“So you didn’t say anything to anyone about the baby, because you were afraid of what he might do.”

“Yes. She was afraid that if Bill Hollis found out, he would do something to the baby. Or to her friend. Or both. I never put it together that the kid he was always with in the papers was that kid. I assumed all three of those kids were Vanessa’s. I think your mother assumed the same. Her friend stopped writing after a while. She told your mother it was too dangerous. What we didn’t know was that Hollis had taken the kids and threatened to kill her if she talked.”

I thought about poor Brandi, who’d only ever wanted to help. If Hollis had been telling the truth about her, she’d been burned up in a fire. Dad was right—Bill Hollis was ruthless and powerful. Nobody could stand up to that.

“And after she was gone, I couldn’t bear to go public with the letters. I couldn’t bear the world knowing about her being a part of that world. It wasn’t who she was.” He came back to me, sank back into the chair, rubbed the back of my good arm. “I don’t know how you found out, Nikki. Your mother and I never wanted you to be involved.”

“How could I not be?” I asked, my voice a whisper. “I was involved the day Peyton was born. And I was really involved the day Peter Fairchild killed Mom.”

There was surprise on Dad’s face. “Peter . . . ? You found out who did it? Are you sure?”

I held up my arm. “How do you think I got this?”

Dad let out an incredulous huff of air, shaking his head. “It wasn’t even Hollis himself.”

“It wasn’t Bill Hollis at all,” I corrected him. “Vanessa was the one who wanted her gone.”

“All this time . . . ,” he whispered.

There was silence in the room, and in that silence I was struck with the strange loyalty of it all. Mom went back to Hollywood Dreams to protect Dad from Bill Hollis’s wrath. Dad kept Mom’s secret to protect her from Bill Hollis’s wrath. In the end, their story was one of true love—even when true love was excruciatingly painful. Even when it was deadly.

But there was more to it than that. Brandi took Peyton to protect her from Bill Hollis’s wrath. Dru paid off Rigo to protect him from Bill Hollis’s wrath. Everyone worked so hard to protect themselves from Bill Hollis. And in the end, it had all been Vanessa. The one with the real power.