‘What about you, Olivia?’ Jeannie leaned back in her seat. How was she playing the part of the dastardly villain so well… What was she really up to? My stomach clenched tightly. ‘Do you have anything you’d like to share with the group now?’ she asked, taking a swig of her wine.
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ I shifted uncomfortably as my stomach tensed again.
‘Very well, then I will tell them. Your dear mother, despite protesting until she’s blue in the face that she’s honest and hard-working, has actually been farming off her filthy little pornos to a ghostwriter. And now, she’s in the hole to the tune of ten thousand pounds. And that’s what we know about. I’m sure it will be much more than that when her publisher finds out she’s broken her contract.’
Miles’s frown deepened as he turned towards me.
Before he could ask I answered. ‘It’s true. But I can explain?—’
‘Save it,’ Jeannie hissed. ‘You wanted the Weiss inheritance, plain and simple. And today, you came here to finish what you started. You’re not here on a reconnaissance mission for Randolf. You’re here to make sure you see it through to the end. You’re here to make sure that I too have a happy little accident.’
‘No—’ I gripped my knife and fork so tightly my palms stung. I turned to Miles to explain. ‘I was behind with the book, and it just kept getting closer to the deadline, and what with the move, and then coming here, it just got out of control.’
Miles’s eyes filled with sadness as he reached his hand out to rub my shoulder.
‘It’s fine—’ he began.
‘It’s not fine. I’m a fuck-up who spent money we didn’t have just to save face… I should have gone straight to my editor and been honest.’ My stomach gurgled so loudly that I was almost embarrassed. ‘But worse than that, I should have told you. So, in the spirit of transparency… I saw your mother on that forum. I know it was her who was feeding those trolls information about me. I think she’sOpinionatedOgre1.’
‘Errrrm, excuse my French’—Martha quirked her mouth to the side—‘but what in the blue fuck is everyone talking about?’ she asked incredulously.
‘Ha!’ Jeannie’s voice rose several octaves. ‘You think I would feed some absolute down-and-outs who spend their days rotating online information about our family? No, you stupid girl. Youclearlyhaven’t been paying attention, have you?’
‘What were you doing on there, then?’ I snapped as I dug my hand between my waistband and stomach to ease the sharp pain emanating there.
‘I was a double agent. Mimi was the mole. She wasFantasyWh0re. I merely monitored it so I could feed the information to Artie so he could get it taken down.’ She addressed Miles. ‘You see how toxic she is? My whole life is dedicated to upholding the Weiss family name, and she thinks I would spread slanderous gossip online to disparage her. She manages to do a brilliant job of that all on her own.’
‘Mother.’ Miles banged his fist down onto the table causing the cutlery to bounce. ‘You have no right to speak about my wife that way.’
I was about to interject but was rendered speechless as my insides felt like they were caught in a cement mixer.
‘You know, there was a moment,’ Jeannie said narrowing her eyes at her son, ‘when I wondered whether I had underestimated you, Miles. You’ve developed a temper that I’ve never really noticed before…’
‘Finally, an attribute you could be proud of then? Pray tell, what motive would I have?’ Miles’s eyes shone with a cruel gleam that I’d never seen before. I looked away, staring down at the food on my plate. A rush of heat invaded my body. Something was not right.
‘The money, of course, what other motive is there? I thought perhaps you took Eugene’s will-reading the wrong way. I thought maybe you felt like we were asking you to be cut-throat, and then maybe you let things get out of control.’
‘So, what, you changed your mind on that simply because Mrs Harlow died?’ He was digging for answers, which is exactly what Randolf had told us to do. But I couldn’t join in, I could barely hear what they were saying.
‘Yes. When Mrs Harlow died. I knew, I justknewit was her. That’s why’—Jeannie’s lips twisted in an ugly grimace—‘that’s why I had to do this. I had to protect my son and my grandchildren before her bloodlust turned towards you. I did this foryou.’
All eyes were on her, except mine. Mine were widened in horror as I struggled to get up from the table. I felt a terrible, twisting urgency. Something awful was about to come from one end of my body or the other, perhaps both, and it was imminent.
‘Liv?’ Miles reached for my arm as I stumbled away from the table. ‘Are you okay?’
‘Bathroom,’ I gasped. My insides roiled, and I stumbled towards the door, knocking over a chair on my way out.
I was not okay. I barely made it across the room and up the stairs before I vomited down my front and keeled over on the landing. Once I was in the hallway, I collapsed against the wall. A cold sweat pricked at my skin. Hot bile rose up into my throat as the pattern on the wallpaper swirled around me. It took every remaining ounce of strength to get to the bathroom and collapse in a heap by the toilet. I was shivering uncontrollably. Was it poison? Panic? Whatever it was, Jeannie had admitting to doing something, I just didn’t knowwhat.
The door banged open and Miles rushed in, wide-eyed.
‘Liv?’ He grabbed a towel and wet it in the sink. ‘What’s going on?’
‘I don’t know,’ I gasped between spasms and throwing up. ‘I’m. So. Sorry.’
‘Sorry?’ He asked in blind confusion.
‘The money…’ I panted, ‘the ghostwri?—’
