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Ben flashes that grin, but his gaze, when it meets mine, might as well be stone. “We’re family, right? We keep each other’s secrets. Until we don’t.”
Time feels slow now, my heartbeat a steady thud in my chest, my ears ringing.
I look over at Libby.
Shewasn’there that night. I remember. Her car passed mine coming down the mountain as I was going up, the window barely cracked because of the rain, but the firefly glow ember of the tip of a cigarette catching my eye. We’d looked at each other, her mouth twisting into a sour scowl, and then she’d flown past me, tires skidding a little on the muddy road.
“Isn’t that right, Libby?” Ben says, a little too loud, and she presses her lips together, twists one of her bangle bracelets around her wrist.
“Yeah,” she says at last, the words coming out as a sigh before she straightens her shoulders and says it again, firmer. “Yeah. You came out of Aunt Ruby’s room, and you were really upset. Shaking. I thought you’d been crying.”
She’s warming to the story now, looking over at Jules, who I still can’t bring myself to face. “It freaked me out, honestly, but like Ben said, we’re family, so…”
Libby shrugs. “But now I guess we’re not.”
“Plan B, huh?” I say. I’m actually smiling, but it’s like there’s broken glass in my throat. “Can’t scare Camden off with the big Ruby reveal, so we threaten to accuse him of murder instead?”
“Okay, this is officially insane now,” Jules says, the first words she’s spoken in what feels like ages, and Ben cuts his eyes at her.
“You wanted to be a McTavish, right?” he says. “Well, this is what it looks like, sweetheart.”
She scoffs, about to fire back with her own retort, but I don’t give her the chance.
“Fine,” I say. “You know what, Ben? You win. Keep your money. Keep this house. It’s worth it never to have to see a single one of your faces again. Fuck all of you. And fuck Ruby for ever bringing me here.”
With that, I reach for the bottle of champagne, still half-full. I snag it with one hand, and reach for Jules with the other.
She lets me lead her from the room, and as we make our way to the staircase, I can hear the others all start talking at once, but I ignore it. My only thought is getting upstairs, packing our bags, and heading back to Colorado as soon as humanly possible.
I’ve already got one foot on the bottom step when I realize Jules is tugging at me, her feet planted.
“Camden,” she says, and I turn, bottle of champagne still in hand.
“Can you believe that shit?” I ask her, gesturing with the bottle. “Now do you get it? Now do you see why I never wanted to come back here?”
“They’re assholes, I know,” she says, dropping my hand.“No disagreement from me on that score. But… you’re just going to let them win?”
I stare at her. Some of the adrenaline is wearing off now, and it’s making me feel muddled, confused.
“They’ll always win,” I tell her, but she shakes her head.
“No. No, they don’t have to. Jesus Christ, Cam, you can’t think this plan of theirs would actuallywork? That anyone would believe them?”
“It doesn’t matter,” I tell her, wishing she weren’t wearing Ruby’s dress, wishing I didn’t feel Ruby’s eyes boring into my back from her portrait at the top of the stairs. “I mean… what do you want me to do, Jules? Fight them? Spend the next decade tangled in legal shit with people I hate? People who hate me?”
“Of course, I don’t want that,” she says, but the words come out too fast, and she keeps glancing back toward the dining room.
Any relief I was feeling starts to drain out of me as I look at my wife, planted at the foot of the stairs.
“You do,” I say, slow. “You do want that. You want me to fight it. You want this place, and everything that comes with it. Even after that display. Even after what they accused me of.”
Jules climbs a couple of steps, her hand resting on the banister, the simple wedding set I bought for her catching the light. “I just don’t understand why you’re giving in so quickly. And why didn’t you tell me about Ruby? About knowing she wasn’t a McTavish?”
A headache is starting to pound behind my eyes, and I want to fall asleep almost as badly as I want to get in the car and get out of here.
“It didn’t matter. They’re the ones obsessed with blood,about some kind of clannish bullshit and who has the right to what.”
“Butyouhave rights, Camden,” she fires back. “And a damn good lawyer. Call Nathan. Tell him about the shit they just pulled, what they’re accusing you of––”
