“What are those?” Maya said, holding out her hand, and when I gave her the bag her eyes and mouth went wide. “Ash, this is clonazepam.”
“What?”
“Benzos. Serious, prescription-only addictive shit. I was given some of these after you left because I had panic attacks. I hated taking them because they made me so dopey.”
I stared at her. “What do you mean, ‘dopey’?”
She waved a hand in front of her face. “I don’t know, I was tired all the time, like I was living in this soupy brain fog. Drowsy, a bit stupid, just...weird.”
“That’s how I’ve been feeling,” I said quietly.
“From your amnesia...”
I shook my head. “No, it’s been different. Exactly how you described. I didn’t want to tell you, but some mornings...some mornings I can’t get out of bed for hours.”
“Ash, you don’t think Lily...drugged you, do you?”
“Why else would she hide that stuff with stolen money, my watch and your jewelry?”
“But why would she give you benzos?”
“I don’t know,” I said, thinking back to the attack on the beach. What if I’d got it wrong? Could it have been Lily? Had she come here to drug me, try and keep me confused or make sure I never remembered what happened? It didn’t make any sense and I was about to speak when we heard the front door open.
“Ash?” Lily called out, her footsteps coming up the stairs. I looked at my sister, saw that her fury-filled face matched how I felt inside, and I knew I couldn’t stop the imminent confrontation from becoming explosive. Worse, I didn’t want to.
“Oh, hey,” Lily said as she walked into the room, frowning when she saw both of us in here, and her eyes landed on the stuff in my hand. “You found your watch. Where was—”
“Don’t,” I said. “I know you stole it. Why, Lily? Why would you do that?”
Lily’s mouth dropped open. “What are you talking about? I didn’t take anything.”
“Patrick called not long ago,” Maya said, her voice glacial. “You took money from the Cliff’s Head last night.” When Lily tried to respond she raised a hand. “Don’t bother. We found it under your mattress along with Ash’s watch, my earrings and the pills.”
“What earrings? What pills?” Lily said. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Have you been feeding me benzos?” I said, watching her closely, but her frown deepened. “Clonazepam?”
“What? No.” Lily’s voice went up three notches. Her reaction seemed genuine, but what the hell did I know? As far as I was concerned, she and I had only just met.
Maya held up the bag of pills, one eyebrow raised, her voice low. “You sure about that?”
Lily nodded, her head bobbing up and down, eyes darting from me to Maya and back again. “Yes, I’m sure. I’ve never seen those before in my life. I’d never do anything to hurt you, Ash. I didn’t steal anything, I swear, and I certainly didn’t give you any of those pills. You have to believe me.”
“How?” I said. “When we found all this stuff under your bed.”
“I don’t know.” Lily’s voice filled with panic. “Someone else must have...” She stopped midsentence, slowly turning around to face Maya. “You did this.”
Maya put a hand to her chest. “Don’t put this on me.”
“God, I’m an idiot,” Lily said. “I thought you’d changed your mind. I thought you’d accepted me, us. But you haven’t, have you? I was right all along. You can’t stand Ash having anyone else in his life but you. You got me that job so you could get rid of me. You planted all this stuff in my room.”
“Can you hear yourself?” Maya said. “You’re insane.”
Lily grabbed my hand. “I didn’t do this. I’m telling the truth. About everything.”
“Are you sure?” Maya said. “Have you told him about Buffalo? About your conviction?”
“What?” Lily and I both said at the same time, her voice overpowered by the volume and intensity of mine.
“What conviction?” I urged, louder still.
“I wasn’t going to say anything,” Maya said. “Because I didn’t want to hurt you, Ash, and I thought maybe she’d changed, but Lily lied about who she is. Her name wasn’t always Reid. It used to be Hetherington.”
Lily blanched. “I changed it because—”
“You spent time in prison.” Maya put her hands on her hips as Lily opened and closed her mouth a few times. “Lily’s a con artist. She ran a scam with a guy called Dominic Martel. They had quite the thing going, stole thousands of dollars’ worth of expensive cars. It was all over the news.”
“Is it true?” I said, my voice hoarse, gruff.
“It was years ago,” Lily said, pleading with me. “It was a stupid mistake.”
“Did I know about any of this when we were in Brookmount?” I demanded, but she took too long to answer, her silence telling me everything I needed to know. “Why not?”
“Because it didn’t matter—”
“Of course it did—”
“How can you be such a hypocrite?” Lily threw her hands in the air. “You lied to me about your name. You never told me about Celine or Kate. You never mentioned Maya, either, and we still don’t know why, but you have the audacity to call me out on not wanting to tell you something about my past? How dare you.” She took a step toward me. “Can’t you see what’s happening? She’s manipulating you.” When Maya started to protest, Lily cut her off. “She’s manipulating both of us. She lied about the Facebook photo, I’m sure of it now. Think about it. She didn’t even tell you I called. The first time I came here when you were out, she almost convinced me to leave town. She’s never wanted me here—”
“That’s completely unfair,” Maya fired off.
“I agree,” I said. “It was her idea for you to stay at the house. She got you the job at the restaurant.”
“Exactly,” Lily said. “It’s the perfect way to blame everything on me.”
“You’re crazy,” Maya said.
“What if it was her intention to get rid of me all
