We were standing in front of a small café advertising fresh mozzarella and other assorted Italian delights. “Here?” I asked.

We went inside and ordered at the counter, taking drinks to a table in the back until our sandwiches were ready. My stomach was in such turmoil I knew I would have to take mine home.

“Was that what you wanted to tell me? That you know Wendy’s your mother?” Ella unwrapped her straw and thrust it with such force into her glass that I felt sorry for the ice cubes.

“I told you so you would know I’ve been in the dark,” I said. “And I still am. I need your help.”

“You should talk to your sister.”

“I’m not sure she’d give me the straight scoop. And she’s still out of town.”

I could almost see Ella calculating how long my sister could stay away and still be valuable to Gracey Group. I wondered if I should offer her a job on the podcast. Between Ella and Sophie, nobody would ever be safe.

“So?” she asked.

“Did you learn something about Wendy that you didn’t share with my father? Anything so serious she would manipulate events to have you fired?”

“Carrying details back to your dad won’t change anything. My termination was official, and my attorney approved all the paperwork.”

I knew I had to tell her some part of the truth or she wouldn’t help. “I need to know what Wendy was up to back then, because she’s disappeared.”

The server brought our sandwiches, and I watched as Ella played with her sub, looking between layers, moving the shredded lettuce to cover the surface, adding vinegar and oil from the bottles on our table. Finally she looked up.

“She was having sex with our clients, the men she was supposed to be working with to organize tours and visits to the resorts. And if you say I told you, I will deny it.”

I contemplated my sandwich and finally forced down a potato chip.

“Okay,” I said. “And you know this...how?”

“A personal email to Wendy was routed to me by mistake. The details were quite...revealing. A second instance was reported to me by the manager of our resort in Barbados. Apparently your sister was so indiscreet, he was getting complaints from other guests. He was concerned about Gracey Group’s reputation.”

“You didn’t tell my father? You had proof. Why not?”

“Because I was a fool. I went to Wendy instead. I hadn’t come to terms with who she really was, and I told her she needed to be careful, that some of the things she was doing had been misconstrued.”

“You thought the email was, what, a lie?”

“The man who had emailed was somebody your father really didn’t want to do business with. I thought he might be trying to frame your sister.”

“And you thought the manager in Barbados had misinterpreted behavior?”

“No. He was a trusted employee, and by then I was suspicious. I thought about it over a long weekend, and then I spoke to Wendy. If anything was going on, it was important for her to know that she was being watched. By the manager, by me. I was such an idiot. I’d worked with your father so long that I never considered he wouldn’t listen if I was forced to tell him what I knew.”