Penelope nods. “Then she said kids who ‘act out’ need guidance. That they don’t want Minxy… ‘stuck in the past.’”
I feel my teeth grind. “Go on.”
“I joked,” she continues. “I said it sounded like she’d tucked Minxy into witness protection or something.” Penelope looksup at me. “She didn’t just bristle, Gideon. She went white. Like corpse white. And then she got tight and sharp, and snapped that Minxy is at school, and she will stay at school until she’s ready to be home. That’s all I needed to know.”
“What is she so afraid of?” Talon asks, voice thin.
Penelope’s hands curl into fists. “I have an idea. After our tiff, she said she needed the bathroom, grabbed her phone, and ducked into the fitting room next to mine. I was supposed to be changing into another dress.”
“You weren’t,” I guess.
“Of course not,” she says. “I climbed onto the bench and pulled myself up so I could see over the divider.”
Talon blinks once. “You what?”
“I wanted to see what she was doing,” she snaps. “I did some ninja warrior shit and looked over the top.”
Silas’ mouth quirks for half a second like he’d pay to see that.
I jerk my chin. “And?”
“She was on the phone briefly but then hung up,” Penelope says quietly. “She started texting someone. I saw what she was typing.”
She closes her eyes.
“Say it,” I tell her.
She opens them again. They’re glossy now.
“She wrote, stepdaughter is getting pushy.” Penelope’s voice goes thinner. “No one can know what Minxy saw the night with Todd. Todd will lead to Dominic, and that CANNOT happen.”
The room tilts.
Talon’s breath leaves his lungs in a punched sound.
Silas goes perfectly, utterly still.
My heart starts pounding so hard it hurts.
“Again,” I say, because my brain doesn’t want to accept it.
She repeats it, word for word.
Todd.
Dominic.
Minxy saw.
No one can know.
The world tunnels around the three of us.
Dominic.
Silas’ brother, my best friend.
Talon’s dad.
