Page 110 of Everyone’s a Liar

“Forced by who?”

“Adrian, of course.”

“Why would he do that?”

“Because he was running out of money. He was desperate to get his hands on my bank account.”

She stared at him in confusion, not sure whether to feel sorry for her bitchy cousin or not. “That sounds like something Adrian would do, but why did you agree?”

He glared at the book he held in his hand. As if it personally offended him. “Because your family’s homicidal tendencies aren’t the only thing revealed in this diary.”

Livia licked her dry lips. “My mother knew something about you?” she guessed, then she shook her head. Winston was too young to have a secret before Giselle had died. “No, not you. Your father?”

A strange emotion rippled over his face. “Our father.”

“What?”

“I said … ​our father. You’re my sister. Or more specifically, my half sister.”

“Sister?” Shocked, Livia stumbled back, her breath squeezed painfully from her lungs. “I don’t believe you.”

“You want proof?” Winston waved the diary in her direction. “Your mother writes at nauseating length about her affair with my father and the inevitable consequences.”

“Oh my God.” Livia struggled to make sense of what he was telling her. Something that would be easier if her brain wasn’t buzzing with a combination of adrenaline and pure terror. “My father is Gerald Durand,” she managed to mutter, easily able to imagine her rebellious mother sneaking out to meet with the older, no doubt charming neighbor. She would have been intoxicated by the secrecy, and knowing she was defying her father with someone he couldn’t bully or intimidate. Not when the Durands were as rich and powerful as the Benoits. “That’s why no one would tell me.”

“He denied everything, of course, after your mother revealed she was pregnant. He couldn’t risk an expensive divorce.” Winston shrugged. “And your grandfather wasn’t willing to make an enemy of his wealthy neighbor.”

Livia shuddered. It wasn’t just the thought that Gerald had cheated on his wife, but that he’d seduced a minor and gotten her pregnant without concern for what would happen to her or the baby.

Her father was clearly a selfish asshat.

Thank God she hadn’t been obligated to have a relationship with him.

“So what do you care if the truth comes out now?” Her voice was hoarse, as if she were sick. And she was. But it was a sickness in her soul, not her body. “Both our mothers are dead and I doubt your dad is in any condition to care about local gossip.”

“I care about my inheritance, you bitch,” Winston snapped. “In the past, my dad could deny you are a Durand. Now a simple DNA test would prove the truth.”

Livia sent him a glare of sheer loathing. “You think I want your money?”

“That’s exactly what I think.”

“I don’t.” She held up her hands. “I swear on my mother’s grave I wouldn’t take anything from you or the bastard who seduced a child. Not even if you offered it to me on a silver platter.”

“Easy to say when you’re doing well,” Winston sneered, clearly incapable of conceiving of anyone who wasn’t equally greedy and selfish. “One medical emergency or downturn in the market and you would be at my door demanding a handout.”

Livia bit back her words. There was no use arguing with someone who was obsessed with his wealth.

“So you agreed to marry Celeste to keep the truth from me?” She instead returned the conversation to Winston’s connection to the nightmare she’d endured the past month.

“Yes. I gave Adrian the money he needed to keep the nanny quiet and then he announced that the old woman had died.”

“You knew he hired Larry Sutton?”

“Adrian?” Winston laughed, as if she’d made a joke. “That incompetent coward didn’t do anything but wring his hands and complain when the nanny died and he couldn’t find the diary. I was the one to hire Sutton.”

Livia frowned. “Larry Sutton worked for you?”

Winston nodded. “I assured Adrian I would hire a private investigator to find the diary, but he didn’t know that I had every intention of having Sutton locate the stupid thing and put it directly in my hands. That way I could get rid of my annoying fiancée and any ties to your family for good.”