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“And when did you meet Jonah Lawley?”
“I was nineteen. I came home to my parents’ Hamptons estate for the summer between my freshmen and sophomore year of college. They threw a huge party, which wasn’t out of the norm, but it was the first time I was allowed—more like forced, to be there. Jonah and his father were there, and I was formally introduced. He was twenty-five at the time, and very charming. No one had ever been interested in me but Jonah was, and hespent the next year texting me, calling me, but we didn’t see each other again until the next summer, at a similar party. That went on for years.”
Dego looked down at his laptop, then back up at her.
I wondered what was going behind closed doors during that time. Were her parents actively looking for a suitor who would launch their family into stardom and the inner echelons of the old money scene they were so desperate for?
Based on the timeline, that was exactly what her parents were doing. They kept her locked up and brainwashed while biding their time to make their decision.
“When we started dating, everything was normal. I was… I was in love, desperately so. I didn’t think anything was abnormal. My parents, my mother especially, was beside herself with happiness, and did everything in her power to ensure I was exactly what I needed to be to hang on to his attention. I… I hate myself for it, looking back on it.”
I ground my teeth.
“What changed?” Dego asked.
Sierra looked down at her lap, picking at her nails.
“He proposed to me. I was elated and jumped right in to wedding preparations. But the timing of the engagement was… strategically planned. He was running for office for the first time, using me and our engagement as fodder to appeal to voters. He lost and… everything changed.”
“That was roughly a year ago?” Grant asked.
She nodded, and Dego typed furiously, shaking his head.
“My secret college friends,” she continued with a little smile, “they wanted to go on a road trip. I made up an excuse to go to California. I said I needed to go shopping, telling my mother it was to try to keep Jonah interested in me. She agreed. She was desperate for me to hang on to him. So, I met up with my friends in California and we started driving, eventually ending up here.”
My throat was tight as I thought about that night when I met her for the first time.
She looked up me, tears gleaming in her eyes.
“I didn’t realize what I had with Jonah was wrong until I met you,” she choked, her voice strained and trembling. “But I went back to my family. I went back to Jonah. I thought I had to. Over the past nine months or so, Jonah started acting out. He was awful to me. Mean. He never touched me, though. He stopped kissing me, then… We hadn’t slept together in months before I finally left.”
“Were you living together?”
“No—”
“Why does that matter?” Grant asked with an arch of a brow.
“Some states have laws in which an unwed couple who separates, if they’ve been sharing a living space for a certain of time, the couple could argue over rights to property and income, such as a trust fund.” Dego ran his tongue over his lower lip with a shrug. “That’s not at play here, then.”
“So, you ran?” Grant asked her.
“I did.”
“They can’t have any rights here,” I pressed, standing up. “They can’t take her back. She’s made no…” I paused, something heavy and acidic sinking into the pit of my stomach. I turned to Sierra, who was pale in the face. “Did you ever sign anything? Anything that gave them the right—”
“A conservatorship?” Grant stood up, his eyes narrowing with sudden wrath. “Dego—”
“We’ll know if in a few minutes,” he said, tapping his earpiece. “I have someone looking into it right now.” He turned to Grant, shrugging as if he’d heard way worse things before. “Got any coffee?”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Sierra
Morning light shone through the kitchen window as Moira set out plates for the large breakfast Keely was cooking. I’d spent the entire early morning drifting in an out of sleep on the sectional couch in the den while Dego waited for his contact to get back to him.
No news was good news, but in this case, I felt the opposite was true.
In the meantime, the sheriff and one of his deputies showed up to take my statement. My skin was crawling by the end of it. Exhaustion, hunger, and hormones had me feeling cranky and irritable. All I wanted was to be snuggled up on the couch at Pete’s apartment, not being fussed over by everything, and everyone.
