She shrugged. “Maybe, but…considering Ian’s strong resemblance to his father, and the fact this girl doesn’t look at all like Declan, I seriously doubt it.”
“You’ve seen her?” I asked in surprise.
Eden shook her head. “Oh…no, but…I have a picture.” She slid a large laminated photo toward me, and I glanced over it. “That blonde in the middle is Aurelia,” Eden pointed out. “And, I assume by the same name on the back, that girl with her is Alexandra. It was taken almost four years ago, so she would’ve been only fifteen, which is kind of weird the sorority would even consider her, but…there it is.”
I flipped the photo over, and, sure enough, the girl’s name was scrawled across the back, along with Aurelia’s.
“There are those intelligent few who start college early,” I said and spun the picture around again. “I told you about my friend Trinitee, right?” I asked with a brief peek up at Eden, who nodded in reply. “She started when she was sixteen, and finished in two years.”
I focused back on the picture and examined it more closely. Just as her name sounded familiar, her face struck a chord with me, as well. I tensed my eyes and stared hard at the image of the girl Aurelia had her arm thrown over. I’d never been all that great with names, but faces tended to stick with me, and I definitely recognized this one. I just couldn’t place it.
Then it struck me like a bolt of lightning, and all I could think was—no, it can’t be.
She looked so different in the photograph, considerably heavier, and while her hair was dark, it was very short and shone with a sanguine glow in the bright sunlight. But it was her large eyes that drew me in and confused me the most. There was no mistaking the slightly almond-shape of them, but the color was all wrong. This young girl’s eyes were a weird shade of hazel—a combination of brown and green, but with a gold starburst in the center around each pupil. Even still, I couldn’t deny the freakish similarities between this girl and Trinitee.
Trin would’ve had to have dyed her hair black, easily done, of course, but then she would have had to have lost at least twenty-five pounds, too. Entirely possible, and not overly difficult for someone so young and tall. But the eyes…they were way off. Trin had light, silvery grey irises, almost lavender, which I’d always found unique enough to be considered odd. And odd enough that they might actually be colored contacts.
But why? Why would Trinitee alter her identity? Why would she hide her relationship with Aurelia Wylde and Declan Ross? And what was that relationship exactly? Why would she change her name? And what was this other name doing in Declan’s trust? What was behind the one-year disparity in their ages? Were these two people really one and the same?
And, most pressing of all, where the hell was Trinitee Marsh?
I held the photo out to Eden. “Do you know this girl, or at least recognize her?”
Eden took the picture back and looked at it as she shook her head. “No, not that I can recall, but there is something familiar about her, like she looks like someone I know or something, but I can’t remember who. I know she’s not Aurelia’s kid, and I doubt she’s Declan’s. So, if not, what could she have been blackmailing him over?” Eden tossed the photo down and locked eyes with me.
I shrugged. “Maybe she knew Declan was embezzling from his hedge fund.”
Eden’s entire frame went rigid. Her jaw dropped open, her eyes wide and round. “What?” she shrieked. “Are you freaking kidding me? How do you know this?”
“Detective Reed told me. Said he was under investigation by the F.B.I.”
Eden’s hands flew to her mouth, where they trembled as tears pooled in her eyes. “Oh my God, Sean, do you know what this means?” she asked, but didn’t let me answer. “I’ll lose everything now. They’ll seize his accounts, freeze his assets. My school. My home. Ian and I will be out on the street with nothing!”
And there it was.
Again.
The money.
She jumped to her feet, but so did I. I held her in place and looked her in the eye.
“That’s not gonna happen, Eden, but even if it did, I’d take care of you. And Ian, too. You’ll never be out on the street. I’m here for you. You know that, right?”
She rested her palms against my chest, her eyes soft, even in her anxiety. “Thank you, Sean.” She raised a hand to my cheek. “You’re so sweet. But...there’s a very real possibility we might both end up in prison. And now, if the police arrest me, I might not even be able to afford a decent attorney. Even Ian’s college money is wrapped up in those funds. My future is in serious jeopardy. I have to at least be free of these charges. We have to find that girl. She’s the key to solving this.”
