Page 89 of Scoring Grey

The icy gaze she has locked on Cal doesn’t waver. She doesn’t care what I have to say. She cares about what he believes. “I asked you a question.”

Crossing his arms, Cal straightens, unfazed by my mother’s menacing glare. “How about you tell us the story about how you helped murder my mother?”

25

CALLUM

“Excuse me… murder? Why the hell would you think that? Did Lucas say that?” Ada tries to play innocent when I see nothing but guilt.

“Are you saying he’d have a reason to tell me that?” I toss back.

Her eyes narrow, and she crosses her arms, steadily examining him from head to toe. “You don’t know shit.” She sighs. “Sit down, and I’ll tell you everything.”

I don’t sit, and she rolls her eyes. “Fine, have it your way,” she says, taking a seat at the foot of Eloise’s bed. “How about we start with why you believe I had anything to do with Virginia’s death? I need to know what you think you know so I can tell you the truth.”

That’s a manipulation, one I’m familiar with after growing up with a narcissist for a father. He constantly asked me what I thought so he could try to reshape my perception to fit his narrative. “No,” I say firmly.

“No?” she questions confoundedly.

“What we know or believe doesn’t change your truth.”

She purses her lips before saying, “I suppose the two of you have no reason but to see me as the villain right now. I’ve kept secrets. I’ve made choices I’m not proud of, but”—she turns to Eloise—“sometimes we let our emotions decide for us, ruling over our better sense.”

I know what she’s doing. She’s playing on her daughter’s emotions, but I leave it alone because I know Eloise sees it, too. She spent years protecting her mother’s secrets, but I know today she’d choose Adler and me over protecting her.

“Let’s hear it, Mom, and don’t even think about leaving anything out. I know more than you think I do,” she challenges, and Ada quirks a brow.

Ada clasps her hands together. “Well, there are so many lovely places to start, but I think I’ll start with murder since apparently I’m being accused of it.” She gives me a sidelong glance. “I didn’t murder your mother. She was my best friend. The two of you exist because of our friendship. We tried to get pregnant at the same time so we could raise our children to be lifelong besties. The plan evolved after we found out we were having a boy and a girl, but it was a dream nonetheless. We never planned on forcing the two of you together. We just hoped…” her voice trails off. “When I found out about Adler, I wanted to call her on the phone and share the news and excitement with her, and it wrecked me that I couldn’t. You guys carried out our shared dream without our interference, after all. It felt like fate, and then it felt like her moving the pieces from beyond the grave.”

Everything she’s saying aligns with the relationship my mother spoke of in her journals and the sentiments Elias echoed before Ada arrived. “Why didn’t you ever bring it up? Over the years, you’ve had many chances to tell your daughter that her son’s other grandmother was your best friend. Why hide that unless you were trying to cover something up?”

“Your mother’s death was suspicious. She died in a hospital from a condition that labor and delivery nurses are trained to spot. Your father never took action against the hospital, and then when I saw he was seeking solace in one of her nurses, a million red flags went up, and I started doing my own investigation.”

Well, we have that in common. I, too, believed it was out of character for my father not to file a malpractice suit against the hospital. It’s why I started thinking the worst of him.

“That’s why your relationship with Keely was short-lived. You were using her to get answers,” Eloise states hastily as pieces start falling into place.

Ada nods in confirmation. “That’s why Lucas set me up. I was getting close to finding out the truth. He and Keely lured us to their house under the guise of a party and spiked our drinks. Elias’s more than mine.” She closes her eyes, and her forehead wrinkles with stress. “We, or rather your father, engaged in after-party activities that Lucas took videos and pictures of as insurance to ensure I’d stay silent.”

Her story sounds plausible. I don’t believe it’s a lie, but I also don’t think Ada Beck was ever scared of my father. She owns the media. Even back then, she could have easily silenced whatever gossip my father sought to propagate.

“If you and my mother shared the bond I believe you did, then we both know a dirty pic and sex video wouldn’t be enough to silence you. So tell me, Ada, what secrets had you writing my father checks?”

Her blue eyes turn gray the same way her daughter’s do when she’s upset. She rolls her lips and focuses her gaze out the window.

“Your secrets almost ended your daughter’s life tonight. Are you really that hell-bent on keeping them?”

“A baby…” she says in a whisper so soft I’m unsure the words were said.

Eloise leans forward, her eyes glassy as she grabs her mother’s hand. “Dash…” she speaks softly. “Dash Westin is dad’s, isn’t he?”

What in the actual fuck? My eyes widen, and I’m at a loss for words. Of all the conspiracies Eloise and I have been working through, Dash Westin being her brother was never one of them. I feel blindsided, and I’m about to ask all the questions until I see the formidable woman who eats billionaires for lunch… break. She doesn’t say the words. She can’t. It hurts too much. Drug-induced infidelity at a party is something she and Elias could get past. Their marriage was strong, and their love was infallible, but something tells me this was one thing she couldn’t get past. She got too close to my father’s secrets, and he set her up. Ada didn’t play a role in my mother’s death. The money was to keep my father silent.

“Elias doesn’t know Dash is his son, does he?”

“No,” she confirms, pulling in a stuttered breath.

“That’s why you paid him a large sum of money the year after I was born,” Eloise concludes. “It was Dash’s birth year, but who’s his mother?”

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