Chapter 25 Olivier #2
“That’s the first thing I did when Cassie and I arrived.
As soon as she got into the bathroom, I went to check the cameras.
And then I found out that the security code to the service entrance at the back hadn’t changed.
I walked around a little, went to take a shower at the gym, and no one recognized me.
Now, I couldn’t hope that a little wine would be enough in this case.
Cassie wouldn’t die on her own. I wouldn’t be so lucky. ”
Reese doesn’t react. The sisters didn’t just despise each other. The hatred ran deep. The name thing alone… Cassie and her mother wouldn’t even call her by her real name? That was messed up. When Reese had introduced herself at the bar, I was so confused.
My name is not Taylor, she’d said as soon as it was just the two of us.
But Cassie couldn’t pronounce my real name.
At first she called me T. Then she settled on Taylor.
Her mom thought it was cute and that it would help me fit in at school.
A few years later, when she officially adopted me, she changed my full name to Taylor Quinn.
My real name is Thérèse, with the accents. The French way. But Reese is easier.
I sit down next to her and run a hand through her hair. I like the new color, the shorter length. It strikes me all over again, how beautiful she is. “Do you want to hear the rest of it?”
She nods, tilting her head so her cheek rubs against my arm. She always loved to be touched, could never get enough of being in my arms, pressed tight against my body.
I continue. “Before we left, I told Cassie that jet lag would be brutal, especially for someone who’d never experienced it before.
She immediately called her dealer buddy, who got her a bottle of prescription sleeping pills.
And then I had to wait for the moment when it would make sense for me to go out for the night without her.
Before I left, I ordered her room service, with a bottle of wine.
When she wasn’t looking, I crushed a handful of pills and poured them into the bottle.
I just needed her unconscious enough; the amount couldn’t look too suspicious.
“Then I went out with old colleagues from the hotel restaurant who no longer worked there. They’d been surprised to hear from me, but I’d told them I was passing through on the way to visiting my parents.
We hadn’t been close, but I knew they were big drinkers and even bigger partyers.
They wouldn’t notice if I slipped out for some of the night.
I watched Cassie’s Instagram Stories, even texted her that I hoped she was having a good evening.
Then I came back to the hotel and entered through the service entrance.
I went up the staircase and into the hallway with the nonfunctioning cameras.
All she needed was a little push under water to be sure.
Then I’d be gone again, seen at the bar with my ex-colleagues.
I’d come back hours later to discover her body. ”
Reese swallows hard. “But I beat you to it.”
“At first I thought you were an intruder. But when I realized it was you, I couldn’t take the risk anymore. You would have shown up on the cameras. My alibi wasn’t perfect, but it existed. I couldn’t let you take the fall for it.”
She’s silent for a while. When she speaks, her voice sounds hollow. “I couldn’t let you go to Paris without me. And I couldn’t let her get away with this. That’s why I’m here. I did believe you that afternoon, when you told me you wanted to get rid of Cassie. I–I…”
She starts shaking as tears stream down her face. I wrap her in my arms, and to my surprise, she doesn’t resist. There’s so much more I want to say—that I need to say. Time is running out, but I can’t take this moment away from her. So I wait until she’s ready to continue.
“I wanted that, too,” she whispers at last. “That afternoon, it hit me: there was a light at the end of the tunnel, a life without her. I didn’t realize how much I wanted that until you said it out loud.
I could move on from this. I could walk away from her.
And then, maybe, there could be a life with you.
It seemed too good to be true, but the way you said it, it felt possible, too. ”
She looks up and our eyes meet. I want to cry, too. We were so close. So close.
“Something clicked in me,” she continues. “So yes, I did believe you that afternoon. I needed you to be telling the truth.”
I take a deep breath. “I was!”
She shakes her head. “And then Cassie turned up with that engagement ring. It was almost comical. I sat there as she recounted how you’d gotten down on one knee the night before, how much money you’d spent on the diamond.
I thought I was losing my mind. Reality came crashing down: I’d wanted my own sister dead and you had never really meant to do it. ”
“She’s not your sister,” I say meekly. I sound like Cassie, but I can’t let Reese feel like she’s done anything wrong.
She ignores me and continues with the rest of her story.
