Disgust fills my throat. “Do you do anything but sit on your ass all day?”
“Why, yes. I shop. I go to the gym. Sometimes I fuck your stepbrother, Gideon.” She laughs drunkenly.
I loom over the couch, my arms crossed, but a part of me is hesitating. My plan was to come out and confront her about Myers, but I don’t know how to start. How would she have paid Myers off? Cash, right? I wonder if Steve would let me look at their bank withdrawals. Or does she carry around a bunch of cash?
Instead of accusing her right off the bat, I decide to use a different approach. Drunk people have lower inhibitions. Maybe I can squeeze some information out of her without her knowing I’m even doing it.
So I sit on the opposite end of the couch and wait for her to keep talking.
“How was dance practice? You don’t look very sweaty.”
I shrug. “That’s because I quit.”
“Ha!” she exclaims way too loudly. She points a shaky finger in my direction. “I told Steve that you joined just so you could sleep with your boyfriend.”
I give another shrug. “What do you care what I do with Reed?”
“I don’t. I just enjoy making the Royals miserable. Your unhappiness is a little extra something special.”
“Nice,” I say sarcastically.
“Nice gets you nowhere,” she snarls. But then her whole face crumples, and for the first time since I walked in, I notice that besides smelling like a brewery, her eyes are rimmed with red.
“Are you okay?” I ask uneasily.
“No, I’m not okay,” Dinah snaps, except this time her voice shakes a little. “I miss Brooke. I really miss her. Why did she have to be so greedy and stupid?”
I swallow my shock. I can’t believe she’s the one who’s bringing it up! Okay, this is perfect. I sneak a hand into my pocket and fiddle with my phone. Do I have a recording app? Can I get Dinah to say something incriminating?
“What do you mean?”
Dinah’s eyes take on a faraway glimmer. “She said you were like us. Are you?”
“No,” I blurt out, and immediately regret it. Damn it. I should’ve said yes.
But Dinah seems too lost in her own world to notice my disagreement. “You need to be careful of those Royals. They’ll take you in and then stab you in the back.”
I watch my words this time. “How so?”
“It happened to me.”
Was this before or after you slept with Gideon? Before or after you decided to take down the Royals?
“How?” I ask instead.
She fiddles with one of the heavy rocks on her fingers. “I knew Maria Royal. She was the queen in Bayview. Everyone loved her, but no one saw how sad she was. I did, though.”
I frown. Where is she going with this?
“I told her I knew where she’d come from and how lonely it could be when you weren’t born into these circles. I was being friendly,” Dinah mutters. “But did she appreciate that?”
“No?”
“No, she certainly did not.” Dinah slams a hand on the coffee table, and I flinch in surprise. “The Royals are like the apple in the fairy tale. Golden on the outside, but rotten to the core. Maria didn’t come from money. She was poor trash from the wharf who opened her legs at the right time to the right man—Callum Royal. Once she was pregnant, he had to marry her. But Maria wasn’t satisfied with Callum’s devotion. She always wanted more, and woe to any woman who stood in her way of total domination over the males in her circle. She was a manipulative bitch who enjoyed playing both sides of the table. To the women, she was spiteful and cruel, running others down constantly. To the men, she was nothing but sweet words and compliments.”
Wow. This is a side of Maria Royal I’d never heard about. Reed and his brothers remember her as a saint. But then the comments Steve made when he dragged me out of school pop up in my head.
No living person is a saint.
On the other hand, Dinah isn’t exactly the most trustworthy person. And she probably paid someone off to send Reed to jail. I’d be stupid to believe anything she says.
Besides, even if Maria was a bitch, Dinah’s obsession with the Royals still doesn’t make sense. “You and Brooke had it in for the Royals and Steve because Maria Royal was rude to you at one time?” I ask in disbelief.
She sighs heavily. “No, honey. Maria Royal represents every other rich bitch around here. You’ve encountered these types at school. They’re the kind who believe their own shit doesn’t stink.”
Like Jordan Carrington. I guess in some ways, Dinah’s lecture isn’t completely crazy. Except the difference between us is that I don’t give a crap about Jordan while Dinah obviously cared a lot about Maria’s opinion.