Little Secrets(104)

“Uh, thanks?” McKenzie answers, but then she shrugs. “I guess I deserve that. I’ve been couch-surfing since I got kicked out of my apartment. The person I stayed with last night has a dog who hates my cat, so none of us got much sleep.” She looks down, picks a cat hair off her shirt. “How’s your son?”

“He’s wonderful,” Marin says. “He’s actually the reason I’m here.”

The other woman tenses. “I don’t understand.”

“You might have heard from Sal—sorry, J.R.—that I hired someone to kill you.” Marin keeps her voice low. Spoken out loud, the words are both ridiculous and horrific. “Obviously, I know now that he was never going to go through with it. I was conned by a con man. But between you and me, and I feel like I can trust you with this, I really did want you dead. I had already lost my son, and it felt like you were trying to take away the only family I had left. I was, to put it mildly, not in a good place.”

McKenzie nods. It’s almost imperceptible, but Marin catches it.

“Have you heard from Julian?” Marin asks.

McKenzie shakes her head. “Not since the day he took the ransom photo. J.R. suspected that he was going to screw him out of the money you paid him and disappear, and it seems that’s exactly what he did.” She offers a tiny smile. “Good thing you didn’t get hosed for another two hundred and fifty thousand.”

Marin uses her foot to push the duffel bag forward until it touches the other woman’s leg. “Yeah, good thing. Or else I wouldn’t be here to give it to you.”

McKenzie frowns. She glances down at the bag, then back up at Marin. “What are you talking about?” She looks around. “Is this some kind of trick?”

“No trick,” Marin says. “I paid someone to kill you, and whether it was real or not, I’ve been living with the knowledge that I sincerely wished you dead. I did change my mind, and I did call it off. But still, it was wrong, and I can’t live with that. Especially now that I have my son back.”

McKenzie opens her mouth to speak, but no words come out. She shuts it again.

Marin stands up. “So this is me, making amends. We could have had you charged with extortion, but Derek told the police he believed you were a victim in all this, too. I don’t personally believe that; I think that’s his guilt talking. I think you’re a smart young woman, and that you know exactly what you’re doing to the rich men you shake down. In a lot of ways, it feels like I’m rewarding you for being a shitty person who tried to ruin my life. But I need to sleep at night with a clear conscience, knowing that I at least tried to make up for the things I did. I paid someone a quarter of a million dollars to take your life, and now I’m paying you a quarter of a million dollars to make up for it. Keep it, donate it, burn it, I don’t give a shit.”

McKenzie is staring at her, stunned, waiting for a punchline that isn’t coming.

“Also,” Marin says, “you were kind to my son. Bash told me you stayed with him in the wine cellar. You held his hand, you hugged him when he got scared, you told him everything was going to be okay. Bash liked you. He calls you the pink-haired lady. He says you were his friend. So I threw in a little something extra.”

McKenzie swallows. “He’s a really sweet boy,” she says, finally finding her voice. “And … thank you. For this. My mom is sick. This will … this will help.”

“You’re welcome. By the way, you should go back to the pink. It suited you.”

Marin leaves the bag on the floor and walks out, imagining the look on the younger woman’s face when she unzips it and sees the Christian Louboutins she’d admired when she broke into Marin’s house sitting on top of the pile of cash.

All right, karma. We’re square.





Chapter 34


It’s the first Tuesday of the month.

Marin pulls into the parking lot of Big Holes. She can’t remember the last time she was nervous attending a group meeting—probably not since the first time she came, but back then it was tempered by grief, and shock. She can see from the cars in the lot that Simon is already here, as is Lila. Frances, too, of course. And also Jamie, the newbie, whose car Marin parks next to.

She’s been in touch with them all individually since the news broke a month earlier. She and Derek refused all interviews, but they did issue a statement expressing their gratitude for the safe return of their son. She really doesn’t know if the group is okay with seeing her today. It was Frances’s idea to do this, but Frances is in a different emotional space than the others.

And now, so is Marin.

She looks at Sebastian in the rearview mirror; he’s sitting in the back in his booster seat. He grins at her reflection, and she returns the smile. “You ready, honey bear?”

“I want the rainbow sprinkle donut,” he says. “Will there be toys inside?”

“Ooh, I don’t know.” Marin unbuckles her seat belt and gets out. “Maybe not toys. But definitely donuts. All kinds of donuts. We won’t stay too long, okay? Just a quick hello. Usually this meeting is for grown-ups, but Frances wants to meet you.”

“Who’s Frances?”

“She’s my friend. She’s the really nice lady who owns the donut shop.” Marin releases his booster seat belt and hoists him out. Their hands automatically link as they walk across the parking lot. It’s amazing how after sixteen months of being away from him, their hands still know to do that, how to find each other.