Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 91847 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91847 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
“That’s true, but you’re kicking us out for her?”
“Who’s kicking whom out?” comes my mother’s voice as she enters the living room. She’s wearing a dress I haven’t seen before. I wonder which designer but can guess the price tag.
“Mom,” Caius says, swallowing the contents of his glass. “Drink?” He moves around the bar to make a vodka martini for our mother and pour himself another whiskey. She studies me as he carries her drink to her. “Santos wants to move back in here with his wife. And he wants us out.”
She takes the glass and turns back to me, eyebrows furrowed. “Why would you want that?”
“Which part?” I ask.
“Don’t be a smartass,” she tells me. “If you want to live here, that’s fine. I wanted that anyway, especially as we move into phase two.”
I take a deep breath in and force myself not to comment on that phase two.
Caius watches us, and when I open my mouth to answer, he comes to stand beside me. “I have good news,” he says.
She raises her eyebrows, surprised at the interruption.
“Thiago Avery is dead,” he tells her, saving me from having to answer. Because the answer is that I want to keep my wife away from them. I feel that in my gut.
“What?”
“I think that’s one of the reasons my brother wants to move his wife here. She went out to the lighthouse last night after they… had a disagreement.”
“You mean after she stabbed him,” Mom says, surprising me but also not. Cummings must have told her he patched me up. So much for doctor-patient confidentiality. “I heard tonight. Let me see.”
“It’s nothing. Flesh wound.”
Caius snorts.
“That’s not what Dr. Cummings said. That girl is dangerous, Santos.”
“What were you doing with Cummings?” I ask.
“That’s my business, isn’t it? Your father has been dead for two years. I won’t answer to my own son.”
“Hey you two, knock it off. Infighting is no good, remember?” Caius says casually. “Don’t you want to know about Thiago’s unfortunate accident?”
“Tell me.”
“Apparently he was at the lighthouse doing devil knows what, and he fell over the edge.” He puts air quotes around “fell.”
It takes her a minute, and it’s like she’s forgotten about the stabbing. She cocks her head, and a small smile begins to creep along the corners of her mouth.
“I’ll go to the Avery house tomorrow, get a feel for what’s going on there,” I say. “In the meantime, no one mentions he was at the lighthouse. I don’t want anyone to know that.”
“Hmm,” Mom murmurs, sipping her drink, thinking. “That’s a pleasant turn of events, isn’t it?”
“A man is most likely dead,” I remind her.
“Most likely?” She looks to Caius for clarification, not me.
“No body,” Caius fills in. “But the water was high in that storm. He was probably washed out to sea. I just got back from checking the lighthouse and the perimeter. Nothing.”
“Well, that’s not a fall anyone can survive. Do you still think your little wife is harmless after she stabbed you and murdered Thiago Avery?” she asks me.
“Christ. She didn’t murder anyone. How would Madelena murder a man Thiago’s size? Think.” I tap my skull.
“You’re very defensive. I’m just trying to help. And besides, I’m worried about you,” she says.
“Well, no need. I’m fine.” I push a hand into my hair. “I’m going to bed. I’ll arrange for someone to move Madelena’s and my things out of the apartment. There’s not much.”
My mother studies me, then turns her gaze to Caius. “What do you think of moving out?”
Caius shrugs a shoulder. “You and I never really liked this house much anyway, right?”
“That’s true.” She swallows her drink and sets the glass on the mantle. “But it’s late to make this decision now. I’m going to bed, and we’ll discuss it tomorrow.” She turns to walk out of the room.
“Decision’s been made,” I say in no uncertain terms. “You’ll start packing tomorrow and be out by the end of the week.”
She stops, glances back at me, expression unreadable. She then turns to Caius and gives him a smile. “Guess it’s you and me again, kiddo.”
He smiles that charming smile of his. “You and me.”
6
SANTOS
My mother is put out over being asked to move, even though she’s had designers to the apartment to refurnish it entirely to her liking. I love my mother, but I also know her. Evelyn Thomas came from nothing. She had Caius when she was in her late teens and scraped by working any job she could find to support herself, her baby, and her parents, whom she never speaks of. As far as I know, they died years ago.
When my father met her, Caius was still a baby. He was smitten upon first sight, and I understand. My mother is a very beautiful woman. But she is also a woman comfortable with manipulating every situation to best serve her wants and needs, and she is incredibly protective of her first-born son.