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“I don’t think you want me to die,” I say, realizing it as the words come out of my mouth.
He stares at me for a long while but doesn’t respond.
“I remind you of her, don’t I?” I say.
He still doesn’t say anything.
“I saw you with her once when you picked her up from our house. I never saw her look at any man that way except my father.”
It seems Billy is all out of words now.
“You loved her, didn’t you?” I ask him.
He releases his clenched jaw.
“And she loved you,” I say.
I hear his breath, uneven and shallow.
“I never meant to hurt her,” he says quietly. “I gave her the pills because my dad told me they were safe and would help her with anxiety. I never dreamt she’d become addicted to them or that he’d threaten me with her addiction to take Sally away …”
I look at Billy. He looks smaller, like a scared young man with his pregnant college girlfriend in too deep. It seems Billy, like my mom, isn’t who I thought he was either.
“Or that Sally could die because of them,” he whispers.
“If you cared about my mom, then why didn’t you tell her the truth about what happened to Sally?”
“My dad told me if Irene ever found out, she could file charges against him. He threatened me with her safety, and later yours and your dad’s. But once Margot found out, I had no choice but to tell her.”
“Is that when I saw you when you came to our house to pick her up, and she came home crying after?” I say.
He nods.
“It was before the congressional hearing. Your mom hadn’t planned to testify because she knew it could put your dad and you in danger. The two of you mattered to her morethan anything in the world. But after she learned the truth about Sally’s death, she was blinded by her anger. I tried to stop her. I was terrified she’d bring up Sally in her testimony, and your entire family would be taken out. I even hired someone to rough her up in New York to intimidate her.”
So Mom wasn’t mugged, as I suspected. And this is why she testified despite the risk it posed to Dad and me. She found out her first daughter died because of this family’s drug empire and didn’t want it to happen to others.
“Getting roughed up didn’t stop her from testifying, but it scared her enough not to bring up Sally,” Billy continues. “By then, it didn’t matter. My aunt and uncle had found out that Margot had told your mom about Sally, and they let my dad know. He knew Irene could bring the company down, so he went after her, threatening your life and your father’s. When your mom was the victim of the hit-and-run accident shortly after, my dad had his suspicions about whether she had died, but she had disappeared from her life, so he was no longer worried about her coming forward. That’s all he cared about. I’m sorry. I wish things could’ve turned out differently.”
“If you feel so badly about what happened, why did you go after her again now? Your dad isn’t even alive anymore. You could’ve turned yourself in and finally told the truth about what happened to Sally. But you didn’t, and now my mom is dead because of you.” I choke on the words.
“If I did, I knew …” He hangs his head. “I knew Quentin would go after Cristina as retaliation.”
“Yourbrother?Cristina’suncle?” I say, stunned.
“Even though I was named after our dad, Quentin’s the one who took after him. He’s ruthless and calculating and has dangerous partners who’ve infiltrated TriCPharma. They’ll do anything to hold onto power and money. When he found out the Feds were looking for Irene after Margot’s boyfriend gave his testimony, they wanted to search for herto see if she was still alive because they knew she could bring TriCPharma down. I wanted to protect Irene, so I told Quentin I’d hire a PI to find her. When I found out she was alive, I thought we could arrange for her to disappear again, but he and his partners said it was too risky to let her live. So I started being evasive about where she was, telling him my PI said she was on the move. Then they hired their own PI, who found out I was lying—and retaliated by murdering Maria.”
“Quentin had your ex-wife killed?” I say in disbelief. “Why haven’t you gone to the police?”
“I’m scared if I do, he and his partners will go after Cristina,” he whispers. His face looks ashen, like all the blood has been pooled out of it. “They’re the ones framing Cristina for Maria’s murder. At leastyourmom’s still alive.”
“What?” I gasp.
He nods. “My old PI took some of her hair from a brush and planted it in the woods near the last town she lived in. He stopped working for me after Quentin and his partners started targeting his family. But I had an old contact at the FBI who owed me a big favor, and I asked him to write a report about Irene’s remains. It was a ruse so they’d think she died,” he says.
“Where is she?” I demand.
“She was teaching psychology at a senior center up north. I was nervous about her having an outward-facing job, but it was too risky for me to have direct contact with her to warn her since they’re on my trail. So I paid the center to let her go due to ‘budget constraints.’ She picked up and moved a few towns over to Lucia Beach. I fear it’s only a matter of time before he finds her.”
