Total pages in book: 173
Estimated words: 163802 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 819(@200wpm)___ 655(@250wpm)___ 546(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 163802 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 819(@200wpm)___ 655(@250wpm)___ 546(@300wpm)
Rhodes walked in with his tie still on, looking exhausted from his twice-weekly commute to the New York office. “Evening, ladies. Smells like you’re cooking up something delicious.”
“We’re making your favorite, Daddy.” Lily lifted up a bowl full of nothing but cheese. “Chili!”
“Yummy.” Rhodes dropped a kiss on her forehead, then turned to me.
I made like I had had to sneeze and caught his kiss on my cheek. “How was your day?” I asked, taking my chopped onion to the pot and tossing it in. “Anything interesting happen?”
“Nothing interesting. You?”
“Yes, actually.” I beamed at him. “Courtney came over and we searched in your office to find the signed contract that sent you running upstairs during our anniversary party, but instead I discovered that the balcony to the room next door completely blocks the view to the garden, so you couldn’t have seen Agassi in the garden that night. You couldn’t have seen anyone.”
The smile melted off his face. “Sue... it’s not what you think.”
“What I think is that your recollection of events that night were incorrect?” I chirped, highly aware of the listening Lily. “Am I wrong about that, or are you?”
“You’re wrong if you’re thinking what I believe you’re thinking.”
My smile widened. I must’ve looked like a lunatic. “What I’m thinking is what an awful time I had walking through every room on every floor of the southern corner of the east wing, where I discovered that the room where you can clearly see a man smoking in the garden below... is from the window in my mother’s room.”
“No, Sue, it’s not—”
“So what were you doing in Omma’s room at the same time as our unwanted guest?” I asked. “Were you catching up? Shooting the breeze?”
“Sue!” he barked, making Lily drop the grater.
“Or were you in there alone?”
“Daddy? Mommy?” Lily flicked between us. “What’s wrong?”
Rhodes dropped his glare quick. “Nothing’s wrong, baby. Mommy’s just playing a game with Daddy. How about you have some screen time in the living room while—?”
“No,” I sliced in. “You don’t have to go anywhere, baby girl.”
I opened the drawer by the stove, took out the iPad, and handed it to Lily. She happily turned on her show and went back to grating without missing a beat.
Rhodes did not look pleased. “Afraid to be alone with me, Sue? Seriously?”
“Why were you in Omma’s room?”
He hissed through gritted teeth. “I wasn’t in her room.”
“Then why did you lie about seeing Reynard in the garden?” I snatched up the garlic and tossed it in. Yes, I was adept at angry cooking. All the nights I argued with Daniel over a boiling pot made me the expert.
“I didn’t lie. He was there.”
“Then the only way you could’ve seen him was if you were in Omma’s room. You’re spinning me a tale again!”
“No, I’m not! You can also see the garden from the room next—” Rhodes choked, eyes bugging.
“A-ha!”
He goggled at me. “A-ha? Did you just a-ha me? What kind of murder mystery show do you think we’re in now, woman?”
“The kind where you’ve been caught in a lie.” I dumped the tomato paste in the pot. “So tell me what really happened, or I’ll keep imagining the worst.”
He blew out a frustrated breath, scrubbing his face. “Can we at least speak privately—?”
“No.”
Rhodes threw up his hands. “Fine, you win—here it is. That night, I did go up to the third floor, but I did it so that no one would see me take the servants’ staircase down to the second.”
He said it so readily, my breath stopped.
“Hera, help me, Rhodes,” I croaked. “What did you do?”
“Not that,” he cried. “Baby, please, believe me. Not that.”
“So why did you sneak around your own house just to contrive your way into a room you had no business being in? Please tell me the innocent reason for that behavior.”
“It wasn’t innocent.” Rhodes’s face was etched out of stone. “Your mother was blackmailing me. I went in there to find the proof she was keeping on me, and destroy it.”
If anything could’ve dropped my jaw to the floor like a character in a Saturday morning cartoon, Rhodes just said it. “You—”
“Daddy, what’s blackmail?”
We swung around, landing on Lily’s smiling, curious expression. We’d both forgotten she was there.
“It’s uh... It’s when you get bad news in the mail.”
“Oh no, Daddy, are you okay?”
He smiled soft. “I’m just fine, baby girl, but I need to talk to Mommy alone after all.”
“No, don’t—”
“Take your iPad into the living room.” Rhodes spoke over me. “We’ll call you when dinner’s ready.”
“Okay.” She hopped off her stool and scampered off, leaving her auntie high and dry.
Rhodes was less than fazed at my glare. “You want to have this conversation? We’ll have it, but not in front of Lily.”
“Why wouldn’t you want to spin more fairy tales in front of Lily? Kids love fairy tales.”