fuck! "Coming."
I sat down in one of the cushioned wrought iron patio chairs surrounding the matching eight-person table—Lilly and me on one side, Mom and Dad across from us. The whole scene felt like we were in one of Mom's court proceedings.
When the prolonged silence turned beyond uncomfortable, I reached over to grab Lilly’s hand. She squeezed it in return, just as my mother announced, "We know who Nate is."
Mom's words were like a bucket of ice in the face followed by several precisely executed uppercuts. I mean, we sorta knew, or at least suspected, but no one had said a word since I overheard Dad's phone call in the basement. Lilly's fingers turned to a vise around mine, and I, unsuccessfully, stifled a grunt as two of my fingers cracked under the pressure. "Argh."
"He’s going to turn himself in," Lilly rushed out, not letting go of my hand.
She’s going to break my damn fingers.
"We know," Dad inserted himself.
My eyes widened, the pain in my hand forgotten.
Holy fuck? How did that happen?
Mom took one deep breath before explaining. "Dad found out while you were still...missing." She looked at Lilly with a pained expression. None of us talked about those days unless we had to. I wasn’t the only one in avoidance land.
"The moment Dad told me, I dialed Agent Camden on the house phone," she declared. "I was furious with your father. How could he not turn him over immediately?" She took a long breath and stared at her folded hands on the table. "But then he convinced me to hold off."
Convinced her?
Lilly’s grip loosened—thank you, Jesus—and I peered over at her. She was completely unmoving, not averting her eyes from my mother.
"If it hadn't been for Natty, I would've been on the next flight out. Dad kept me up to date." Her voice cracked, the guilt from not being with Lilly when she was in the hospital written all over her face.
