Liza blinked back in astonishment. It was everything she had told herself—everything Bev had ever told her, right here in her face. She had to decide whether she would always believe that small, mean voice inside her head. Men like him were experts at exploiting vulnerabilities. It was precisely how they kept their partners docile and dependent. That was the thing he had seen in her before and what he saw in Deya now—a desperation to be seen and heard.

“I got memed. I got fired. Maybe I even got side-chicked. But I can’t go to jail for life for any of that. Harboring an underage girl across state lines, however . . . different story.”

His voice wobbled. It was his turn to feel panic and uncertainty. “I am telling you I did not know.”

Liza let go of the hold button. “That’s not my problem.”

“Liza, you can ruin me forever with this kind of charge. And you know it’s not true.”

“I don’t know what’s true. I never have with you.” Her voice had taken on a Bev quality that she quite liked. She felt like Angela Bassett setting fire to her husband’s car in Waiting to Exhale.

“Liza. Anything. I will give you anything,” WIC pleaded. Spit collected at the corners of his mouth. Liza shuddered at the fact that she used to find him attractive.

“Tell me where she is,” Liza said. The elevator doors pulled open again on the third floor.

WIC’s gigantic eyes actually looked earnest. “She’s in Room 351.”

“Those were our granny’s and mother’s life savings,” Liza said. She prayed that Janae had time to take that money out.

WIC bowed his head. Men like this were experts at feigning remorse. She brushed past him—no longer interested in being his audience.

She shot straight for Room 351 and nearly cried out in relief when she saw Maurice limping down the hallway, dragging LeDeya behind him.

LeDeya was trying to pull away from Maurice. Her eyes rounded when she saw Liza. “Why are all of you here?”

“Let’s move,” Liza snapped with the authority of a drill sergeant. LeDeya, for once, did not give her any bull.

The car ride back to the airport was stonily silent. Every time LeDeya opened her mouth, Liza gave her a look that would curdle milk, and her mouth immediately closed again.

They climbed aboard the private jet in the same fashion, LeDeya forced into silence by the power of Liza’s and Maurice’s fury. Janae met them at the door.

“Janae, did you do it?” Liza asked, searching her sister’s eyes.

“Yes! One hundred fifty-six thousand dollars!” Janae sounded surprised at herself. “I just wired the one hundred right back to Dorsey.”

“Oh, Janae.” She squeezed her sister, but Janae turned around and grabbed LeDeya.