“And then you left.” She interrupted me, finishing my sentence.
I looked up and met her gaze, hurt still visible in her eyes. I squelched a desire to reach out and touch her face. I nodded. “That’s when I left.”
“Because you thought Sasha was stealing from the company and I refused to believe Sasha was anything but my one-way ticket to my dreams.”
We sat in silence, thousands of unspoken words hanging in the air between us. It still hurt to think about those painful days right after I left LeFranc.
“Alex, why didn’t you tell me?”
I moved to the desk, flipping through the letters Dani had left. “I wanted to,” I said, my back to her. I turned around and crossed my arms across my chest. “But I couldn’t tell you specifics. You were still so loyal to Sasha. I couldn’t risk her finding out I was suspicious for fear of her destroying any proof of her activities. To be fair, Dani, you were pretty defensive when I implied anything negative about Sasha. I don’t think you would have taken the details kindly.”
She bit her lip. There were so many emotions behind her eyes, but she didn’t say anything.
“Once I left, I couldn’t say anything because of the cease and desist. They threatened legal action. I had no choice but to back down, especially since I couldn’t prove anything.”
“Except . . .” She paused. “You just did say something.”
I offered her a small smile. “You don’t work for her anymore. And you possibly just gave me the proof I need to convince Alicio she’s been stealing from him.”
“It’s still a risk though, right? For you, personally?”
I couldn’t lie, not when she’d asked me so plainly. “I haven’t been financially dependent on Alicio since I graduated, but he has threatened to retroactively charge me my very expensive education that he paid for.”
Dani shook her head. “That’s a lot of money, Alex. You can’t take that on for me.”
“But I would, Dani. In a minute, I would.” The fire in my gut raged fierce enough, the words I’d spoken had to be true; it was not lost on me that I’d just committed to do the very thing I hadn’t been willing to do before.
I’d been a coward. And it was time to make it right. “Also, it’s the right thing to do. Someone needs to stop her. And I might be the only person who can.”
“Alex, when did your mom die?”
It wasn’t a question I expected. “Why?”
“What year? You were still in school, right?”
“I was almost finished, but yes. She died just after Thanksgiving. Five years ago.”
Her face fell. “So Sasha met Alicio before your Mom died?”
“I’m not sure,” I said, feeling suddenly agitated. “I’ve always suspected—she appeared in his life so soon after Mom was gone—but I don’t have any way to know for sure. Why?”
Dani bit her bottom lip the same way she’d used to when we’d played Scrabble and she’d known she had a word that was going to score big. She’d always tried to play it cool, but she had a terrible poker face. When she knew something—anything—I’d always been able to tell with one look.
“Nothing. I was just curious.”
“Dani. Just tell me.”
She closed her eyes for a moment before locking her gaze with mine. “Sasha told me right before I quit that she and Alicio were going away for the weekend to celebrate the five-year anniversary of when they first had dinner. That was three months ago, which means—”
“Alicio was sleeping with Sasha while Mom was in the hospital.” I dropped into my desk chair and took a deep breath. “Wow.” It was hardly an adequate response, but it was all I could manage. Something fierce and hot roiled inside me; anger at Alicio for cheating on my mother when she was sick, anger at Sasha for taking husbands and money and dresses and ideas without even thinking about the consequences. I had to stop her. For Dani, but for my mom, too.
Dani reached out and curled her hands over my arms, squeezing them gently. “I’m sorry, Alex.”
She dropped her hands, but I wished she’d left them there. I felt untethered, and the contact had felt a little like a lifeline I didn’t know I needed until it was gone.
“About your mom, but also . . .” She looked up, sorrow in her eyes. “I should have listened to you. I’m sorry I didn’t.” She wrapped her arms around herself and I squelched the desire to reach out and give her a hug. We’d had a pretty profound twenty minutes. I didn’t want to push my luck.
“What do we do now?” she asked.
I willed conviction into my voice. “Do the research, find the evidence, take it to the wedding, steal a dress, and expose Sasha as a thief.”
“You just made that sound really easy.”
“It won’t be easy, but—”
“Wait,” Dani said, cutting me off. “When is the wedding again?”
“New Year’s Eve.”
“So we’ll be finished with the Compassion Experiment by then. That’s good.”
“And we will have plenty of time to fly home and then make it to Islamorada.”
“Isla-where?” Isaac asked from the bedroom doorway. “Sounds tropical. Can I come?”
Dani gave him a quick rundown of everything we’d been discussing. When she got to the part about stealing the wedding dress back, Isaac whooped and hollered like a kid who’d just won a video game tournament. “A legit wedding dress heist. I am so coming with you to Florida. Please tell me you’ll let me put this on the air.”
“Absolutely not,” Dani and I said in tandem. Even the tone we used was identical.
Isaac rolled his eyes. “Come on. Not even highlights? After the fact? And only if everything works just as it should?”
“There’s too much at stake, Isaac,” Dani said. “My career. Alex’s relationship with his stepdad. You can come if you want, but cameras have to stay off.”
I wasn’t sure relationship was the right word for what I had with Alicio. But what Dani said was still true. Odds were against anyone in attendance at a LeFranc wedding also watching Isaac’s YouTube channel, but we couldn’t be too careful. If I found what I hoped to find, I’d be making some pretty hefty criminal accusations that would likely land Sasha in jail. This was about much more than a wedding dress.
“Fine,” Isaac said. “No cameras. But you have to at least let me drive the getaway car.”
This time, Dani rolled her eyes. “Oh my word. Are you seriously twelve years old?” Isaac moved behind us and put an arm around each of our necks, pulling us into an awkward three-way hug. “New Years in the Florida Keys,” he said with a grin. “This is going to be so much fun.”
Later, a text came in from Dani containing the password to access the cloud files I needed. This is awkward, the text read. But I’m afraid to change it in case I get locked out and we can’t get back in. The password is AL3XmyLuV.
Chapter Twenty-One
Dani
I stood at the back of Isaac’s studio watching him wrap up the last of his filming. Mom’s words echoed through my head. It was hard for me to believe that Isaac actually cared about my approval. But Alex had said he did, and so had Mom, two people I trusted.