“She tried to get to Colt, but he turned her down, and she’s been using me to get back at him. From the very beginning, she did everything she could to turn me on and get me to look at her and not you, sweetheart.”

“Mom, he’s lying!” I’m still sobbing, but now it’s for a different reason. “Mom, they hurt me. They made me do this!”

“Please.” James shoots me a filthy, cold look. “Everybody in town knows you’ve been obsessed with this family, with my sons, for years. It’s disgusting. I’m only sorry I was weak enough not to call you on your pathetic little blackmail scheme.”

“What blackmail scheme?” I look at the guys, but they’re turned away from me.

“You’ve conveniently forgotten the recording you made the night of the rehearsal dinner?” He even has the nerve to glare at me. He’s that devoid of a conscience. “When you seduced Colt, recorded it, then threatened to take it to the police and say you were under the influence, and he raped you?”

I can’t breathe. There isn’t any air in the room. My mouth moves, but nothing comes out. He would stoop this low?

And not only him. Colt speaks as he pulls a shirt over his head. “He’s telling the truth.”

“What?”

He won’t look at me, the coward. “She said we had to do things to her, or else she’d go to the police.”

“Look at the tattoo on her ass,” Nix continues. “Alistair. She had our last name tattooed on her ass. That’s how obsessed she is.”

“None of this is true! Mom, they drugged me while you were gone. That’s when I got that—”

“Shut the hell up with your lies,” James warns. “I’m only glad your mother came back when she did. I’m sorry she had to see what a filthy degenerate she raised, but at least she’ll see what you’ve been doing to us all this time. You can’t stand to see us happy. You need to have your way, no matter who it hurts.”

She won’t look at me. Why won’t she look at me? I have to get through to her somehow. “Mom. You know that’s not what I’m like. I swear, I didn’t want any of this.”

“You certainly sounded like you wanted it when I walked in.”

That’s it. That’s the gut punch. I’ve lost. I never stood a chance.

She folds her arms over herself, and I can see she’s shaking. I guess she would be. She just walked in on her husband and stepsons using her daughter. While her daughter cried out and begged for more. Jesus, could this be any worse?

“I swear, I didn’t want any of this to happen. Please, believe me.”