Page 100 of Deadly Little Scandals

And Walker was her half-brother.

The light on the front of the boat was bright enough to illuminate Lily, who sat on the bow, her knees pulled to her chest, her arms around her knees. Her back was straight, her chin held at an angle that made her neck look miles long.

Walker stood behind her. “Everything okay?” he called when he saw us.

Not even a little bit.

“We have to tell them,” Campbell said softly beside me. “Don’t we?”

Given the way we’d left things, I didn’t know why Lily had come back. She probably shouldn’t have.And once we tell her the truth…

There would be no recovering from that.

The water surrounding the island was too shallow for Walker and Lily to bring the boat any closer, so we had to wade out to board. Lightning struck in the distance. I mentally counted as I stepped into the lake and began making my way through the water.

I made it to five before I heard the thunder.

“Storm missed us,” Walker commented. “It’s headed the other direction now.”

On the front of the boat, Lily was silent. I wondered what she was thinking. I wondered what, if anything, she knew about what her mother had done.

But mostly, I wondered how in the world I could tell her that Walker was her brother. He was the only boy she’d ever dated. The only one she’d ever loved. Even if she wasn’t sure what she wanted now, even though they’d broken up…

This will destroy her.

I was waist-deep in water now. Campbell was on one side of me, Sadie-Grace on the other. I twisted to look for Victoria and discovered that she was still on the shore. As I watched, she bent and retrieved something from behind the brush. It wasn’t until we’d all made it onto the boat that I realized what Victoria had gone back for.

“Here,” she said, handing a scarlet robe to me and one to Sadie-Grace. The gloves came next. “You’re shivering.”

I wasn’t sure if she was talking to me or Sadie-Grace. The night air was warm, but still, with my clothes soaked through, I could feel goose bumps rising on my flesh.

Lily’s eyes flickered over the lot of us, over the robes and gloves in our hands. “Go ahead,” she told me. “Put them on.”

I did as she said, then met her eyes. “There’s something we have to tell you.” I glanced toward Walker. “Both of you.”

Before I could say more than that, Campbell stepped in front of me, literally coming between us. “How did you know where to find us, anyway?” she asked her brother.

I recognized an attempt to stall when I saw one.

“Victoria texted me,” Walker said.

“No, I didn’t.” Victoria took a few steps toward him, then stopped. She reached into the pocket of her robe. “My phone is gone. It doesn’t get reception out here anyway….”

So who sent the text?

“Hope,” I said suddenly, answering my own question. “Do you think she got off the island?”

“With my phone?” Victoria said. “Sounds about right.” She turned back to Walker. “What exactly did this text say?”

I realized between one breath and the next what she was really asking.How much does Hope know? What did she see—and hear?

“The text just said there was an emergency.” Walker paused. “That it involved Sawyer and Lily’s mama, that you were all trapped on King’s Island, and I shouldn’t call the police.”

That didn’t exactly answer the question of how much Hope knew.

“So he called me,” Lily said. “And I called Lillian.”

“You came,” I said, feeling the weight of what I had to tell her a thousand times more.