Eden gave my arms a squeeze, then turned to sort through Aurelia’s secret evidence. I gave her room, moving to lean against the counter’s edge, where I quietly observed her. She grabbed the trust document and moved into the den area, taking a seat at Aurelia’s desk as she read through the legalese. All the while, her hands shook, and she sniffed back her tears.
I knew she was worried, and I wanted to alleviate her anxiety by telling her who I thought this girl actually was, but at the same time, I couldn’t shake the feeling something was off with Eden, that she was withholding information and was connected more deeply than she was letting on. Maybe it was my own restraint that led me to think, if I was capable of withholding, then so was she. But I was in a precarious position and had to be careful.
Once I admitted the girl we were searching for might, in fact, be Trinitee, that would be yet another thread tying me to the murders. I was certain Trin was duplicitous in all this somehow, but I was frightened for her, too. She was still missing, and there was all that blood in her apartment. I desperately wanted to know how her blood had gotten on the sweats she’d loaned me.
That was when I recalled what Reed had said about the blood-type matching both Trin and Eden. I stepped toward the table and stared down at the photograph once more. While I knew this image was most likely Trinitee, there was something else about it that bothered me, like I’d seen it before, or one very similar. But where?
I was pretty sure it was recent. The circumstances were on the tip of my brain, teasing me, yet not allowing me to fully realize it. Which meant I must’ve been drunk, or at least drinking at the time. And then it hit me.
I’d been sitting in that bar with Trinitee while she scoured through Eden’s Twitter account, including her pictures. There were several before-and-after shots. Trin had even remarked on them, how Eden had bloomed during her college years. And that was exactly what I was seeing here in this photo. Except it wasn’t Eden. It was Trinitee.
I slipped my phone from my back pocket and pulled up Eden’s Twitter account, where I skimmed through her photos until I found the old before-and-afters. Then, with a quick glance to make sure Eden wasn’t watching, I slid her phone closer and scrolled through her pictures until I found the one of Jacob she’d shown me earlier. I set my phone down next to it and Aurelia’s photo and stared. My heartbeat exploded in my ears, and the hair on my arms stood on end.
Holy fuck! Am I seeing this right? How could this be possible?
But there was no denying it. Comparing all three side-by-side, I was convinced.
This was the secret Aurelia had been holding over Declan Ross.
Jacob and Eden’s child had not died that night long ago up on the San Juans, as Declan had told Eden.
Ivy was alive and well.
Because Ivy was Trinitee.
I moved closer to the rear door off the kitchen and started pacing around. Every nerve within me buzzed with electricity. My heart raced, and my palms grew slick with sweat. I was upset, conflicted, and terrified what this new revelation could mean. I had no real proof, of course, just a hunch, but in my gut, I knew it to be true.
Trinitee was Ivy, and she knew not only Declan Ross, but Aurelia, too.
They’d all been keeping secrets. But how much did Trinitee know about her two fellow conspi
rators? Was she aware of Eden and who she was exactly? Was this all of Aurelia’s making to get Declan’s fortune? Had she discovered his secrets, put it all together, then hunted Trinitee down to use as incentive for Declan to amend his trust?
I didn’t know Aurelia Wylde at all, but, from the few things Eden had shared with me over the last two months, I didn’t think she was smart or sophisticated enough to have orchestrated everything. But Trin certainly was, and she was manipulative enough to have maneuvered all of them exactly where she wanted them. Which meant she’d set all this up. And if the sorority photo was to be believed, she’d been working on this since she was a freshman undergrad. That was over four years ago, long before I ever met her.
So Trinitee had been grooming me, but for how long? All her games, all the setups over the last two years, I thought it was just for fun, but maybe she was testing me, to see if I made a suitable pawn. And of course I did, so when the opportunity arose, she pounced. I’m sure she knew Aurelia’s friends were meeting for drinks that night. All Trin had to do was make sure I was there and let fate take its course, because Eden was exactly my type. But even if Trin hadn’t set all that up beforehand, she knew who Eden was once I’d pointed her out. With a little shove on her part, Trin knew damn well I’d bag Eden. She probably even suspected I’d fall in love. That’s how well she knew me.
