“Maybe they didn’t want anyone to know? That would explain why Andreas went through and cut her out of all his online albums. Just in case.”
He cocked his head to the side. “Why would they do that, though?”
I frowned. “Because… what if my sister is the one who paid him to stalk me around and try to get photos of me looking bad? She wouldn’t want people to suspect it was her, so of course she’d pretend they don’t know each other.”
“Why would she do that?”
I chewed my bottom lip as I mulled it over for a minute. “Um… well, she’s been acting weirdly, and with some of the stuff she’s been doing, it’s almost as if she’s trying to steal my life and be the only ‘good’ daughter in the family. Like she wants me to either look bad or disappear from the spotlight entirely,” I said. “So what if she actually knew Andreas from a while back, and she ended up asking him to help her take me down? She has money now that she’s back here. She could easily pay him.”
“But she didn’t even know who she really was on orientation day. Back then, she thought she was still DeeDee, because she hadn’t had all the flashbacks yet,” Kaden said, shaking his head. “And if this was some big plan that she concocted to take you down and become the golden child of your family, she would’ve had to know her true identity before she started working here.”
My shoulders slumped. “Oh. Yeah, you’re right.”
I sighed. I’d been so sure that I was onto something. After all, the messed-up nails on that girl’s hand looked exactly like Allegra’s, and there were just so many coincidental links between her and Andreas.
In a last-ditch effort to figure out once and for all whether I was right or wrong, I hurriedly did some more stalking on Andreas’ Facebook account. Most guys didn’t know this, but girls were like the freaking NSA when it came to stalking people online. We knew all the tricks.
According to the album upload date, the date of the pirate costume party was July 14th, 2014. I quickly scrolled back through Andreas’ Facebook timeline until I reached July 2014, and then I slowed down and looked at every single post and activity link that was available.
“A-ha!” I said, finding what I was looking for.
“What is it?” Kaden asked.
“I’ll tell you in a minute,” I said, clicking on the link I’d just found.
It was an activity post saying ‘Andreas Whittier attended Chelsea Dupree’s Pirate Birthday’. I clicked into the event page, which still existed after all these years, and then I scrolled through the list of invitees.
“Look! I was right!” I finally said, triumphantly pointing to one name. “Look who was on the guest list along with Andreas!”
Kaden leaned forward and frowned. “Holy shit. DeeDee Brown. So they did know each other before they came to the Mirabella.”
I tried clicking on her profile, but it wasn’t possible. The account had been deactivated. That didn’t matter, though. We still had enough proof to prove a direct link between Andreas and my sister, even though they’d pretended not to know each other before now.
I turned back to Kaden.
“So it’s possible Allegra knew who she was before she came back. She already figured out that she was a Cadwell. She must’ve remembered a while ago,” I said. “Long before she came here and had those supposed flashbacks. And she also knew Andreas, and they planned to come here together, I guess.”
Kaden shook his head slowly. “I just don’t get why she’d do this… why didn’t she come back sooner? As soon as she remembered who she was? I mean, we know she is your sister. The DNA confirmed it, right?”
“Yeah. I know. It’s so weird. Unless….” I chewed on my lip again. “It could be kinda like what I said earlier. She wanted to come back and reclaim her name, but maybe she also wanted to get rid of me. Maybe she read about me in magazines and gossip sites, and she hated me from all of that. Thought I didn’t deserve all the luxury and abused what I had, especially seeing as she grew up poor when her rightful place was here.”
“So she decided to not only return, but to also make you look bad and alienate you from your family,” Kaden said, catching onto my train of thought. “Shit, maybe she even wants your parents to disinherit you so she gets more money down the track.”
“Yes. Exactly. That would explain why she hired Andreas to help her… if it was her, that is.”
Kaden nodded. “I think you’re right. It has to be her. It all makes sense now that we know the two of them actually know each other.”
