I pick up the wine glass and swirl it gently. “I didn’t marry him to win him over, Zoe. Generally speaking, people have already won their spouse overbeforemarriage. You understand, right? You’ve been married before.”
She narrows her gaze. I smile.
“You think you’re so clever, don’t you?”
I merely quirk an eyebrow.
All faux humor gone from her face, she leans closer and speaks in a low, soft voice, as if she’s talking to an easily frightened and slightly dim-witted child. “If you’re so clever, do you know how your parents contracted such fatal food poisoning?”
The question slams into me. It takes a moment before my brain can unfreeze from the shock. My heart thuds wildly, acid pooling in my gut. “What are you saying?”
Zoe pulls back with a condescending smile. “What do you think?”
“Did Doris poison my parents?” I demand in a low, shaky voice. I have to know.
“Doyouthink she poisoned your parents?” Zoe picks up her wine glass and drinks.
She studies me over the rim, a cat toying with a mouse. I inhale and exhale deeply a few times. She wants to shake my composure, break me by throwing out established facts without adding anything new. So what if she hints at some foul play? There’s no guarantee she’ll help me confront my aunt. She could easily claim that she didn’t mean anything, and I overthought everything.
“How am I supposed to know?” My voice is shockingly steady. “I was just a kid at the time.”
A mixture of respect and annoyance fleets over Zoe’s face. “You don’t have to be a child to be helpless, Lareina. Do you think you can keep yourself safe from Doris?”
“I’ve survived her and her ways so far, so yeah, I think I can hang on a little longer.”
“You won’t last for long without me on your side.”
I stare at her. Confident much? A smirk tugs at her mouth. So much smugness. She thinks she’s all that. “You mean longer than twenty-nine years?”
The smirk vanishes. “There hasn’t been as much urgency as there is now.”
“Uh-huh. And you can stop Doris and her family, just like that?” I snap my fingers. “Is that what you’re saying?”
“Yes.” She sounds almost too proud.
“So why didn’t you, if I was suffering before?”
“I’ve been busy,” she says smoothly.
“Riiiiight. Busy.” It’s an effort not to sneer. These sorts of scenes are starting to bore me. People only reach out when they want something, but look the other way when I need something from them.
“Haven’t you wondered why Doris has been so quiet since you left Vegas with my son? Do you think she’s just given up on your inheritance after all these years?”
I just look at Zoe. “You might be the one holding Doris back, but I’m not going to give you credit. Not now. It’s too little, too late.”
“You’re such an ungrateful little bitch.” A small rebuke. “Don’t forget, Lareina—blood is thicker than water. And it’smyblood that flows in Ares’s veins. Your tenuous little link to him can be broken anytime, but the bond between my son and me is forever.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Ares
My thoughts are a jumbled mess, I rush to the garage, then drive like a madman on the road. The first thing that comes to mind is that the entire matter has been staged. After all, Harvey knows how much I hate my mother, along with her manipulations and anybody who might take part in facilitating them. But then logic questions how I can be certain Harvey’s telling the truth about Mom and Lareina. He used Soledad to drug me. He’d have no problem using my wife to get me to agree to be his legal puppet.
Regardless, I need to see it with my own eyes to be sure. I trust nothing when it comes to my mother and uncle.
I get to the restaurant and walk right past the hostess, whose expression quickly goes from smile to shock, weave through the tables and booths until I find my wife—
And my mother.
