“Do you mean she and Cullen didn’t go public with their relationship?” I asked.

“No, they most certainly did not,” Cara said, tossing the book on the coffee table. “She wrote the most condescending book ever written, all about marriage. It would be a terrible blow to her career if anyone found out the truth.”

“Holy shit, Cara,” Gavin said.

Cara smiled again and pressed play.

The host continued. “Did you write this book before or after your marriage to your husband ended?”

Pepper’s lips parted and she blinked a few times. “Excuse me?”

“You’ve written a four-hundred-page memoir and instruction manual for achieving a happy marriage, but within the last year, you began an adulterous relationship with your agent, Cullen Bell. Isn’t that right?”

A chorus of “whoa,” rose around me.

Pepper’s mouth dropped open and Cullen shifted uncomfortably, his eyes darting around as if he were looking for someone to get him out of this situation.

“No, that’s… I don’t…” Pepper sputtered, tripping over her words, her face flushing. “No, I’m happily married to my husband and—”

“What?” Cullen’s face whipped around.

“So are you or are you not having an affair?” the host asked.

Pepper put a hand to her chest, as if she were finding it hard to breathe. “I was not prepared for this line of questioning.”

“This isn’t what we agreed to,” Cullen said, anger in his tone. “You can’t spring these questions on us with no warning.”

“On the contrary, I think these questions are very relevant, given the content of the book.”

“Ouch,” Asher said.

“She’s not wrong,” Grace added.

Pepper fanned herself. “My book speaks for itself and my personal life is just that, personal.”

“Except you wrote a memoir offering aspects of your life as examples to live up to. You’re putting yourself forward as a model for other women, and yet most of what you wrote here is potentially a lie.” The host’s voice never wavered. “So I’ll ask the question again. Are you two having an affair?”

Cullen glanced at the floor. “Yes. We are.”

Pepper shot to her feet. “This is outrageous. How dare you. We talked about this. We agreed.”

“We should have made popcorn,” Gavin said.

“I told you to change the book.” Cullen stood, facing off with her. “If you had listened to me, we wouldn’t have had to hide. This never would have happened.”

“Why, because you think I’m fucking in love with you?” The show beeped out her curse word.

Everyone in the room gasped.

“You don’t get it, do you?” Pepper asked. “This book wasn’t a lie, and I’m not leaving him for you.”

“Ms. Sinclair, Mr. Bell, if you’ll please take your seats,” the host said. “We’ll give you both an opportunity to speak, but we need you to remain calm.”

“Remain calm?” Pepper asked, her eyes wide and crazed. “How can you expect me to remain calm when you’ve just ruined me on national television?”

“Pepper, sit down,” Cullen said.

“No,” she snapped, pointing a manicured finger at him. “This is your fault. You were supposed to get me ten million, but you’re as useless at your job as you are in the bedroom. Get this microphone off me.”

The camera quickly cut to the host. “We’ll be right back.”

I gaped at the TV as Cara fast-forwarded. After a commercial break, the host gave a brief summary of what had happened, then moved on to the next segment. Pepper and Cullen were nowhere to be seen.

“Cara, how the fuck did you do that?” Gavin asked, his voice awed.

“What are you talking about, Gav?” Grace asked.

“I told her about what that asshat did to Skylar, and she said she was going to do something about it. Is that what that was? That was you?”

“People really shouldn’t mess with my friends,” Cara said sweetly, then turned to me. “That went even better than I’d hoped. Oh, and since the show first aired this morning, his agency fired him and dropped her as a client. I also have it from a reliable source that her book is being pulled from all bookstores, and it’s no longer available on Amazon.”

“You told the host about her affair with Cullen?” Grace asked. “How?”

Cara gave her a self-satisfied smile and lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “I have contacts.”

“Oh, Cara…” Grace said.

“Don’t you worry about a thing, boo. Do you see me getting revenge on anyone from my own past? Believe me, I have a list. But I only use my powers to help others.”

“Yeah, you’re a real saint,” Logan said.

Levi leaned closer to him. “Dude, I wouldn’t get on her bad side.”

“Besides, I’m not the one who cheated on the beautiful and talented Skylar Stanley. He had it coming. He’s lucky all I did is ruin his career from afar.”

“Dude, that was amazing,” Gavin said. “Cara karma at its finest.”

Feeling a bit dazed, I slowly stood. “That was…”

Cara raised her eyebrows.

“That was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen. He made me feel so awful when he broke up with me, and I never thought I’d see him get his due. Did you see his face? That was…” I trailed off again and launched myself at Cara, wrapping her in a tight hug.

She put her arms around me, hugging me back. “I’m so glad you liked it. Wow, doing a good deed really does fill the soul. I should do that more often.”

I stepped back and swiped beneath my eyes. Maybe it made me a bad person for being so happy at seeing someone else’s life crash and burn. But I wasn’t just emotional over Cullen. It was the sudden realization that I had so many people in my life who cared about me. For a shy girl who had a hard time making friends, that was priceless.

32

Gavin

Ever since Ginny had told us she thought the Montgomery treasure was real, the idea that maybe she was right had been swirling around the back of my mind. I’d grown up hearing stories about it. Everyone in town had. But everyone also knew that this town loved its tall tales as much as the squirrels loved stealing our snacks. You couldn’t really believe any of them.

But Ginny was an outsider. She had a different perspective. If she thought the treasure might be real, maybe Harvey Johnston wasn’t as crazy as everyone thought. Although the tin can episode at the murder cabin didn’t exactly support his sanity.

But still. Maybe there was something out there.

What really got me going was the implication that someone—maybe the Montgomerys—had been trying to hide it. I wasn’t going to jump to the conclusion that there was a conspiracy that went back generations. But someone had hidden that stuff Grace had found. People didn’t randomly put shit beneath the floorboards of a house for no reason. Did that mean there was a reason to hide it? And had a Montgomery done it?