Dirty Little Lies (Dirty Little #2) Read Free

Corinne looks down at something, and I can hear the rustle of her sheets.  
    Unfortunately for her, I’m aware of all her little tics, and pulling on the corner of her sheets is one of them. She’s got something on her mind. I’m not sure whether I should ask her, or give her the time and space to bring it up on her own. Ever since Mom and Dad got arrested, I’ve been worried about Corinne. She’s completely resilient, but I want to ease the burden of this in whatever way that I can. I just can’t do that unless she tells me what the burden is.  
    “I read about what you did yesterday,” she tells me. She’s still fumbling with the sheets, refusing to meet my eyes even though we’re thousands of miles away from each other. “What you said in front of the reporters.”  
    I square my shoulders, and sit up straight. I’m not sure why her comment puts me on edge, but it does. I feel like I have to be ready to defend myself. “I’m not going to let them bring your name into this, Corinne. They don’t get to talk about you, and insinuate that you had anything to do with Mom and Dad’s lies. Besides, I got a talking to from Nancy about it, anyway.”  
    Corinne grins. “Good. I don’t want you being stupid on my account.”  
    “Who else would I be stupid for?” I frame it like a question, but really, she’s the only person in my life that I’d put myself on the line for the way that I have.  
    She sighs, and rolls her eyes. When she finally looks at me, I can see that she’s touched, but also a little annoyed.  
    “You know what I mean, Marisa. Your career is going well, the brand is taking off. I see people tweeting about it all the time. Don’t do anything that messes that up, okay?”  
    Ah, the brand. The website, the lifestyle products…everything I worked so hard for and was proud to put my name on. Everything that my father deemed frivolous and wasteful and embarrassing to our family name. The brand that I hired Nancy to ensure was completely untouched by this goddamned scandal. I’ve never been so glad that in a moment of youthful, spiteful independence, I went out and got a loan for the startup cash, refusing to touch my trust fund or my savings. It was built on money that hadn’t ever been touched by either one of my parents. We had fought about that, but it ended up being the best decision I’ve ever made, in retrospect.  
    And Corrine wants to make sure that I don’t do anything stupid to jeopardize it.  
    “I just want you to have a normal life, Cor. I don’t want your name in the newspapers, and I don’t want anyone alleging you did anything as stupid and wrong as Mom and Dad did.”
    “I’m fine,” she assures me. “It’s just a few photographers and some reporters yelling things at me on campus sometimes. It’s nothing that I can’t handle. Besides, the bodyguard you hired that you think I don’t know about keeps most of the trouble at bay.”
    I take a deep breath, and give her what is probably an incredibly sheepish, guilty look. The girl is so smart, I should’ve known that she’d figure it out sooner rather than later. What she doesn’t know is that there’s more than one person. I have a whole team looking after her.  
    “I’m not going to apologize for doing that, if that’s what you’re wanting from me.”  
    Corinne smiles. “Not looking for an apology at all. I just wanted to let you know that I know that you did it.”  
    “Good.” In the moment that follows, I bite my lip and make a decision. “So, are you going to tell me what’s bothering you?”
      “You know. Of course you know.”  
    And…she’s messing with her sheets again.  
    “Of course I do,” I reply. “So. Spill.”  
    “It’s silly.” Corinne shakes her head, and pushes a fall of her curly blonde hair over her shoulder.  
    “If it’s bothering you, it’s not silly.”  
    She sighs, and leans forward. “Do you remember my eleventh birthday party? The one