“Where’s the greenhouse? Do you grow a lot of your own food?”
Meri doesn’t answer until Nora is safely out of earshot. “How did you know about Emmaline?”
“What?” My arm jerks so much at the veiled accusation in her question that I nearly cut into my finger. Paying more attention, I start slicing again. “I just guessed.”
She bites her lower lip, staring at my face with open scrutiny. “You guessed,” she echoes in a voice full of disbelief. “A few days after arriving in this house for the first time, you guessed my brother killed her.”
“Was it meant to be a secret?”
“It was to me.” I try to refocus on my task, but she plucks the knife from my hand. “Can you expand on your answer?”
I shrug, starting to understand how annoying questions are when you’re not the one issuing them. “There was a job vacancy where a nanny used to be, and your brother is a murderer. I put those facts together and… Voila!”
“When we were prepping for dinner, you knew. That’s a full day before you asked him.”
Now it’s my turn to frown. “I didn’t know anything. What’re you talking about?”
“You said the abduction happened inside the house.”
“No. You or Tiff said that—or at least that’s what I thought you were saying. I just said it made sense.” I point to the large knife in her hand. “Can I have that back, please? It’s hard to chop onions without it.”
“Forget the onions.”
“Fine.” I shove the board away, fold my arms, and turn to face her. “What is it you actually want to know?”
“Were you involved in my niece’s kidnapping?”
“No.”
“How long did you work for Sergio?”
“Seven or eight years.” I chew my lip as I say the answer. It’s correct but damn. Has it really been that long?
“Why stay there?”
I shrug. “He paid me more than the job was worth and I didn’t need to worry about the business staying solvent.”
“Were you sleeping with him?”
“WithSergio?”For a moment, I’m too appalled to answer. “No,” I finally answer through thin lips when it becomes obvious Meri isn’t moving on until I do. “I wasn’t sleeping with my lazy old greasy haired overweight boss.”
Her eyes shoot fire as she stares at me. “Your being here doesn’t make sense.”
“Take it up with your brother, then. He’s the one ordering me to stay.”
“And what if he wasn’t?”
I chew on the inside of my cheek to stop from blurting out anything inappropriate. “You’ll have to expand on that.”
“Sergio’s been found. My brother has already set up an allowance. You could leave tomorrow.”
I try to keep my expression neutral as my mind runs in circles, trying to work out why she’s pressuring me and whether this is a question or a test. “Does Baxter know you’re making that offer? Because when I talked to him last, he didn’t seem that keen on me moving out so quickly.”
Meri flaps a hand as though her brother’s wishes mean nothing. Despite her living in a house where every micromanaged thing in sight has his fingerprints on it. “Forget what he wants. I’m talking about you.”
“How do I get this allowance?”
“In your bank account.” She frowns at me as though I’m the one acting oddly. “You have one, don’t you?”
