Page 135 of Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies

“Give me a break,” I say. “We all have one of those.”

“You wanted him out of your life.”

“On paper. Not in reality.”

“I know you’re not that naive. Connor wasn’t going to just disappear because you wrote him out of your book series.”

“And what about the blackmail?” Emily says. “That’s a good motive.”

“Are you saying that Eleanor blackmailed Connor and then tried to kill him, because that’s nonsense,” Harper says.

“No, no, not that blackmail,” Emily says. “The one Connor did with Eleanor. With her book deal.”

Ah, shit. When did I tell her that?

Oh, right. Yesterday. The lemon spritzes that came every ten to twelve minutes.173, 174

Oliver and Harper look at me with questions in their eyes.

I’ve never told either of them about the blackmail or even that I was paying Connor at all. I never showed Harper my contracts—I just told her that the lawyers took care of it, and she handled the money once it was received. And Oliver, well, Oliver hated Connor on sight. Telling him anything about it would’ve made it worse.

So I kept my secret.

But secrets don’t keep; they rot until their stench makes them impossible to ignore.

“Connor’s blackmailing you?” Harper says.

“I… Yes. I have to pay him twenty percent of my royalties.”

“Since when?”

“Since the beginning. I mean, it was ten percent then. But you get the idea.”

“How did I not know this?”

I shake my head in shame. “I didn’t want anyone to know.”175

I’m sorry, I mouth at Harper and Oliver, but who knows if it will get through.

“How does Emily know about it?” Oliver asks.

“She told us yesterday,” Emily says. “Didn’t she, Guy?”

“It wasn’t my fault,” I say. “I was under the influence of too many spritzes.”

“Is that going to be your defense for the murder, too?” Isabella asks.

Oliver raises his hand to cut off whatever stupid thing I was going to say. “What happens if Connor dies? Do you have to keep paying?”

“I’m not sure. Maybe it goes to his estate?”

I look at Allison. Is she Connor’s heir? I’ve never asked Connor if has a will, but if he does, I assume that he wrote her out of it when they got divorced.

But then again, Connor’s never been someone who’s up on his paperwork.

Speaking of Connor… he isn’t saying anything. And a silent Connor is a Connor you need to keep your eyes on.

“Maybe for the old royalties, but not on a new deal, right?” Emily asks. “If you sell another book series, then it will be clean.”

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