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I bit my lip as I opened the refrigerator and pulled out some mayo and sliced ham. Maybe I could just test the waters.
“Guess what? I’ve got a hot date tonight,” I announced as I hauled the pile of sandwich fixings into my arms to the island counter. “Any suggestions about what I should wear? I think we’re going somewhere fancy.”
“In that case, totally go with the little, black wrap dress that ties on the side with the matching two-strap heeled sandals. You’ll look like dynamite in that.”
“Uh…Okay.” I tipped my head her way, wondering when she’d ever seen me actuallywearthat outfit. I don’t think I’d put it on once since moving here, which would mean she would’ve had to have gone through my closet at some point.
Huh.
Distracted by the fact that I had such a snoopy, invasive roommate, I didn’t notice her standing from the couch until she was yawning loudly and stretching her arms over her head. “Now, if you’ll excuse me. I’m beat. I think I’m going to take a long soak in the tub and then nap it out.”
As she began to lower her arms, however, I swear I caught a glimpse of a bruise on the inside of her elbow as if she’d had a blood draw go wrong.
I blinked, wondering if I’d seen it correctly or if it had been a trick of the light. “Okay,” I murmured distractedly. “Sounds good.”
But as she headed for the stairs to leave me alone down here, all my fears resurfaced, reminding me why I was so jumpy and scatterbrained in the first place.
And just as she reached the base of the stairwell, my curiosity got the best of me.
“Hey, Thalia…?” I said.
“Yeah?” She paused with her hand on the railing as she glanced back.
“Do you mind if I ask…when did your aunt die?”
Her eyebrows shifted in confusion. “Myaunt?”
“Yeah,” I encouraged with a nod. “The one who used to live here, in this brownstone, before you did.”
“Aunt Iris?” Tipping her head in confusion, Thalia only blinked at me. Then, she said, “What makes you think she died?”
“I…” My mouth fell open, speechless for a good five seconds before I sputtered, “Uh, b-because…” I exhaled heavily to gather my senses, then I pointed at her. “I thought you said she left this place to you and…and Damien.”
“When shemoved, yes,” Thalia explained, gaping at me as if I were insane. “She went to Florida and decided to just leave the apartment to us instead of selling it. Oh my God, she’s notdead.”
“Oh! I…” The way she was gaping at me as if I’d lost my mind made my confidence plummet, so I stopped trying to explain myself and simply settled for apologizing. “I’m so sorry. That was a really morbid assumption, wasn’t it?”
“I’ll say,” she muttered, shaking her head as if to clear it.
I felt like a massive idiot. Lord, but Thaliahadn’tsaid the woman had ever died, now that I thought back on it, or that she’d left them her place in awill.
I’d really stuck my foot in it this time.
“You are so weird,” Thalia announced before shaking her head sadly and jogging up the stairs.
I huffed out a deflated breath and glanced at my half-made sandwich, only to brighten with relief because this meant no one had died inmyapartment at least.
Thank God.
The place Jaylani had heard about must be somewhere else.
But now, I was more curious than ever to know who’d been murdered in Damien’sfamily.
Unless…dammit. He hadn’t said it’d been a relative, had he? He’d just said it was someoneclose. I’d simply assumed—like I apparently liked to do—that it was a family member.
Hell, for all I knew, it could’ve been a guy—not a female—like a best friend.
There was no way I could ask, though. With something that traumatic, I was just going to have to wait—patiently—until he felt like opening up andtellingme.
