something more sinister?
Lily’s search for Graden was less successful. He appeared in only three photographs, always fading into the background, expressionless. The ex-con apparently preferred the shadows. What did else that say about him?
She set those pictures aside for Yancy. He hadn’t been specific about what he needed, and she was certainly no expert in gathering evidence.
She quickly searched the other pictures. There she was on the landing with Clive and Stephen, but the smile she’d shown to the guests at her engagement party was make-believe. Only in the three photos with Jack did her true self shine through. With him, she was open and vulnerable, her eyes shining with such an unmistakable affection a perfect stranger seeing the photo might describe it as love.
It couldn’t possibly be. But there was the proof in an eight by ten glossy. And Jack was looking at her in the same way.
That shining look was missing between her and her fiancé. Her smile was fake, his was polished. Her eyes were flat, his distant, as if his mind were a million miles away.
But wait. There in the conservatory was a great shot of Stephen, his face lit with excitement and pure wonder. It was the shot where he stood at the front of the conservatory and gazed across the crowd at Lily, standing at the back.
She picked up the photo to study it closer. The lighting in the room and the angle of the camera put Lily in clear focus. But just beyond her and to the right in slight shadow stood Cee Cee, gorgeous in blue velvet.
Even worse, Stephen’s electric gaze was not on Lily. It was angled to the right where Cee Cee stood.
Sick at her stomach, she unfolded the tissue of dark hair. In searching for evidence against Graden and Clive, she’d uncovered something unthinkable about Stephen.
Suddenly her door flung open. Lily jumped as if Satan had come calling.
“I didn’t mean to startle you.” It was Toni. Her nails were a shining and vivid red, her hair was freshly styled, and she was dressed in a black designer suit. The distraught, disheveled woman of the last few days had been replaced by a supermodel, who was every inch the matriarch of an iconic family.
“Toni, I…”
“I don’t have much time, and this is not a social call. I’m probably crazy to be here.” Though Toni appeared to be ready to meet the press when she stepped off the plane, there was something haunting about her eyes, a deeply felt emotion she was keeping under tight control.
“Won’t you sit down?” Lily nodded toward the wing chair beside her desk.
Toni glanced around the room, lingering over the second-floor windows that made it impossible for anybody to see them, then sank into the chair.
“That’s better.” She dug an old-fashioned key out of her purse and passed it to Lily. “It’s to the second floor east wing. I want you to have it.”
“Why?”
“Because Wyler is there, and he’s asking for you. He’s been there all this time.”
Lily felt as if a bomb had detonated. The aftershock left her numb and speechless. The lie that had been perpetrated on her and the entire world was too much for her to absorb, especially on top of events that had already tipped her off the side of the earth.
“I don’t understand…any of this.”
“You wouldn’t. You’re normal. What Clive did to my husband would only make sense to an Allistair.”
Clive again. What kind of man was hiding behind that gentleman’s mask?
“I have so many questions I don’t even know where to start,” Lily said.
“Let me just tell as much as I can in the time I have. Graden will be back soon to take me to the airport. Clive and Stephen must never know I was here. Do you understand?”
Lily’s terror made it hard to breathe. Still, she didn’t dare take away a second to explain what she knew to a woman who might have to flee at any moment.
“I understand completely,” she said.
“Good, then. I met Wyler in New York. He’d left the family business. At first I thought he was just another wealthy playboy living high on family money. But he wasn’t narcissistic or opportunistic like the others. He was sweet, almost shy, and incredibly handsome.”
“Like Stephen.”
“Yes, Stephen looks very much like his dad, but that’s where the resemblance ends. Anyway, we had a whirlwind courtship followed by a wonderful marriage that lasted five glorious years…until Clive decided it was time for Wyler to return to the