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“What do you mean, if you could get us all together in one place for a year?” Clover asks.
Oh, shit. Oh, shit, shit, shit. My mind races as I try to come up with a reasonable lie, but I’m exhausted and my body is so tight with the tension of being out in the woods at night that my head is starting to ache.
This is it, anyway. We haven’t found the treasure and, in just a few months, our year together will end and my sisters will leave. Maybe it’s better they know the truth. Maybe it’s better they know the real me.
At least if they never want anything to do with me, I won’t have to experience the pain of rejection over and over again. There’s a part of me that hopes they might not be angry, but I know better. “I convinced Dad to add the addendum to his will to require us all to live together.”
“No.” Clover slaps a hand over her mouth.
“He was going to leave all of his money to some museum in Vegas so they’d put his name on it. I convinced him his daughters are his most valuable legacy.”
“No.” Unlike Clover, Dani’s not shocked. Her eyes flash with anger. “Dad would have never gone for that. He never did anything for anyone that didn’t benefit himself.”
I consider crawling out into the night and sacrificing myself to the forest monsters, but death by black bear seems like a horrible way to go. I smile gently. “He got soft in his old age. Sentimental.”
“You said you hadn’t seen him in years.” Clover wraps her arms around herself. “Not since we were kids.”
“Dad didn’t have a sentimental bone in his body.” Dani leans forward, hands fisted. “What did you really do?”
“It doesn’t matter.” Clover gives me a weak smile. “She did it because she wants us all to be close again.” She hesitates and shakes her head. “Why didn’t you just tell us that? We would have made time for you if we understood how important it is to you.”
“I didn’t want you to do it because you felt obligated.” Tears are streaming down my face now, and my throat is so tight it’s hard to talk. “I want you to spend time with me because you want to get to know me. I wanted you to choose to hang out with me, to stay up all night talking to me. I wanted to be worthy of your time.”
“Oh, Honey Bear.” Clover’s voice breaks on my nickname. “We love you. Of course, you’re worthy of our time. I’ve been caught up in my career and Asher, but I was never choosing any of that over you.”
“How did you convince Dad?” Dani stares at me, her jaw tight. Tears and heartfelt confessions are meaningless to her because she’s on the hunt for answers. She thought she knew me, thought I was sweet, agreeable Honey and now she’s not so sure who I am.
I meet her gaze head on. She’s not going to give up until I tell her everything. I know her well enough to be sure of that. “Dad owed me.”
“He owed all of us. That never mattered to him in the past.”
I shrug, pretending a nonchalance I don’t feel because I’m in this now and there’s no way out. “You didn’t make him hundreds of thousands of dollars and not even get a designer bag out of the deal.”
“Are you joking?” Clover’s brow twists in confusion.
“I really, really wish I was.”
I tell them everything. All the trouble I got in with Maya and Dell, how Mom sent me to live with Dad, and what he taught me. What I did with what I’d learned when I got home.
When I finish, I feel hollowed out. I’ve forgotten my terror of the cave and the noises outside, because all my fear now rests on how Clover and Dani are going to react to what I just told them.
They stare at me, looking shell-shocked. “You conned people?” Clover asks.
I nod. “Grown men are shockingly susceptible to a seventeen-year-old girl who pretends to be fascinated by them.”
“That must have been awful.” Clover’s eyes are wide and glassy. “Was it awful?”
“They were just showing themselves to be the assholes Dad told me they were. It was a pleasure to take their money.”
“Why did you stop?” Dani asks. “You obviously enjoyed it. Why did you stop when you and your friends were making so much money back in Roanoke?”
I look down at my hands, my knuckles white from how hard I’ve been squeezing them together. I can’t back out now. They’ll never understand unless I finish the story. Swallowing hard, I look back up. “We hurt someone. She wasn’t much older than us and we thought she had money. Her parents had money. It was just some harmless fun. We’d take her for a couple grand and she’d go off to college and be fine.” I remember her face so clearly. Remember her pain. “But you never know what anyone’s going through. Not really. She was pregnant. Three months. And her parents had kicked her out of the house. She was trying to put together enough money to pay rent and take a few classes at the local community college.”
“What happened?” Clover asks.
I shrug. “Most people, they get conned and they can afford what they lost. If they figure out they’ve been tricked, they’re usually too embarrassed to do anything about it. The ones who try to do anything about it...” I shrug. “Dad taught me to always have an insurance policy. Something I could take to the police, something to put the attention back on the mark. Dad always had at least three ways out. With Casey, I had four. But she wasn’t stupid, and she was desperate, because we took everything from her. When she found me, she was homeless and sleeping in her car. Everything she had left of any value except that car had been stolen. Most of her friends had gone off to college, and she had no one to turn to.” I look up at the rough cave ceiling, remembering the fear in her eyes, but also the determination. “Her ex wanted nothing to do with the baby and she had no support, no skills beyond a high school degree, and no job. Still, she was determined to have that baby and give it a good home.”
“That’s amazingly brave,” Clover says softly. “And maybe a little naïve.”
