“What? How could you even ask me that?” Kendall jumped up from her seat, hurt in her eyes. “Lexie, really? You’re accusing me of stealing?”
“Sit down,” Kade said, speaking up for the first time. “And have some respect for your sister by telling the truth. If you don’t want me to call the cops, you’ll talk to us.”
“Kade!” Lexie didn’t want him attacking her twin.
“Pussyfooting around isn’t going to solve anything. Kendall, did you take the watch?” he asked her.
Her sister’s shoulders slumped again. “Yes, okay? I overspent on a credit card and—”
“I thought you cut up all your cards,” Lexie interrupted.
“Yeah, well, I got another one,” Kendall said without meeting Lexie’s gaze. “And things got out of control. You won’t give me more than the bare necessities to live. Dad wouldn’t help me out. I was desperate. Jay said you wouldn’t miss it if I took a little something,” Kendall said, shaking as she spoke.
She lowered herself back into her seat, head hung low.
“How did Jay know anything about Kade at all?” Lexie asked.
“He asked a lot of questions about you,” Kendall said to Lexie. “He wanted to get to know me better and was interested in my family. Why is that a problem?” she asked defensively.
“When?” Kade asked. “When did he start asking questions?”
Kendall met his gaze. “After your picture showed up on Page Six with Lexie.”
“Fuck,” Kade muttered.
“What?” Kendall asked.
Lexie glanced at him, waiting for him to explain.
Kade rubbed his finger over the casing of his watch. “I’m going to assume Julian had someone watching me. Someone who knew about us before the gala. Probably after you spent the night that first time after my accident.” He held up his injured hand. “I’m sure he looked into you,” he said to Lexie. “It’s what I would have done. Hell, it’s what I was doing and how I found out about Julian and Kendall,” Kade muttered. “And Julian probably introduced himself to your sister right after the PI gave him the info.”
“Who is this Julian?” Kendall asked, perplexed and wary.
Lexie slid closer to her sister and put an arm around her shoulder. Because no matter what Kendall had done, she was her twin, and this news was going to hurt. “Julian is Jay’s real name. And Julian is suing Kade for a piece of his company. I’m sorry, honey, but he was using you to get to Kade through me.”
Kendall met her gaze, identical watery blue eyes staring back at her. “He used me? He set me up from the beginning?”
Lexie nodded.
“What happened after he saw the Page Six picture?” Kade asked.
“He started talking about how much money Kade must have, and when I said I had financial problems, he told me if I took something from the apartment, a guy like Kade had so much he would never miss it. He suggested it often, and I was desperate enough to do it.” She pulled at her sweats over and over. “I got myself in deep and I kept spending. I hit my limit but the bill was coming in.” She started to cry. “I didn’t mean to steal. Jay said it wouldn’t hurt anyone, and I wanted to believe it.”
Lexie pulled her twin against her, looking at Kade over her sister’s trembling body. “I’m going to kill him,” she muttered.
“Not if I get to him first. Kendall,” Kade said in a gentler voice, “you said you haven’t heard from him since Saturday. What happened Saturday?”
“I gave him the watch to pawn, and he said he’d get me the money. He hasn’t gotten back to me. He always answers right away, and now it’s like he’s disappeared.” She sniffed and pulled away. “I feel so stupid.”
“Don’t. He set you up and used you. There’s no way you could have known.”
“I’ll find Julian and take care of things,” Kade said, rising from his seat.
“Wait. I stole from you,” Kendall said, her voice rising, as if realizing what she’d done for the first time. “Oh my God. Are you going to call the police?” She jumped up in a panic.
Lexie rose to her feet too. “Kade said he wouldn’t,” she told her sister, looking to him for reassurance.
He nodded, indicating he planned to keep his promise, and she breathed a long sigh of relief. He paused, as if waiting for her to say something more, but she was spent, lost, and hurting. And Kendall was silently sobbing in relief, hanging on to Lexie with everything she had.