286 Closet Skeletons

(Jayden)

“So, all of this... Winona, Cass, even me—this is all part of their plan to get to you?”

“Yes,” Gus says quietly. “They’re using you to get to me because they know you’re my heir. They think if they can take you, I’ll do whatever they want to keep you alive. They are right.”

“And you let it get this far,” I snap, anger boiling up inside me. “You let them put my family in danger because of your goddamn secrets.”

Gus doesn’t flinch. “I’ve been trying to contain it. To keep them away from you. But now... things are moving faster than I anticipated. They’re getting desperate, and that’s why they took Cass.”

I stare at him, my mind racing. “What about Greg? Was he involved in any of this?”

Gus hesitates, and for a moment, I think he’s not going to answer. But then he nods. “Greg knew about some of it. Not everything, but enough. Let’s just say, he was never savvy enough to do what I do.”

Gus taps into this message screen again before he continues.

“He knocked up Maria on his very