It wasn’t her fault her dad was a bastard, after all. Didn’t need to traumatize her. “Or do you truly have nothing better to do than make empty threats to stroke your own pitiful ego.”
Scott’s eyes glittered like beetles’ wings. “Like I said. Not a threat. Just some well-meant advice. From an old friend. No one on this island wants your kind of filth here.”
Coming from Scott, that was actually fairly mild.
“Pretty sure people on this island also don’t want their elected officials taking bribes, but maybe that’s just me.”
“Evidence, Connor.” Scott spread his hands. “You need evidence to back up claims like that—especially coming from someone with your background.”
“And just what do you find so objectionable about his background?”
Scott and I both turned in surprise at Eleanor’s clipped tones. She raised an eyebrow at Scott inquiringly, and I wondered how long she’d been standing there listening to us.
“Oh, Eleanor. Hello. I didn’t, uh, see you there.” Scott said hastily, his eyes darting back and forth between the two of us.
He had to know that she was working with Tom, too, and I was sure he had no more desire to be polite to her than he did with me. Unfortunately for him, her social standing meant he didn’t have a choice in the matter.
“I could hardly fail to notice you,” Eleanor replied. “The odor of corruption is so distinct, wouldn’t you say?”
Scott’s eyes narrowed. “I’d be careful of what you’re suggesting, Eleanor. It’s all very well to take up an interest in turtles, but you want to be careful who you make enemies of.”
Eleanor laughed. On anyone else, I would have called it a snort. “Mr. Nash, I’m too old to be cowed by the likes of you. Take your threats to someone who finds them interesting.”
She didn’t say anything else—just watched Scott as his face grew more and more apoplectic. With a final glare, he turned on his heel and stalked after his daughter. Eleanor’s eyes narrowed as she watched his retreating figure.
“That is a singularly unpleasant young man,” she said crisply. “He deserves what’s coming to him.”
“What’s coming to him?” I asked in spite of myself.
“I don’t know yet. But assuming there’s any justice in the world, his misdeeds will catch up to him.”
I laughed bitterly. “That’s a pretty big assumption.”
Eleanor turned her cool gaze on me. “Would you prefer to consider life a meaningless exercise in the absurd? Well, you’re more than welcome to. But I am free to believe what I choose as well.”
I stared at her for a long moment. “I don’t get you.”
“I beg your pardon.”
“You. This.” I waved my hand in an aggrieved circle. “Your whole late-in-life redemption arc, or whatever this is. What happened? Did you hit your head or something?”
“Charming as ever,” Eleanor said drily. “Lovely as this conversation is, I really must be going.” She began walking to the front door.
“Wait!” I called, already half regretting it. I hated feeling like a supplicant. But I had to know. Eleanor turned and I forced myself to ask the question that had been gnawing at me for weeks. “Why didn’t you tell me about helping with Mom’s medical bills?”
Eleanor frowned. “Why should I have told you? You were a child.”
“Deacon knew. My dad knew,” I pointed out. “Why couldn’t anyone else? Why is everything with you such a manipulative secret?”
Why was everything on this whole island such a secret, was what I really wanted to know. Why did everyone think they needed to lie and hide everything all the time? But I didn’t think anyone, least of all Eleanor, could answer that.
Eleanor pressed her lips into a thin line, and when she spoke, she sounded resigned.
“Because it had to be.” Something seemed to leave her. It was hard to say what, exactly, other than some kind of animating force. She looked smaller as she answered. “Because your grandfather didn’t want to be seen helping, after he’d disowned her so publicly. If I hadn’t pushed, we wouldn’t have helped at all.”
“Seriously?” I couldn’t keep the disbelief out of my voice—not that I was really trying. “You and he were joined at the hip. I never saw you so much as lift a finger without his approval.”
“And that doesn’t suggest to you why it might have been difficult for me, if I wanted to do something he didn’t approve of?” Eleanor snapped, her eyes flashing. “Your grandfather would have had me never speak to your mother again, after she married your father. It