Page 64 of The Wicked

“Not the one I have now. I had it detailed four times, and it still smelled weird, so I sold it.”

At least I’d only managed to puke on Charming’s shoes. Go me.

“What about your sister? You said you had a sister, right? Is she a party girl?”

His smile faded. “Gracie. She’s a year older than me. And no, she’s not a party girl. Not anymore.”

“I didn’t mean to pry.”

“You’re not prying. It’s just…difficult.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not really.” He put down his glass. “But I also don’t want there to be any secrets between us. I meant it when I said I want this to work. The issues with Gracie are family business. Private.”

“Nothing goes further than this room, I promise. I know I’m talking about the Baldwins here with you now, but I swear I’m not a gossip. This is a first for me.” I squeezed his hand. “You’ve taken so many of my firsts.”

“Why do you always call them the Baldwins? Why not your family?”

Trust him to pick up on the little things. I’d found a true unicorn: a man who listened. And he was also right—if this was going to work, we had to share our secrets.

“I guess I don’t…I don’t feel like one of them. Until I was nearly ten, I’d only met them a handful of times, and although my dad was a Baldwin, we used to drop that part and just use Mom’s surname. Then my parents died, and I was sent to Oregon, and the Baldwins tried to turn me into someone I wasn’t.”

“Words aren’t adequate, but I’m sorry.”

“So am I.” My eyes began to prickle. “I miss my mom and dad so much, and for years, I couldn’t even talk about them.”

“Too painful?”

“Nobody to listen.”

Charming gathered me into his arms and attacked my defences with another forehead kiss.

“A little late, but I’m here now, Sara not-a-Baldwin.”

“Saralisa. My name is Saralisa Forlani.”

“That’s what you’d prefer me to call you?”

I nodded. “Someday, I want to reclaim my identity. Does that sound dumb?”

“You need to do what feels right, but why someday? Why not now? And why have you stuck around in Baldwin’s Shore for so long? Not that I’m complaining because if you’d skipped town, we’d never have met, but I’m curious.”

“Well, it all happened because my grandpa was a bit of an asshole.” I took a deep breath and told Garrett about the will, about the way Grandpa just had to keep meddling from beyond the grave in a strange quest for immortality. “Basically, he couldn’t stand the idea of us benefitting from the fruits of his labour without making any effort ourselves. Originally, I planned to get some experience—because even a minimum-wage job demands experience these days—with LKB and use it as a springboard into the events industry, and the twins were bearable at first. Then LKB did well, really well, and the conditions of the will meant I had to make a deal with the devils, which of course backfired.” I gave a soft laugh. “Two years ago, I almost quit, right after they left me to fish a turd out of a swimming pool at some brat’s sweet sixteen party, but Parker talked me out of it.”

He’d shown a rare glimmer of humanity that day. Said that if I stood back and let the twins win, let them steal my share of the inheritance, then I’d look back in a decade and wish I’d done things differently. His pep talk had sent me back into battle, and now I wished I hadn’t listened.

“In the Marines, I got shot at on a number of occasions, but it still sounds more fun than working with your cousins.”

“I stayed for the money. I realise how materialistic that makes me seem, but I looked upon it as compensation. Payback for putting up with the Baldwins for so long. If everyone met their targets, then I’d have gotten about two million dollars—a quarter million for each year of Grandpa’s challenge that I endured—and I’d have been lucky to find an entry-level position that paid a fifth of that. Plus I could live rent-free at The Lookout. On paper, it was a straightforward decision, but now I have regrets. So many regrets.”

“In your position, I’d have done the same thing.”

“Isn’t two million bucks back-of-the-couch money for you? Anyhow, it’s over now. Time to move on and find a new job.”

“Is it?”

“There’s no way I’d work with the twins again. Even if they realised they’d made a huge mistake and offered me my old job back tomorrow, I wouldn’t take it. They’d screw me over again, except they’d learn from the past and do it better this time. They’re not entirely stupid, just lazy and arrogant. Oh, and back-stabby, don’t forget that.”

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