“If this is meant to garner sympathy, it’s not working,” I say. “Your sister did her best to ruin my life, and I will never forgive her for it.”
“I know what she did to you, Vivien, and I’m sorry for how she interfered in your life and Reeve’s. I’m trying to explain how this is more than just a woman out of control. Saffron has undiagnosed mental health issues. I cut her out of my life when she turned twenty and had that affair with the film director and his wife. She tried to coax him into leaving his wife and marrying her, and when he dumped her instead, she leaked those sex tapes on the internet to cash in on his notoriety.”
I remember her discussing this when we were at Laguna Beach. “She told us it was a mutual decision and that it boosted all of their brands.” I’m not surprised she told different versions of the story to different people. I wonder if she even remembers what is actually true anymore. The woman is a pathological liar.
“It catapulted her to instant fame, and she became insufferable. I had to cut ties with her because she was dragging me down. I was spending all my time stressing out about her, and Travis, my then fiancé, told me she was an adult responsible for her own actions. He saw how toxic she was and knew she’d only continue to wear on me, so I moved to San Jose to put some distance between us.”
“How did you come to adopt Reeve’s child?” I ask, almost choking over the words.
Dillon is quietly seething beside me but doing his best to hide it.
“Saffron showed up on my doorstep a few years later, drunk and rambling. We’d had very little contact since I’d moved away from L.A.” She takes another sip of her water. “I’m not sure if she meant to tell me everything, or if it was the alcohol in her system, but she told me she’d deliberately manipulated Reeve to break you two up and how she had planned to trap him into marriage by getting pregnant.”
“Jesus Christ.” Dillon shakes his head while running his hand up and down my back.
“Saffron was an opportunist, and she was essentially lazy. She knew she wasn’t a great actress and that her fame was fleeting. She had no intention of working for the rest of her life. Her plan was to find a rich husband and become a trophy wife.” Lori slants me an apologetic look. “She set her sights on Reeve. He was young, rich, and naïve. She knew he was going places too, but you were a stumbling block she had to eliminate. Reeve refused to have anything to do with her after she sabotaged your relationship, but Saffron is stubborn and determined, and she bided her time. She knew she’d find a window to make her move, and she did.”
“In Mexico,” I say, starting to slot the pieces into place.
Lori bobs her head. “She was planning to get him drunk and pounce on him when they were there, because she was ovulating, but he made it easier for her.”
I look up at Dillon, not sure if I’ve ever told him this. “Reeve told me he found out I was dating you when he was in Mexico and he fell apart. He got drunk and took drugs and woke the next morning naked in bed with Saffron.”
“She laughed telling me how easy it was to get him into her bed. She’d given him uppers, and well—” She clasps her hands nervously in front of her, not wanting to say it.
“It made him horny, and they fucked all night long,” I surmise.
She nods. “Saffron couldn’t believe it worked and she got pregnant, but her plan backfired, because when she went to Reeve, he went ballistic. He refused to marry her, so then she asked him for ten million dollars to have an abortion.”
“There is no way Reeve would have let her abort his child.” I know how he felt about abortion.
“You’re right. He wouldn’t entertain any notion of abortion. He told her he’d give her five million dollars if she went overseas to have the baby, stayed clean during the pregnancy, signed an NDA, gave the baby up for adoption, and stayed away from both of you.”
“And he trusted her to not blab about that?” Dillon asks, disbelief clear in his tone. “Five mil couldn’t have meant much to her back then. Surely, she could’ve sold her story for more?”
“Saffron didn’t have good representation, and she was earning a fraction of what Reeve was earning for the Rydeville movies. Whatever money Saffron did have was snorted up her nose. She was pretty broke, but that wasn’t the only incentive. Reeve played the ultimate card, and that’s how she ended up on my doorstep that night.”
“What card?” I ask, tucking my hair behind my ears.
“He found a couple of those girls who attacked you in that alley, and they confirmed Saffron had set it up. They also confirmed she’d paid them with drugs. One of them had a real smart mouth, Reeve said, but she was shrewd. She had video footage of Saffron asking them to attack you and a recording of her handing over the goods.”
“She would’ve been sent to prison for selling to minors,” Dillon says, pouring me a fresh coffee and placing the mug in my hand. “Drink that, sweetheart. You’re shaking like a leaf.”
I glance up at him. “Can you believe this?”
“No. I fucking can’t,” he grits out, and a muscle pops in his jaw.
“That’s how Reeve ensured Saffron toed the line. He took out restraining orders in both your names and organized for her to go to a private rehab clinic in Switzerland. But Saff was always resourceful. She charmed one of the orderlies, and he was supplying her with drugs the last three months she was there.”
“While she was heavily pregnant?” Horror and disgust wash over me. I knew Saffron was scum of the earth, but this proves it conclusively. What a reckless, selfish bitch.
Lori nods. “Reeve was furious when he found out. It’s why she ended up going into premature labor. She wasn’t due until the middle of January, but she ended up giving birth on Christmas Day.”
“Oh my God.” I look at Dillon. “That’s why he was sad at Christmas. It wasn’t anything to do with me.”
“I’d say it was a combination.” Dillon kisses my cheek. “Drink your coffee, love.” He refocuses on Lori. “How did you end up adopting Bodhi?”
“I reached out to Reeve after Saffron left that night. I explained how my husband and I weren’t able to have kids and we had been exploring adoption. Bodhi was my flesh and blood too. It made sense that we would take him in. We had a lot of love to give, and I wanted to take care of my nephew.” She sits back, sighing, looking exhausted. “Reeve wasn’t sure at first, but he did background checks on us, and we sat down and talked for hours, and gradually he agreed. He bought us a new house, sent a monthly allowance, and he set up a trust fund Bodhi gets when he is eighteen.”
I cannot wrap my head around this. “How could Reeve abandon his child? That must have killed him! He suffered with self-esteem issues his whole life because his father was so neglectful. All Reeve wanted was a family of his own.”
“With you,” Dillon supplies, fighting to control his anger. “Reeve didn’t want a family with her, and he knew if you found out you’d leave him for good.” He fists his hands at his side. “He sacrificed his kid for the woman he loved. Exactly like someone else we knew.” Dillon drills me with a look, and I’m sick to my stomach because he’s right. Reeve turned his back on his child for me while Simon turned his back on Dillon because he blamed him for his wife’s death.