“But it’s going to be hard to make either one of them admit it. Like, if we confront Andreas and try to get him to admit who hired him, he can easily just say that you made the whole thing up to try and get me to talk to you again.”
“What do you mean?” he asked, wrinkling his forehead.
“I mean ever since that whole stupid scandal came out, Bianca has been trying to help by telling anyone who will listen that I was totally innocent and had no idea who you were. So everyone probably thinks I hate you now, right? And if that’s the case, Andreas could easily say that you made it all up to get my attention.”
He nodded. “Right, yeah. And no one else heard him say it, obviously.” His eyebrows knitted together curiously. “But you do believe me, right?”
“Of course I do.” I smiled. “I know you wouldn’t make something like that up.”
“So how do we get him to admit it?” he asked.
I smiled. “You truly don’t understand just how sneaky women can be, do you?”
“Nope. Enlighten me.”
“It’s easy. We’ll tell him we’re going to the police with all the stalking stuff—as we rightfully should—and that we have a bunch of stuff connecting him to Allegra. But then we’ll also tell him that if he helps us by admitting she hired him, we’ll tell the police to go easy on him. I bet you a million bucks that he’ll eventually crack and throw her under the bus. People will do anything to avoid trouble with cops.”
A slow smile spread across Kaden’s handsome face. “You watch way too many crime thrillers. I’m actually kinda scared of you now.”
“As you should be.” I winked. “It’s Saturday, right?”
“Yep.”
“Do you remember what hours Andreas works on Saturdays?”
“Hm… he usually worked the same shifts as me when I was here, and my Saturday shift always finished at three.”
I glanced at the clock. It was almost two. “We should go and wait for him. I want to get this over and done with.”
Kaden squeezed my hand. “Are you sure? You’re probably feeling pretty delicate after what happened. And the doctors said you need to rest.”
I looked up at him, my face set in a grim yet determined expression. “I’m fine,” I said. “Let’s go.”
26 Kaden
Peyton and I were finally going to get to the bottom of this shit.
We needed to face Andreas.
I hadn't told anyone but Peyton about the altercation I’d had with him, and she hadn’t told anyone either, so I assumed he was still working at the Mirabella for now, thinking he was safe. I hoped so, because that was what our whole plan relied on. We were going to corner him and finally make him tell us the whole truth, because it seemed obvious that he was the one who held all the answers.
And as soon as he gave them all to us, I was probably going to beat the shit out of him for being such a slimy little prick.
I still couldn't believe it. He had us all fooled. He even had me thinking he was my friend when he'd only been digging for information the whole time. It was ironic, because I'd actually been doing the same thing. But at least I was trying to make up for my lies and wrongdoings, whereas Andreas didn't show a shred of regret for what he'd done, aside from a few empty ‘I’m sorry’ claims under duress.
I still couldn't believe that it might've been Allegra who was behind all of this. I couldn't imagine how Peyton's sister could be so evil, so intent on destroying my girl's life.
<
br /> We knew what time Andreas finished his shift today, and Peyton and I waited for him in the employee parking lot a block away from the hotel. The hot sun beat down against our skin as we saw a figure approaching us.
Finally, the moment of truth.
I waited until Andreas was just a little way off from us before calling out his name. He turned at the sound of my voice, and for a second, he froze on the spot, utterly shocked when he saw that Peyton was with me.
I was almost certain he was going to run when he saw us, but he didn't make a move. He must’ve finally realized his lies had caught up to him.
Peyton motioned for me to follow her, and I fell into step behind her as we approached Andreas.
"We need to have a conversation," I said. He looked around as if trying to find a way out. "Don't bother trying to run. We want the truth, Andreas.”
Peyton and I each stood to one side of him, preventing him from making a run for it. He was trapped.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Andreas said. “You guys are being really weird.”
Peyton gave him a murderous glare. "Don't play dumb," she said. "Kaden told me everything. You’re the one who took the leaked photos of us."
