“Christ, when I told you to look like a grieving widow, I didn’t expect you to wear a fucking black hat to match the dress,” Callum said.
“Too much?”
“Way too fucking much. If you walk in like that, they’re going to peg you for a gold digger. And let your hair down. You look too stiff with it pinned up. You should look nicely rumpled.”
I did as he said, removing the hat and then taking my hair out of the twist I had it in. Running my fingers through my hair, I knew that it still looked nice, but not perfect.
“Better?”
“Perfect. Now, when you go in there, remember, they’re going to try and get you to slip up. They want you to reveal something they can latch onto. Honestly, I’d like to take over as much as possible and lead them in the right direction, but that could make it look like you’re trying to hide something. I think it’s best if you speak.”
I nodded and took a deep breath. “I couldn’t do this without you.”
Callum was ten years older than me, and if we were different people, I would try to make something of our relationship, but we were in this for the same exact reason. Money. It was what drove us all these years, and without him, I never would have made it this far. He was my rock when I felt like giving up. He stood beside me at my mother’s funeral and held my hand, and when I told him I was ready to put our plan in motion, he did everything he could to get me on the right path. He was like my band manager. He took care of all the background stuff, and I was the face of the band. We were so close to our end goal, and that was all that mattered.
“You haven’t been in touch much lately.”
“I’ve been busy.”
He pulled on my hand, forcing me to look at him. “In the country? What exactly have you been doing?”
I didn’t know what to say, so I stayed silent.
“Fuck, you went and found a man didn’t you?”
“It’s nothing serious,” I lied. It was very serious to me. I was falling for Andrew big time, and I knew that was a problem, because it was never supposed to be like that. He was a means to an end, but somewhere along the way, he became so much more.
“If it’s nothing serious, then why have you been ignoring me? We can’t afford to just sit back and wait for things to happen. We have to tackle this head on and get our money.”
I knew he was right. I wasn’t the only one that had skin in the game here. I needed to take into account all he had sacrificed for me.
“I know, and I’m sorry. It won’t happen again. It just…it felt good to not pretend.”
He sighed and wrapped an arm around my shoulder, pulling me closer. “I know that, but we’re so close to the finish line. We need this.”
“I know.” I knew what was at stake better than anyone. I wasn’t about to give up now. “I swear, when I leave here in a few days, I’ll stay in touch.”
“You’re going back?” he asked incredulously.
“I can’t stay at the estate. His kids are terrible.”
“Remember what I told you. You need Oscar on your side. He’s going to be the key in all this.”
“Maybe,” I said, staring out the window. “Don’t you feel bad though?”
“For what?”
“For Oscar. He’s the only good person in any of this. I feel bad taking all this from him.”
“He’ll make his own way in the world. He never wanted his dad’s money anyway.”
“Maybe not, but how does this make us any better than Arlen?”
“How does any of this make us better? Lorelei, we both knew what we were doing, the people we would hurt. We agreed there was no going back.”
I sighed and leaned against the window for the rest of the drive. I didn’t want to be this person anymore. I was tired of lying. I just wanted to go back to my house and live my own life.
“What are you going to do when all this is over?” he asked.
“You know what I’m going to do.”
“I know, but after that?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I just want peace.”
He was silent for a minute. “Have you heard from your dad lately?”
I shook my head. Callum still thought that my dad was wandering around drunk. For some reason, he had hopes that we would reconnect. “He’s probably drunk in an alley somewhere.”
“You know, he wasn’t always like that. I’m not making excuses for how he handled everything, but he was just as much a victim of circumstance.”
We’d had this discussion many times before. Callum didn’t live my life though. He witnessed it and he helped in any way he could, but that wasn’t the same as experiencing what I did.
“It’s been too many years.”
“Lorelei, you’re dad’s not going to live forever.”
My gaze snapped to his and I scowled. “He hasn’t exactly reached out over the years. A cheap apology on a note doesn’t exactly make me think that he should be forgiven for what he did.”
He sighed heavily. “He’s still your father…”
My drunk, abusive father. Even if he was alive, I wouldn’t speak to him.
“Why are you pushing this so hard?”
He brushed some lint off his suit and stared at the floor of the car. For a minute, I thought he wasn’t going to answer me. But then he looked up with a sad expression.
“I’ve heard some rumors that your
