Page 105 of Sinful Palace

I took a deep breath. “I wanted to ask you about October 20, 2013.”

She cocked her head to one side, lips turning up in a faint smile. She was clearly trying to look casual and unruffled with just a dab of confusion, but I could tell from the sudden coldness in her eyes that she knew exactly what I was talking about.

“Is that date supposed to have some sort of significance?” she asked.

“It does to me now that I’ve finally remembered it.”

Her smile wavered for a second, but she regained her composure quickly. “What did you remember?” she asked.

“I remembered that it was the last time I ever rode the Vespa I got for my sixteenth birthday,” I said, keeping my eyes fixed on hers. “I took it out and crashed it that night. Except it wasn’t a normal crash. I hit someone. It was Chloe Thorne. I don’t remember much after that, because I hit my head pretty hard, but I remember calling you. I asked you to help.”

“Oh, no...” Mom groaned and put her head in her hands, abandoning all pretense of innocence. “Please don’t ask me about this right now. I have enough on my plate.”

“Too bad. I’m asking,” I said stiffly. “What happened that night? What did you do after I called you?”

“Please, Willow. This is not the right time for this conversation.”

“Tell me what happened. I need to know.”

She pinched the bridge of her nose, refusing to meet my eyes.

“Mom?” I said, leaning forward.

She let out a heavy sigh and held up a hand. “All right, fine. I’ll tell you,” she said. “You called me that night. You were hysterical. Slurring your words. At first I thought you were drunk.”

“What did I say?”

“You said you ran over Chloe, and you thought she was dead. You wanted my help.”

“So you helped?”

She nodded slowly. “I was only the Governor back then, but I still had connections. I knew all the fixers. I called the best ones and asked them to deal with it. They got a team out there within ten minutes.”

“What did they do?”

“They picked you up and removed all traces of evidence that you were there.”

“But not Chloe.”

“No. Only you.”

I narrowed my eyes. “If she received medical attention just a few hours earlier than when she was finally found by a random passerby, she might’ve actually been okay. You know that, right?”

Mom frowned. “Yes, I know that now, but at the time, the fixers thought she was dead. One of them checked for a pulse and couldn’t find one.”

“So they just left her there?”

“They didn’t have a choice. They were helping me. Not her. If they brought her in with you, dead or otherwise, we’d have to tell the truth about what happened. I couldn’t have that.”

“Why not?”

“You know exactly why.”

“No, I don’t.”

She rubbed her forehead again, brows drawn. “It would’ve ruined everything for us,” she said. “Do you think my career would’ve progressed any further if everyone found out that I had a daughter who mowed down her classmate in the street? Do you think I’d be sitting in the White House right now?”

“It was an accident!”

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