"What, and you believed him when he told you that?" It was Andreas' one last, very desperate attempt to turn Peyton against me. "You know Kaden's a liar, Pey. Bianca told me how you had no idea who he was until a week ago.”
"Only my friends call me Pey," she replied coldly. "You’re not one of them.”
His face darkened. I stood in front of Peyton protectively, almost afraid he was going to make the huge mistake of lunging for her. But then he appeared to calm down a little, and I was grateful for that—for his own sake. I had no desire to knock his teeth out, much less watch him find them scattered all over the parking lot.
"You said someone hired you to essentially stalk Peyton,” I said. “If that’s true, then at this point, you're already in trouble for that. And you’re also an accomplice to whatever's being done here."
Andreas laughed, shaking his head in disbelief. "You have no idea what you're talking about. And you have no proof that I ever told you anything, Kaden. For all Peyton knows, you’re making this up just to get her attention. I never took the photos, and no one ever hired me. It’s your word against mine.”
I laughed too. "See, that’s where you’re wrong," I said. "Why don't you tell us about Allegra, Andreas?"
"Allegra?" he said, feigning innocence. "Peyton's sister? What about her?"
"I told you not to play dumb," Peyton snapped at him. "We know everything. We figured it out."
"Figured out what?" he asked.
"Still don't want to admit it?" I asked him. "Let's refresh his memory, shall we, Pey?"
Peyton nodded and went on. "Kaden and I think Allegra was the one who hired you to do this," she said. "She wanted to make me look as bad as she possibly could; I guess so she could be the famous golden child of the Cadwell family, now that she’s back. And she must’ve figured out who Kaden really was before anyone else. So when she got those photos of us together, she sat on them for a while, and then she eventually sent them in with some bullshit story about how I was helping his family and betraying the Mirabella.”
Andreas shrugged, still looking nonchalant. “I dunno. You’d have to ask her about that.”
Peyton rolled her eyes. “You’re an idiot. You're pretty much caught, Andreas. We have proof.”
“Sure.”
She held up her phone. “You need to curate your old Facebook photo albums better. We managed to find a photo of you with Allegra, as much as you obviously tried to cut her out of all your albums just in case. Apparently, you two have known each other for quite some time. That’s enough to make anyone suspicious.”
Andreas’ demeanor of innocence finally began to crack, and he went slightly pale.
Peyton went on. “If we go to the police and tell them what we think you’re up to with her, you can bet your ass my father will make sure they throw the book at you."
She tapped her chin thoughtfully with her manicured nails. "Unless... maybe, just maybe, I could convince them that you helped us out by telling us the truth about why Allegra did this," she said. "Maybe I could tell them to be lenient."
At this point, Andreas was practically shaking. It was shocking to see the transformation of the guy I'd once considered a friend.
"Tell us the truth," I said in a gentler voice. "We know it was Allegra. So tell us why she put you up to this... why she asked you to spy on Peyton and take all those photos. If you're honest, maybe we'll tell the cops to focus on her instead. They’ll be way more lenient with you if they know you helped."
Andreas shook his head slowly. Just as Peyton had predicted, he clearly knew he was screwed, and the only option to save himself was ratting on Allegra.
“Fuck.…” he finally said, drawing out the word. He was silent for a long time after that, and then he finally sighed heavily and shook his head. His hands were trembling like mad. “It’s not what you think,” he mumbled, hanging his head in defeat. “Not really.”
“What do you mean?” Peyton asked sharply.
"She didn’t hire me just to try and make you look bad, Peyton. Of course that was part of it. You were right—she wants to be the golden child of the family and be famous like you. But she wanted it to be only her. So part of that meant making you look like shit. She realized who Kaden really was a while ago, and from the photos, she knew she could make up a bunch of lies about what you were up to, to turn everyone against you.”
“Okay… so what do you mean when you say it’s not what we think? Because what you just said is exactly what we thought it was.”
