was talking, his face going red with obvious anger. “That looks pretty dangerous to me. You know, I can’t remember ever seeing Rene and Cricket with the rest of the family at dinner. Or at church. They don’t sit together. Rene usually sits somewhere close to my brother and Lisa. Or Quaid’s family. He never sits with his own. I know they’re mostly spread out now, but he doesn’t spend time with the ones who live close, either. I never thought about how isolated he is, even in his own family.”
Sylvie wondered if any of them had come to visit him in the hospital when he’d nearly died. She couldn’t remember seeing any of these people there. Did they only care about him when they needed money?
“They get together once a year, right? That’s why I’m trying to find vegan options,” Sera said with a frown. “It’s hard to find that stuff around here.”
“Get a menu together and I’ll drive with you to New Orleans. We should be able to get everything there. And yes, apparently they get together for Roberta’s birthday and board meetings,” Sylvie replied. “That’s about it from what I can tell. This year the board meeting is scheduled the week after the celebration. From what Rene’s said, it’s going to be one long weekend of trying to win votes. Do you honestly think being married is going to change his aunt’s mind? Can it be that simple?”
“Just being married wouldn’t do it,” a husky voice said.
She needed to be better at subterfuge than she was. Sylvie turned and realized she and Sera likely hadn’t been alone for the last few minutes. Ashley Layton was standing a few feet away, leaning against the railing, a martini glass in her hand. Ashley was one of Rene’s cousins who was a few years younger. She’d grown up in Papillon but left for Los Angeles as soon as she’d finished high school. Sylvie had heard Ashley had come home a few years back. She was living with her mother in New Orleans. Her brother was still in Papillon, working for Rene. Her mother had been one of Rene’s father’s siblings.
Sometimes she thought a handy family tree would be needed to maneuver through the Darois family functions.
“Ashley, I didn’t realize you were standing there,” Sylvie said with a frown. Ashley had never been the friendliest of people. She’d been in high school at the same time as Sylvie and Sera, and Ashley had ruled the school with the iron fist of a true queen bee.
“Of course you didn’t. I didn’t want you to. All the better to listen in.” Ashley had an air of what Sylvie’s mom would call ennui—a world weariness that she cultivated like style. “It’s good to know old cousin Rene is planning on playing hardball.” When Sylvie started to protest, Ashley waved her off. “No one believes this isn’t anything but a ploy to get Charles off his back. You can say whatever you like, but if Rene had been dating you, we would have known.”
Sera faced off with Ashley. “And how would you know? I assure you Sylvie and Rene have been very private. They were always going to get married. They moved up the date because of Charles’s shenanigans.”
“Shenanigans?” Ashley’s green eyes rolled. “Don’t make this sound like some teenage hijinks. I assure you there’s nothing juvenile about what Charles is doing and what he wants. He wants anything Rene has, and he’ll do whatever he needs to do to get it. Do you know how I know Sylvie and Rene haven’t been dating? Because for the last three months Charles has paid a private investigator to follow Rene around and report on every aspect of his life.”
Sylvie gasped, the invasion of privacy shocking to her. Rene had mentioned something along those lines might happen after the marriage, but the idea that someone had been watching Rene all along was disconcerting. “He did that?”
“Sure. Why wouldn’t he? After all, Rene did it to him,” Ashley said with a shrug. “Rene likes to pretend he’s this saint, but he knows how to play the game. Hell, he invented parts of this game. He learned from his daddy, and now you get to be his next pawn.”
“Pawn?” She knew she should walk away, but it struck her that she might want to at least know what kind of waters she was wading into.
A private detective? Did Rene know Charles had someone following him around? She dismissed the