"Would she, though?" Rae asked gently. "After grilling you about keeping your distance from the business people you worked for, after trying to break you and Vinnie up, would she have confided in you that she was doing the same thing?"

Marisa tried to imagine that conversation, but the picture wouldn't come. No, Leslie wouldn't have told her, not after all the lectures about Vinnie. About how she could do better. About how he would never see her as anything more than the cleaning lady. Marisa had always wondered if Leslie's biggest objection to their engagement was that she had been wrong.

And to admit Leslie'd been duped into the same kind of thing? "You're right. She wouldn't have told me. But still, why that night?"

Nate finally looked up. His expression was...sad. "When did you tell her Charles had come onto you?"

Marisa remembered that conversation well. Leslie'd been furious. The truth hit her, and she staggered back to the sofa and sat. "After Vinnie died, when I was at the hotel. A week or so before he was arrested. She was trying to tell me that Charles probably hadn't meant for Vinnie to die. That he was probably a decent guy who'd just gotten in over his head." Marisa's admission that Charles had come on to her—that's what had prompted Leslie's decision to steal the money.

"I hate to say it," Brady said, "but your sister doesn't have your looks. You were used to men fawning all over you, but your sister... Maybe it was a first for her. She just got sucked in."

Nate said, "And she gave you money to help you escape. Nice, of course, but it made you look guilty. It was kind of the perfect plan. Because Charles wasn't going to tell the feds he was sleeping with the cleaning lady. He underestimated her."

"He probably never even considered her," Sam said. "If what Anderson said was true. Sounds like he had a sexual addiction. Maybe there were too many to think about."

Marisa looked at the flames as she let the information settle in. Her sister had stolen at least part of the money. All those people had lost their jobs, the mortgage company closed down, because Leslie had used the information Marisa gave her to steal that money.

Leslie had been her big sister, her protector. She'd given Marisa a job to help her get through school. She'd paid all the household bills so Marisa could focus on tuition. And Marisa had always pitied Leslie. Poor Leslie had no father and had lost her mother. Poor Leslie had to play the caretaker to Marisa when their mother died. Poor Leslie wasn't blessed with good looks like Marisa, with a talent like Marisa's. Poor Leslie.

Poor Leslie was a liar and a thief.