Page 39 of Deadly Little Scandals

“No,” J.D. repeated. “You didn’t hit your head?”

“Stay away from me.” Lily took a step back. Her entire body was shaking. “Don’t talk to me.Don’t touch me.”

I crossed in front of her, between them. I had about a million questions, but right now, it didn’t matter that the woman was Ana—or that Campbell and I had been looking for her. It mattered that Lily was bleeding, figuratively and literally.

It mattered that she was shattered.

“Sawyer.” J.D. turned his attention to me. “What happened?”

I hated him for doing this to her, the way I hadn’t ever quite been able to hate him for myself.

Behind me, Lily gripped my arm. At first, I thought she was using me as a shield.

And then she went down.

Lily regained consciousness just as we made it out of the woods. She didn’t say anything—not when the other White Gloves mobbed us, not when Campbell and Sadie-Grace got close enough to ask us what was going on, not when Ana emerged from the forest, too, and the whispers started.

Lily was silent on the way to the car.

Silent on the way to the hospital.

I stayed with her, even though that meant staying with J.D. Campbell texted that she and Sadie-Grace were going to follow. I called Lillian. What else was I supposed to do? In the ER, the doctors sent Lily for a CT scan, just as Campbell and Sadie-Grace arrived.

“Is Lily okay?” Campbell asked, and then, because she couldn’t be caught caring too much, she continued, “Inconveniencing others with an unruly head injury is awfully impolite for Miss Manners.”

“Lily isn’t okay,” I said. Campbell did me the favor of not asking if I was.

“Is Lily…dead?” Sadie-Grace asked, horrified.

“She’s getting a CT scan,” I clarified.

A second or two passed before the next question came, and in that time, it took everything I had not to look back at Uncle J.D., who was filling out forms.

“What happened?” Campbell said. “Who was that woman?”

I realized then that I’d never shown her the pictures I had of Ana. Now that Lily was out of earshot, now that the emergency was under control and there was nothing more I could do for her, the enormity and ridiculousness of the situation hit me.

“That,” I told Campbell, “was Ana Gutierrez.”

“I’m not one to throw stones, but…”

Campbell’s disclaimer was a clear and direct indication that stone throwing was imminent.

Since this situation was more messed up than she even knew, I saved her the trouble. “But Ana seems to have a type?”

“Tall men with thick hair and side parts?” Sadie-Grace suggested guilelessly.

Married men,I thought, but I didn’t say it, and neither did Campbell.

“We should talk to her,” Campbell told me. “Ask her if she had the baby.”

Even thinking about talking to my uncle’s mistress made me feel sick and disloyal to Lily. This was such a mess.

I reached for my phone. I looked down the screen—no new texts, no missed calls.Nothing from Nick.It was easier, for once, to think about him than it was to think about anything else. My whole life felt like it was imploding, but the fact that I’d ditched him before he’d walked out on me was simple.

Of course he hadn’t been waiting on me when I got back.I could text him. To apologize.

“Sawyer?” Campbell prompted. “Don’t you want to talk to Ana?”