I Huffed a laugh under my breath as I stopped at the red light. “I was just thinking… even with your mascara in meltdown and your lipstick on your chin, you’re still stupidly beautiful.”
“Fuck you,” she growled, flipping the visor. “Jesus, I look like a clown who survived a war.”
“Nah, you’re always beautiful.”
“You’re such a dick.” She tipped her head back and the first real smile I’d seen all day flickered at the corners of her lips.
“Maybe. But I made you smile. So I win.”
“Whosaysthat?”
“Homer Simpson.”
“What?”
“Every time Marge smiles after an argument, Homer knows he’s off the hook.”
She groaned, but she was laughing. “You sneaky little shit.”
When we got back, I hauled her upstairs with me and kicked Theo’s door open.
He looked up from a stack of books as I headed into the kitchen for a bottle of tequila. “Everything okay?”
“Better now,” I said and tossed him my phone. “Play it.”
He listened to the recording. His face went hard. Jaw tight. “New management’s coming in,” he said quietly, looking at Thalia. “I’ll put in a word for you. You shouldn’t have been fired.”
“Thank you,” she whispered.
“You okay?” he asked.
“No,” she admitted. “But I think I will be.”
Theo nodded. “Then we’ll help make sure of it.”
I dropped onto the couch between them and handed Thalia the bottle. She took a few healthy swigs before passing it to me. “Okay, now that we’re all alive and not in jail, I vote we order disgusting amounts of takeout and watch reality TV until our eyes bleed.”
Thalia raised an eyebrow, snatching the bottle back off me before I could pass it to Theo. “You arenotpicking.”
I grinned. “Too late.Love Island UKit is.” Theo groaned and Thalia laughed as I flicked through the channels. “Someone should text, Claire?—”
“I heard my name.” She sauntered in through the door, grabbed the rapidly disappearing bottle of tequila from Thalia and settled on the floor between her feet. One hand wrapped around her leg, stroking her calf comfortingly.
“So… what’s your poison T?” I asked, checking the listings on Uber eats.
CHAPTER 30
SIN
The living room was quiet except for the low hum of the TV, the news anchor’s voice sharp against the soft, plush calm of Theo’s mother’s new home. Sunlight poured through the tall windows, catching dust motes in golden beams. It was surreal—the calm, the normalcy, thecomfort—all while the world on screen cracked open.
Theo sat beside me, rigid but quiet, elbows on his knees. His mother was perched at the edge of the sofa across from us, fingers clutched tightly in her lap. Richard, ever her shadow these days, stood behind her, his hand resting gently on her shoulder. Protective. Reassuring.
The headline scrolled beneath the anchor’s voice:
Breaking: Timothy Carrington Implicated In Ongoing Investigation into Washington Astor.
Immunity Deals Granted to Key Witnesses.