Regardless of when she’d put things into motion, this was all some grand scheme of Trinitee’s. But why?
Trin had fed me the story about her early years in a Mexican orphanage, how lonely she’d been, an outcast different from all the others, laughed at and ridiculed for being a gringa. She might’ve been young at the time, but it’d left a lasting sense of bitterness. Then she’d shared with me how relieved she’d been once she was adopted and brought to the States. But how much of that was true?
Trin’s story didn’t jive with the one Eden had told me. Eden insisted her child, Ivy, had died from complications after she went into premature labor. There was no reason for Eden to lie. I was pretty sure Declan was the villain in her case, that he’d somehow gotten rid of her child because he didn’t want his new wife to have any reminders of what had come before him. And if that were true, and Trin had found out, if she stood to inherit all of Declan’s money by whatever machinations Aurelia had arranged, then Trin had every reason to both hate him and seek revenge. Aurelia had simply been a loose end that needed cleaning up.
But what about Eden? What was Trinitee’s mindset there?
Knowing what Eden believed to be true, Trin would have no reason to go after her, too. Unless…it wasn’t the truth, and Eden had lied to cover up her participation in abandoning her child.
I shook my head. There was no way I could believe that. Not from the story she’d shared with me earlier on the stairs. Eden truly seemed to have loved Jacob. She never would’ve willingly discarded his baby, especially since he’d been killed protecting her, and Ivy was all she had left of him, her first love.
Then again, there was all of Declan’s money and the irrevocable trust with this one girl now inheriting the bulk over Eden’s meager share. That was incentive enough for just about any crime.
The more I thought about it, the less sense it all made, at least not to me, and with Trinitee missing, I didn’t know if I’d ever figure it out—who I could trust, who had done what to whom, and why.
My confusion must’ve been written all over my face as I paced the floor, because Eden had stopped her perusal of Declan’s trust and was now studying me with concern knotting her brow.
“You’re awfully quiet over there, Sean,” she noted.
I indicated with a nod that I’d heard her, but that was all I trusted myself to do. Eden’s lip pouted outward, obviously dissatisfied with my answer, or lack of one rather. She pushed the desk chair back and rose. With her gaze nailed to mine, she sauntered over with a provocative sway of her hips.
Was she even aware she did that, or was it a well-thought out ploy to manipulate me, a man, her way to distract me, confuse me, control me?
She stood in front of me, toe to toe, her breath sweet and sultry across my face. Her fingers found my waistband in front and tugged me toward her so she could place a delicate kiss on my mouth. Just the hint of one. But she barely pulled back when she was done. She tipped her face forward and rested her forehead against my chin for yet another wisp of time before leaning back, capturing my eyes, and looking deep inside my soul.
And there was that pouty lip again, right before she asked, “What are you thinking?”
I snorted softly as I returned her intense stare, uncertain if I could trust her or not, if it was safe to tell her of my suspicions. I wanted more than anything to trust Eden, to share this wild conspiracy theory and have her either agree or tear the idea to shreds. Deep in my heart of hearts, I found it hard to believe I could’ve been so wrong about her. But then again, I’d been wrong about Trinitee. I just prayed that was an isolated case.
Besides not wanting to lose all she’d gained over the years—a reasonable fear, mind you—Eden had never really done anything else that would cast serious doubt on her motives. But, it was a well-known fact that, after love and jealousy, money was the next best reason to commit murder. And in this case, we had all three.
So which way should I be leaning?
Before I could even make that decision one way or another, Eden’s phone chirped twice in a row. She stepped away and snatched her cell from the table, glancing at it with a raised brow.
“It’s a Google alert,” she said. “Two of them actually. After the murders, I placed one on my name, as well as Declan’s. Especially since the media is so interested in digging up dirt on him.”
