Page 112 of The Two Last Moments

Starla is still looking down at me with her vicious, predatory smirk. “So you’re remembering. Good for you.”

Mother had certain roles she liked to play to gain people’s trust. Nurse was one of them. She didn’t have a nursing degree, of course, but she’d picked up enough knowledge over the years to fake it, and she had enough falsified credentials and charisma to talk her way into places. Clinics, retirement communities, hospice centers. Anywhere she could find vulnerable, lonely people who might have money to grift.

Mother got a part-time gig at the clinic where Travis was sometimes a patient. She never met him, but she heard the other nurses gossiping about his wealthy, estranged family. A brother in London who was practically a billionaire, he was so loaded. And a mom who Travis hadn’t seen in years.

Starla plays with the clasp on her messenger bag. “Travis should’ve been more careful about sharing his history with a bunch of gossipy nurse’s aides. He was a perfect mark.”

Zander instructed me to get personal information from Travis that we could use. It’s called social engineering. I would get personal details that only Travis would know, and Mother would turn around and contact Travis’s family, pretending to be him. Fake-Travis would beg for money, and his distraught, estranged mom would pay up in the hopes of seeing her son again. A classic con. Given how rich Travis’s brother is, Mother thought the plan could be worth millions.

“I needed you to bat your eyelashes and do that sweet, innocent routine you’re so good at,” Starla says. “Men love it. Worked on Travis, and it worked on his nephew, too.”

“Travis was myfriend,” I spit out. “And I never intended to help you trick him. Or his family. I was always working against you.”

When Zander made his business proposition, his promise ofone last con, I knew better than to believe him. He and Mother had turned me into a cynic. I didn’t see a way out—reporting them to the police was never an option I considered—but I knew I could ruin their plans.

And if I got lucky, they’d somehow mess up and screwthemselvesover in the process. Not sure how I imagined that would happen. But desperation breeds desperate hopes.

I got to know Travis, having no real plan of my own but to ruin theirs. But something happened that I hadn’t expected. I truly liked Travis. We bonded in all the ways he described to me earlier. Clicked, like a long-lost father and daughter. I wanted to help him reunite with his family.

And I was all the more determined not to let Mother or Zander do anything to hurt the Bradleys.

I looked up Nina’s email address, and I contacted her. At first, I just wanted her to know her son was alive, and that he missed her. Then I tried to warn her in case Mother and Zander got in touch with her.

But Mother had been busy, too. She suspected I wasn’t being as compliant as I claimed. She insisted I meet with her.

“You thought you could double-cross me. But you were so far out of your depth, Lark.”

“I did well enough.”

“Only because your brother is a fool when it comes to you. The moment I talked to you, I realized you were never going to deliver what we needed on Travis. You needed to be punished. My mistake was trusting Zander to handle you.”

“You had Zander get me fired from volunteering for the clinic! He convinced my boyfriend to spy on me. He beat me up, left me covered in bruises.”

She leans over me. “If Zander had been smart, he would’ve locked you up while he was at it. And he wouldn’t have given away what else we were doing.”

After Cam and I had our huge fight and I broke up with him, I ran to Travis. He was the only person in the world I could trust. I shared more about my past than I ever had with anyone, though I didn’t tell him everything.

I recall what Travis said earlier.You showed up at my door with all your belongings. Bruises on you and hellfire in your eyes. You were furious, damn near dejected, and you wouldn’t tell me what was really going on. But you kept mentioning my family.

Because I knew, at least in vague terms, what Mother and Zander were planning.

While I was getting close to Travis for all those months, Mother had discovered another path to get her hands on the Bradleys’ money. Going after Nina directly. Mother had been poking around the Bradleys’ affairs, learning all about Nina that she could. She discovered that Nina was sick.

“How did you manage to get the job as Nina’s hospice nurse?” I ask. “I couldn’t figure that out.”

She scoffs. “Never underestimate me. It took me months of learning Nina’s schedule, turning up in the right places where she’d be. Helped that she’s overly friendly andlovesto chat. I was her new bestie. What luck that her new friend turned out to be a nurse, and one experienced with hospice care at that. Nina’s the one who insisted the hospice service hire me. She has the kind of money that they were more than happy to make it all work out. And itdidwork out for me, Lark.” She pats her messenger bag. “Our original con, convincing Nina to send money to Travis, would’ve been a one-time payoff. But as her nurse, I’ve turned Nina into my personal piggy bank. I’ve been bleeding her little by little since I got here. Gathering up her bank passwords, finding the places she stashed money and jewelry around the house. My only problem wasyou.”

I glance around the garage, wondering how long we’ve been here. While my brain has been time-traveling through my memories, it can’t be more than a few minutes in reality. Ryan is still wheezing slightly on the ground, though his sounds are getting ever fainter.

The Bradleys are my family now. The only real one I’ve had since my mom died. This is myhome.

I have to defend it. But how?

My gaze hits on something underneath the workbench. A tool of some kind. Can I reach it?

“I already knew about your emails to Nina,” Starla says. “I saw them on her iPad, and I discreetly blocked your sending address so you couldn’t tell her anything else. I didn’t think you’d be brave enough to come all the way to West Oaks, but then one of your little friends told Zander you were heading out of town.”

“Another spy? But who—”

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