Andreas held a hand up. “Just… just wait. Wait for me to explain,” he said, his voice trembling. “There’s more. A lot more. But you have to promise me that you will tell the cops how helpful I was. I don’t want to go to prison. I can’t.”
I folded my arms across my chest, narrowing my eyes. How bad could it be? “Just spit it out.”
Andreas sighed again. He obviously didn’t want to be telling us any of this, but he knew he had to, because the jig was up.
"You were right. I've known her for a long time," he said in a small voice. "Back when she was DeeDee. I've known her since we were both kids. We grew up in the same neighborhood."
"Why didn't we know this before?" I asked. It was never once mentioned—or even shown by either of them at the Mirabella—that they knew each other. In fact, I distinctly remembered them introducing themselves to one another, as if their first day on the job was the only time they'd ever met.
"Because," Andreas went on. "DeeDee wanted to keep it a secret. We moved to the city together with a plan."
I watched the color drain from Peyton's face as he continued.
"You don't know her like I do," he said. "She grew up in a bunch of foster homes, all around the same area. It wasn't easy for a lot of foster kids. But DeeDee, she was always different. She wasn't like the rest of us."
He spoke of her with such admiration it almost felt like he had a crush on her. He must've looked up to her for the longest time, and she had wrapped him right around her little finger. I almost felt sorry for him, but remembering the scandal he'd put Peyton through, I knew I'd never be able to fully forgive him.
"She's always been shrewd and calculating," he added. "Since we were kids. She always said she'd get out of the shitty city we lived in. She said she was better than it."
"Well, her dreams came true then," Peyton said. “Finally discovering that she was actually an heiress.”
Andreas looked up at her and shook his head sadly. "No. You don’t understand," he said.
Peyton and I glanced at each other before turning our heads back to him, urging him to go on. But Andreas had gone quiet again. That is, until I took an intimidating step toward him, reminding him who was in charge in the situation.
He shrank back a little before finally continuing
. "Peyton, she isn’t really your sister,” he said, his voice barely above a mutter. "Her real parents didn’t want her anymore, and they left her on the edge of that road when she was five. It wasn’t kidnappers or anything like that.”
My eyes widened. “What?”
“DeeDee isn’t the real Allegra. The real Allegra… she’s still missing. Or.…”
He stopped talking, and we were all quiet for a long, long time, unable to even form words after what we’d just heard.
Peyton’s hands curled into fists at her sides, and I wished there was something I could do to comfort her, make all the ugly things go away and let her be. But this new piece of information… it was too ugly, too shocking.
“What did you just say?” Peyton finally asked, her voice hollow.
“She isn’t your sister. It’s a scam. It always was.”
Peyton shook her head. “No. No… it’s not possible. I…” Her voice trailed off in confusion. Her face was pale, and she was obviously in shock.
Andreas nodded. “It is possible. For what it’s worth, I’m sorry,” he muttered.
I glared at him. “What the fuck? You can’t just finish there. Tell us the rest!”
He rubbed his temples and sighed. “A couple of years ago, they ran this true crime segment on TV about famous missing child cases. The Allegra Cadwell case was featured. We watched it, and DeeDee got this idea in her head. She thought she could pretend to be the missing heiress. She was about the same age as Allegra, give or take a year or so. And she’d never spoken to anyone about how she came to be abandoned when she was five—except me—so there was no one to say it wasn’t true or possible that the kidnappers could’ve left her there.”
He paused to take a breath, and I narrowed my eyes. “Keep going.”
“She came up with this whole plan. Dye her hair strawberry blonde, move here together, and scope out the Mirabella. Convince everyone she was Allegra. And me… my part in the plan was what you already know—to follow Peyton and try to get photos of her that might make her look bad. Like I said, DeeDee wanted to be the only princess in this castle, once she’d lied her way in. That meant taking Peyton down.”
Suite Hearts Page 25