She swiped her finger across the screen, then tapped a few more times before settling in to read whatever news had been posted online. Her eyes swept back and forth, and she raised a hand to her mouth as her jaw dropped open. Finally, a small gasp.
“Oh my God,” she hissed as she continued to read. When she was done, she dropped the phone to her side and locked eyes with mine.
“What is it? What’s happened now?” I asked over the lump in my throat.
“Someone snapped a photo of us together out front, right before we came in. It’s been plastered all over the news already. But…there’s more…and it’s even worse.” She paused, frozen with dread in her eyes.
“What?”
“The police. Someone phoned in an anonymous tip, and a few hours ago, they found a woman’s body…buried in the woods…next to my house. A burned body, Sean. And now the police are looking for us. Both of us.”
I felt the blood drain from my face.
Sean remained locked still in place, his gorgeous, young face now pale and drawn. I walked up to him and peered into his eyes, hoping to get a bead on his thoughts. But he just stared into space with his mouth slightly open.
“What do you want to do?” I asked.
He didn’t even seem to register my presence, let alone hear me. He simply stood there and stared. I reached down and took his hand in mine, squeezing it to get his attention, as well as offer some comfort.
“Sean,” I urged with a gentle tug.
His concentration broken, his eyes finally slid to mine, searching for something with deep intensity, but as to what, I didn’t know.
“We should go,” he breathed so softly, I barely heard him.
“Go where?”
He tore his gaze away and surveyed the room without another word. After several silent moments, I placed my hands on his cheeks and turned him back to face me.
“Go where, Sean? What should we do? The police are looking for us now, and…who knows, they might have arrest warrants for us this time. I don’t know what to do.”
Sean swallowed hard and straightened his shoulders. “We go to them,” he announced and strode to the table, where he gathered the envelopes. After that, he walked to Aurelia’s desk and stacked everything on top of Declan’s trust. He spun back my way. “Gra
b your stuff and let’s go,” he ordered.
Now it was my turn to stare open-mouthed. “You want to go to the police?” I asked. “Shouldn’t we…I don’t know…talk to our lawyers or something first?”
Sean’s brow drifted upwards. “Why? You have something to hide?”
I shook my head. “No. Of course not, but—”
“Then we shouldn’t make them think we do. Come on. Let’s go.” With the documents in one hand, he grabbed my phone, tossed it in my purse, and pressed the bag into my arms. Then he took hold of my elbow and pulled me toward the front door.
But I planted my feet and refused to go another step. “Didn’t you hear what I said? They found a burned body in the woods next to my house!”
Dropping the documents to the floor, Sean took me by both arms and shook me. He pulled me close, his face an inch from mine. “Yes, and someone’s making it look like one or both of us are responsible, if not for this new one, then at least for the other two. That’s three bodies, now, Eden. Someone’s setting us up. Can’t you see that?”
“Obviously,” I answered. “But who? Do you know?”
“Not for sure. But I have an idea.”
“Who?” I practically screeched.
With his lips pressed tight, he dropped his hands. “I’m not ready to say anything until I know what the cops have found. That’s why we’re going back to your house. We’re gonna talk to the authorities.” He bent down, gathered the documents, and stuffed them into his waistband under his shirt. “The vultures are probably circling out front, just waiting to catch us with something—anything they can use to speculate about us, paint us in whatever light they deem most profitable for their ratings.”
I nodded, pulling my bag in tight as I followed Sean to the front door.
“Ready?” he asked, his hand on the knob.
Another silent nod from me.
“Okay. Let’s go.”
With that, he opened the door and directed me through first. I locked up the house and joined Sean at the edge of the front porch. I searched the area as he did and saw nothing obvious, no reporters waiting to pounce or photographers hiding in the bushes or behind parked cars. Sean took my hand and escorted me down the steps and walkway and over to my car parked across the street. He opened the door after the alarm chirped and stood there gazing into my eyes, waiting for me to hop in. But I hesitated.
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