Marni peeked up at Mom. “You’re doing backflips to avoid answering this question.”
“What I’m not doing is engaging in a back-and-forth with a woman who planned and plotted to steal my family’s fortune.” Mom sounded happy with her response. As if she thought she’d scored points on an imaginary scoreboard.
If she believed she’d cut Hanna with biting words she was dead wrong. Mom made the situation worse with every syllable she uttered. She could have brushed the question off with a few carefully chosen sentences. She could have faked it. She at least could have tried to hide her hatred for Hanna. All would have been smarter moves. She stuck with herI’m better than youvibe instead.
“I think we’re done here.” Mom didn’t wait for a response. She breezed out of the room and headed for the stairs.
“I’m sorry.” Apologies weren’t really my thing. I preached about taking responsibility with my patients. I avoided the practice in my personal life, but Hanna deserved one. Probably far more than one from my family.
“Don’t be. We should go.” Hanna nodded to Marni as she spoke.
The signal worked. Marni and Hanna headed for the door as Mom watched from halfway up the staircase.
Hanna turned around right before she opened the door toleave. “One thing, Ms. Clarke. If I wanted your family’s fortune, I would have married Xavier and taken it decades ago. I didn’t and for that you’re welcome.”
Hanna ended theshots firedmoment by shutting the door behind her.
“The woman dares to speak to me like that?” Mom didn’t go up or come down. She stood in the middle of the staircase, glaring at me. “She should—”
Whatever. “What’s the answer? When did you get to the house that day?”
“After Xavier called me, of course.” All the animation and anger vanished. She looked and sounded calm. Serene. Not ruffled at all.
“So, you saw Patrick’s body on the floor?”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Mom said in a flat voice. Still no heat. No shock or surprise either.
The mountain of facts I didn’t know threatened to topple over and bury me. “What about Victoria? Was she dead by the time you got there?”
“You’ve been hanging around that money-stealing little bitch for too long. You’re taking on her lack of manners.”
Nope. No more derailing. “You sound defensive.”
“Excuse me?”
There it was. The flash of heat I expected. The one she inflicted on Hanna, then carefully banked. It sparked to life again. “Xavier called me. I was there. Where were you?”
“We are finished with this insulting conversation.” Mom started ascending, dragging my robe behind her as if she were an aging movie star.
I still knew pieces, but they didn’t fit together the way anyone claimed. For once, just for a few seconds, I’d love for the haze to clear. “The timeline doesn’t work.”
Hanna wouldn’t let this go, even if Jeremy came back safely. She’d sit down at some point and set out the sequence of the day and realize it didn’t line up.
Mom didn’t stop walking. “That woman stole my money.”
“She didn’t.”
Mom slipped into her room without another word. She could run but she was lying. About the timeline. About when she got to the house that day. About how and why.
I knew because I was lying, too.
Chapter Fifty-One
Aubrey
Stella. Dear cousin Stella. The relative I barely knew. The therapist I didn’t want.
She didn’t get to create trouble and walk away without consequences. She knew she never should have acted as my therapist. I was a teenager and even I understood the concept of conflict of interest. I specifically asked if she could be my counselor, ethically, and she waved off the concern. Pretended my argument wasn’t valid. Talked to me, then ran and told Xavier everything I said and did.
