AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She looks around the room.
“Walls seem to be remarkably thin in this house.”
She nods like an idiot.
“Did you tell her I gave her my permission to ride with Theron that afternoon?”
She clears her throat.
“Why?” I ask.
She shakes her head, eyes wet although I’m pretty sure any tears she sheds are to save her own skin and not for any remorse she may feel.
“Answer me.”
“We thought maybe Theron…”
“You thought to put Mercedes in his path. You and my mother.”
She lowers her gaze to the floor.
“What else does my mother know?”
She stares at me with her stupid eyes. She’s not the brains behind this operation.
“How you answer me will decide what I do with you, and prison is a very real possibility.”
“I… The courtesan.”
Fuck.
I keep my face neutral and impassive as if it means nothing at all. Because it means everything. Because if my mother knows what Mercedes did, she can cause real trouble for her. And she will if it will serve her.
I need to think. To get ahead of this. I have fucked this up so royally.
“Here’s what’s going to happen, Miriam.” She looks up at me and wipes her eyes and her nose. Snivels like a pig. “You are going to pretend this conversation never happened.”
She’s surprised at this. Nods enthusiastically. “Of course, sir. Of course! Thank you!”
“Don’t be so eager. If my mother or Theron get wind of this, if they find out that I know, I will haul you to a jail cell so fast you won’t know what hit you. Am I clear?”
“But… sir…”
I pick up the paperweight and toss it from one hand to the other as her face turns a shade of gray I didn’t know was possible for a living, breathing human being.
“And according to your file,” I say, opening the single folder on my desk. “It won’t be your first time. You were in prison before. Petty crimes but enough of them. I don’t imagine you liked it much. Inmates are brutal, aren’t they?” I give that a long minute to sink in. “None of the comings and goings of this house will be discussed with my mother or brother. Understood?”
“Yes, sir.”
I get to my feet, walk around the desk, and loom over her. “And if Mercedes so much as feels you’ve looked at her the wrong way, there will be hell to pay. Am I very fucking clear on that point, Miriam?”
A knock on the door interrupts our conversation. I barely have a moment to be pissed because whoever it is doesn’t wait for me to give the order to enter but keeps knocking and pushes the door open at the same time.
It’s Lois, which surprises me, but it’s the look on her face that has my heart drop to my stomach.
“Get out, Miriam.” I don’t wait for her to move but pick her up by her arm and give her a good shove toward the door. Lois gives her just enough space to clear the room, and I hear her running down the hall.
But I don’t care about Miriam. Because Lois is crying, shaking, too upset to speak.
