Page 74 of Deadly Little Scandals

“Your sister had six kids,” I told Lillian. “Shehassix kids. Did you know that?”

Did any of them go hungry so that their siblings could eat?

“I did what I could for Ellen’s family, Sawyer. I wish to God she’d let me do more.”

“There must have been a way,” I argued.

“My sister found a way.” Lillian’s voice was flat now. Her face had lost its perfunctory, performative smile. “There was some violence in Two Arrows, years back. It left some gaps in the local…ecosystem.”

Because that wasn’t vague or anything.

“Ellie—Ellen, she filled the gaps. Anything bought or sold in that town, she has a hand in it, and she gets a piece of it.”

Anything,I thought.Like drugs. Or sex.I thought of Beth again.Or babies…

“Believe me when I say you do not want to get mixed up in my sister’s business,” Lillian told me. “Now, this is neither the time nor the place…” She trailed off. I was getting ready to remind her that she was the one who’d cornered me when I realized why she’d trailed off.

Ana Sofía Gutierrez had arrived.

Victoria’s father had told me that he knew why tonight’s party was being thrown. Did that mean that he knew Victoria was looking for the baby, or that he knew Ana was going to be here?

More importantly, how did he intend to respond?

Beside me, it took my grandmother a moment to recover her poise but not more than that. “At least she doesn’t havethat manwith her.”

There was little question in my mind thatthat manwas meant to be translated tothat bastard. All things considered, it was a good thing that, this time, J.D. had decided to stay away.

Across the open floor plan, Victoria began weaving her way through the crowd to greet Ana. A petite woman with dark hair and a figure only partially camouflaged by her A-line dress joined them at the bottom of the stairs. I recognized her from the Arcadia fund-raiser.

That’s Victoria’s mother. And that’s Ana, talking to Victoria and Victoria’s mother.

I didn’t realize I was walking toward them until I felt Lillian’s fingers digging into my arms.

“Don’t you dare, Sawyer Ann,” she said, her for-show smile back in place. “I put in an appearance tonight because your aunt asked me to. Public appearances matter. The situation needed smoothing over. You going over there?”

“Not smooth?” I suggested. “Or discreet?”

I restrained myself from pointing out that Lillian attending a Gutierrez party hardly seemed like enough of a statement to quell gossip about the affair.

“I was told that certain parties would not be in attendance,” my grandmother continued. She refused to give a single outward sign that she’d taken any note of Ana or the way that Victoria and her mother were leading her through the crowd.

If Victoria can get her father to talk to Ana, Ana might talk to us.I watched Victoria’s mother place a kiss on her husband’s cheek and pull him from someone who might have been a business contact, an acquaintance, or a friend.

“Far be it from me to suggest that you’re staring,” Lillian told me. “But…”

But Victor Gutierrez just saw Ana. She said something to him. He’s staring at her now. He’s taking a step forward. He’s smiling.

This was going surprisingly well—right up until the moment when Victoria’s eighty-something-year-old father placed a loving hand on Ana’s cheek and keeled over.

Dead.

awyer? Sadie-Grace? Are you guys out there? Can anyone hear me?”

“Oh my God…Campbell,over here!”

“Sawyer?”

“Watch out for the hole.”