Page 100 of Sinful Palace

19

Willow

My jaw dropped,and the hairs on the back of my neck rose. I looked over at Logan with wide eyes. “Did she just say what I think she said?”

“Yes. I hate to say I told you so, but…” He pointedly trailed off, cocking his head to one side.

I sighed deeply and rubbed my forehead. “You were right. But how? It doesn’t make sense.”

Chloe suddenly let out another groan. “Willow…. M-m-mother. Quinn,” she said. Her words came out in a slurred whisper, and then her eyelids fluttered shut.

Logan raised his eyebrows. “She’s obviously saying it’s your mother.”

“I know. I just… I don’t understand,” I said. There was a heavy feeling in my stomach, and my heart was racing like mad. “It doesn’t make any sense to me.”

I sank into a chair by Chloe’s bedside and put my head in my hands. The whole world seemed to be tilting on its axis, spinning out of control.

If my mom was actually the secret leader of the Order, then that meant she was responsible for my father’s murder, Chloe’s attempted murder, and most likely President Rutherford’s murder as well, along with any other killings she’d carried out in her reign. She was responsible for my imprisonment with the Thornes, too, and she was probably also elbow-deep in the baby-buying scheme that Logan and I suspected the upper-level Order members of running.

Despite all of that, I knew we’d only seen the tip of the iceberg. Q had reigned over the Order for well over two decades now, and there was no telling how many other sinful schemes she’d plotted and pulled off.

I took a deep breath and looked at Chloe again. “Chloe, how did you find out it was my mother?” I asked. “Are you absolutely sure it’s her?”

She didn’t respond. Didn’t even open her eyes.

Logan’s brows gathered into a frown. “She’s asleep again. I doubt we’ll get anything else out of her today.”

“Dammit,” I muttered. A flush of adrenaline suddenly shot through my veins, and I stood up. “Can you take me to the White House?”

“What?”

“I want to see my mom.”

Logan narrowed his eyes. “Willow, you can’t just storm in there and confront her about this. You know how dangerous she is now. She could literally kill you.”

I put my hands on my hips. “I’m not stupid,” I said, shaking my head. “I’m not going to confront her about being Q.”

“Then what do you want to say to her?”

I nervously licked at my dry lips as my heart squeezed in my chest. “I want to tell her that I finally remembered that night five years ago. I want to see what she has to say about it.”

“Why? You know she’ll just lie to you.”

“I know. That’s why I want to tell her. I want to watch her spin a new story to cover herself.”

Logan’s forehead wrinkled. “Why?”

I sighed and rubbed the back of my neck. “I always thought I was so good at catching her when she lied, but if she’s been Q this whole time, then she must be the best liar on the planet,” I said. “So I want to sit across from her, look into her eyes, and watch her as she lies through her teeth. Otherwise I don’t know if I can fully believe it, even after hearing this stuff from Chloe. It’s just crazy.”

Logan scratched his jaw. “I don’t know if it’s a good idea for you to see her right now.”

I gestured to my neck. “Look, if you don’t trust me not to say something stupid, you can listen to us with the necklace. If you think I’m steering the conversation into dangerous territory, you can text me and tell me to shut the hell up.”

He shook his head. “I still don’t know if I want you anywhere near her. Not alone, anyway.”

“She’s not going to vault over her desk and kill me in the Oval Office,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Besides, you promised me I could start seeing my family more often, and even if she is Q, she’s still a family member, isn’t she?”

“I guess.”

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