“Maybe you loved Cassie, maybe you didn’t.
All I knew is that she had a ring on her finger and tickets to Paris and that you were officially getting married in a few days.
It was a wake-up call and a half. She had you, and I didn’t.
But then, after I dropped you two off at the airport, I opened the glove box to get a tissue, and there was my passport. I’d forgotten it was there.”
“I remember you telling me about the trip to Paris you almost took, how Cassie ruined it.”
She nods. “You must think I’m completely mad, turning up here.”
It does complicate things. My plan required her to be at home. After I’d discover Cassie’s body, I’d call her sister, obviously. She’d be able to testify how devastated I was. How much I’d loved Cassie. That it had to have been an accident.
“We’re going to figure this out,” I say, even though I have no idea how.
“I was so angry with you,” Reese says, “or maybe with myself, for believing you. When Cassie turned up with a new phone and clothes, I figured she’d put it on one of her many credit cards.
But then there was the engagement ring, the tickets to Paris, the wedding…
I could only think of one explanation: you’d lied to me about being broke.
The day before the wedding, I found money in a jar at the top of the kitchen cupboards.
A lot of money. It didn’t make sense that you would be using the jar to store it, but how would Cassie have that much cash? It had to be yours.”
I let out a sigh. “I couldn’t bring myself to tell you about the inheritance.
First, because Cassie seemed dead set on having everyone believe that I was rich and spoiling her.
I was afraid to mess with her plans. I was completely at her mercy.
And then, when I realized how bad things were between you two, I couldn’t be the one to tell you.
I knew how much it would hurt you to know she suddenly had all this. ”
A car honks in the distance, startling us both.
“I had no idea who you were anymore,” Reese continues. “One minute you’re talking about killing her, and the next you’re doing this.” She gestures widely around her.
I shake my head. “Cassie and I were not doing anything together.”
Reese snarls. It sounds cruel, coming from her. I’ve never seen her in this light. “You got married.”
“For the papers! You know it was never anything more to me.”
“And to her?”
I look away. “I guess I know now that it was about vengeance. She wanted to get back at her ex, and she saw an opportunity to make you suffer at the same time.”
I’ve never put it so plainly before, but it’s obvious.
I remember the first time Cassie and I met.
You’re French, from France? I thought it was a dumb question.
But no, Cassie was simply delighted she’d found the perfect mark.
Her sister had always thought she had a French family and was dying to go to Paris.
Cassie was going to rub me in her face whether I knew it or not.
“Well, she succeeded,” Reese says, untangling herself from my arms.
“If things had gone my way tonight, Cassie would be gone. But you still don’t believe me, even now that I’ve told you everything.” Though, of course, I haven’t told her about the money yet.
She doesn’t answer. We sit in silence for a long while. Eventually I wrap an arm around her shoulder again and she places her head in the crook of my neck. We fit so perfectly together.
“Do you like Paris?” I whisper in her ear. “Is it what you expected?”
Reese lets out a sad laugh. “It’s a great place for a honeymoon. So romantic.”
“We’ll come back here. Together. We could try to find your dad’s family. I haven’t forgotten about that.” The certainty in my voice surprises me.
She shakes her head, then sits up straight to look into my eyes. “I thought you never wanted to come back here.”
“I don’t want to live here again, no. But with you, I’d visit Paris any day. For you, I could do anything.”
“If I hadn’t walked into your room tonight—”
I cut in. “I’ll find another way.” Everything feels possible when I’m with her. “If that’s what you want.”
“I never get what I want.”
Now was not the time to tell her that she was going to get all of Cassie’s money.
It was better if she didn’t know, so she could act genuinely surprised when it happened.
She had to be one hundred percent innocent; that was the key to all of this.
She’d have an ironclad alibi—being an ocean away—and I’d have no motive.
But what if she screws it up again? I haven’t come so far, gotten so close, to give up now.
“I think you could, this time. Thérèse, please look at me.” Back home, when it was just the two of us, I’d sometimes call her Thérèse, reveling in how her eyes lit up every time I did.
It felt so intimate to call her by her name when no one else did.
Now there’s a softness to her face, like she really wants this to be true.
“Give me another day, okay? I’m going to get you everything you want, and so much more. ”