Page 35 of Nothing Stays in Vegas

“Every day is Dette’s special day! You did this on purpose. You! They asked you to pick any other weekend and you refused. Why? Why couldn’t you have done this next weekend, next month or next year? What’s the rush? You don’t even love this guy.”

“Go to hell, Lara. You are so naïve.”

Naïve about what? Then it came to her. “Oh, my God…you’re pregnant.”

“Shut up. Do you really think I’d be so stupid to lose my figure before I was married?”

Lara squinted, shaking her head. “Then what?”

“The money! I don’t get the cash until I’m married.”

“That’s it? Money?” She was stunned, confused. “I didn’t realize our trusts were structured like that.”

“Of course you would have no idea. Our trusts aren’t. My trust is structured like that. Mom and Dad didn’t think I was responsible enough to manage it on my own. I’ve been on an allowance, which is completely unsatisfactory. All of my resources are depleted. Until I marry ‘a suitable man’—approved by our parents, of course—who can assist me with my fortune, I can’t touch the fund!”

“You’re marrying Adam to get the money?” Lara gasped, disgusted.

“Of course I am. But it’s not like he’s some kind of a victim here. You know about his political ambitions. He’s positioning for a run at Congress. The Sinclair connection is going to get him there. And that is why he is marrying me.”

“I’m sorry, Dette. That is just about the most pathetic excuse for fucking up your life I’ve ever heard. And it does nothing to justify why you wouldn’t let me tell Cal the truth.”

“I was sick and tired of watching you get everything without trying. You live in a shack and pay your own bills, so Mom and Dad throw money at you, which you don’t even take. You don’t even know how much you have! You fall in love with some guy over email and he turns out to be Mr. Suitable, a self-made millionaire with half a dozen companies under his belt and he loves you back. I fall in love and the man I want more than anything isn’t suitable in the least. He barely graduated from high school and drives a van for a living! So yes, I’m jealous!”

Lara stopped. “You think you’re in love with Dale? Cal has all that?”

Dette glared at her. “Of course I’m in love with him. He dumped me a month ago because he couldn’t stand that I was marrying someone else. I tried to make him understand that he was the one I loved, and this way we would have the money, but he was so bullheaded. He said he wouldn’t share me and he didn’t care if we had two dimes to rub together, which was absurd, and then he left. That’s why I went to Vegas. But after three days, Dale couldn’t stay away. So I’ll have the money and, quietly, I’ll have Dale too.”

Lara stared at her sister for a long minute. Finally she said the words she knew Dette wouldn’t understand. “Dale deserves better than you.”

Dette looked like she’d been slapped.

“Why does that surprise you? Go ahead and marry Adam. Neither of you care about anything but yourself. You deserve each other. I hope Dale finds a woman who loves him more than her bank account.”

Lara turned to leave. She needed to pack. Call the airport. Who knew, maybe she’d get a ride from Dale. She was done with this whole ridiculous mess. Reaching for the doorknob, her head snapped back with a force she hadn’t experienced in years.

Dette’s cold voice hissed into her ear. “You think you’re just going to walk out? Take the high road? Well how about this? I knew it was Cal before I asked you for help. I knew it was your boyfriend.”

Stuffing his jeans into the open bag on his bed, Cal’s head snapped up at the primal scream echoing through the walls. “What the hell was that?”

Bitty, leaning against the jamb of the door, stared wide-eyed at him, a shocked smile on her red painted lips. “That’s them.”

“Lara and Dette?”

She nodded, ill-placed amusement glinting in her eyes. “Yeah, everything stayed pretty calm until Adam came out. Then it sort of escalated. I tried to go in, someone threw a vase at me—Dette probably

, she has no regard for her parents’ things. Adam won’t help. Can you please try to talk some sense into Lara? She’ll listen to you.”

“Bitty—” His protest was cut short by another shrill scream.

Bitty lunged into the room and grabbed his sleeve. “Just come!”

She half dragged him downstairs, the sounds of fighting growing with every step until they arrived outside the chart room.

The sound of bodies crashing against the doors had him pulling his lips back over his teeth. “Not just let-them-work-it-out-on-their-own sister stuff this time?”

“No way.”

He placed his hands against the wood paneled door. Pulling them apart, he paused at the threshold. “Holy shit.”

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