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Sierra swallowed hard as she nodded. “It did. I feel awful. I just…kept thinking of what you must think of me. How much you must hate me.”
“I don’t hate you. I told you that when we were in the cave.”
Sierra snapped her eyes up to Julia, searching them.
“I’ve known since before our trip. It didn’t change anything for me. The only thing I’ve been concerned with has been making sure those pictures never see the light of day. Now, can we put this behind us? Can you promise me you’ll stop this nonsense thinking about how terrible you are so we can focus on stopping your mother?”
Sierra chewed her lower lip again before she flung her arms around Julia again. “Yes. But you may have to remind me sometimes, okay? I’m needy.”
Julia chuckled as she tightened her arms around Sierra and shot Grant a smile. “Yes, I can remind you all the time. But I need you to promise me one more thing?”
Sierra pulled back from her, her features questioning. “What?”
“That when you start feeling bad, you come to one of us and let us remind you of all the reasons you are great instead of drinking or taking some narcotic, okay?”
Sierra wiped at her cheeks again as she nodded. “Yeah, okay, I promise.”
“And,” Grant said as he held her hand, “that you will not confront your mother. We’re working really hard to make sure she pays for what she’s done, but we need your help to do that, okay?”
“I want to help,” Sierra said. “I want to do something. Although, I guess I’ll be in jail for a DUI.”
“I told them I was driving,” Julia said. “No one needs to know I wasn’t outside of us, okay?”
Sierra’s features melted as she stared at Julia. “You did that for me?”
Julia nodded at her. “Yes, of course. You don’t need this, and it wasn’t your fault. If that deer hadn’t been in the road, it never would have happened.”
“Thank you, Julia,” Sierra answered as she squeezed her hand. She flicked her gaze to Grant. “I still want to do something.”
“You can do something by keeping quiet. I know that’s going to be hard, baby. But you need to play along, act like you know none of this.”
Julia nodded at Grant’s words. “He’s right. And we have a plan in place to get those pictures away from Lydia. I have someone coming to work on this.”
Grant snapped his gaze to her. “You got him? Your friend?”
She nodded. “Yes. Alex Stone is coming tomorrow…well, later today. He thinks he can handle it as long as they’ve not been leaked onto social media yet.”
Grant heaved a sigh. “I hope he can do it.”
“Alex Stone? Like the tech guru guy?” Sierra asked, her nose wrinkled.
“Yes,” Julia said with a nod.
“How did you get him to do this?” Sierra’s eyes went wide. “OMG, Julia, were you also engaged to him?”
Julia allowed a chuckle to escape her lips. Sierra seemed to be recovering to her normal self. “No, Sierra. One of my sorority sisters married him.”
“He’s married?” Sierra asked.
“Sort of. Maybe not anymore. It’s complicated. The point is, he’s coming and he’s happy to help. And he’s the best hacker I know. If anyone can do this, he can.”
Sierra tugged her eyebrows together as she nodded. “Okay, yeah. Hopefully, he can.”
“Even if he can’t, if those pictures get out, Sierra, we’ll get through it, okay?”
“Julia’s right,” Grant said with a nod. “You are my daughter. You can recover from this. I don’t want you to, but if it happens, we’ll face it together, okay?”
Sierra bit her lower lip before she nodded. “Okay.”
