Page 137 of Summers at the Saint
Felice grabbed her arm. “Are you gonna tell me who he is?”
Livvy took a deep breath. “Nobody else can know about this, okay?”
“I swear, I won’t say a word. Would you please just tell me before I explode?”
“Fred Eddings is my biological… I can’t call him a father. He was never that. Sperm donor. That’s all he was.”
“Whaaaat?” Felice grasped both her hands. “How?”
Livvy repeated an edited version of the revelation her mother had just shared.
“How awful. For your mom, and you,” Felice said. “She never reported it to the cops?”
“She never told anyone. She was too ashamed. Like it was her fault she got raped.”
“Damn, that’s messed up,” Felice said. “But, she didn’t make him pay? At all?”
“He made her sign a nondisclosure agreement, and in return he paid off my granny’s house and gave her money to finish school, and fifty thousand, to take care of my expenses.”
“Only fifty thousand? Chump change! That family’s gotta be worth millions and millions.”
“I found a magazine story from six years ago that said the old man’s real estate was worth thirty million,” Livvy confided.
“How come your mom’s finally telling you all this now?”
“Now that Fred Eddings is dead, there’s a chance I might get an inheritance.”
“You definitely should,” Felice said. She snapped her fingers. “Damn! Pretty soon, you could be a millionaire. You definitely won’t be slumming it with me here in this dorm.”
Livvy looked around at her room. “This isn’t slumming, and I actually kinda like living here with you. Anyway, I have to talk to Mrs. E’s lawyer. There was some funny business with the old man’s will, and my mom says Ric Eddings isn’t going to give up any share of his inheritance without a fight.”
Felice’s eyes widened. “This means you and Parrish were secretly related, right? You’d be her aunt.”
“I guess that’s right. Another reason why we have to figure out who killed her. I got the name of a woman in the Saint’s purchasing department. I’ll reach out to her tomorrow and try to set up a face-to-face. And I’m gonna ask to meet with Mrs. E. What about you?”
“I went into the restaurant before we opened for brunch. Fortunately, one of the bartenders is pretty careless with his key card. He left it hanging from a nail in the kitchen, so I was able to get into the liquor storage area. Unfortunately, I didn’t see anything suspicious.”
“Doesn’t mean thereisn’tanything going on,” Livvy said. “Here’s something. As soon as Garrett left a few minutes ago, I tried to get into his room. The door was locked.”
“So? You always keep your door locked, and so do I.”
“We lock our doors to keephimout. Wonder what he’s hiding in there to keepusout?”
“Oh no,” Felice said. “No way. Don’t even think about it.”
“All I’m saying is, let’s get into his room and take a look around.”
“You just told me the room is locked. I’m a chef, Liv, not a burglar. I don’t know how to break into a locked room, and neither do you.”
Livvy opened her laptop. “I bet there’s a YouTube tutorial that can show us how.”
“There is no ‘us.’ I’m not getting arrested for doing a B and E. Besides, what about KJ? What if he comes in and catches us in the act?”
“He won’t. Garrett said his family’s in town and he’s at his grandparents’ house.”
“It’s almost nine o’clock. He could be back here any minute. The answer is no.”
But Livvy was already scrolling the pages of YouTube. She looked up and grinned. “Bingo. Check it out: How to unlock a door without a key.”
