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Knowing I’d be up for a while, I crept downstairs, pulled out my laptop, then put it back. If I started it up, I’d check my email. If there was anything from Cooley or anyone else in the DA’s office, it would only make it harder for me to get any rest.
I went into the kitchen, not because I was hungry, since I couldn’t eat another bite, but in search of something that might help me wind down. I found a box of chamomile tea bags in the cupboard and filled the kettle sitting on the stove with water. I’d poured the boiling water over a tea bag at the same time my mom walked in.
“Looks like we had the same idea,” she said.
“Want a cup? No caffeine.”
“Thanks, baby,” she said when I set the cup in front of her and filled another for myself. “Can’t sleep?” she asked.
I sighed. “No. Too much on my mind.”
“Me too.”
“Something with Luisa?” I asked.
She put her hand on top of mine. “No, not with your sister. You really care about Noah Ridge, don’t you?”
“It’s more than that. I’m in love with him.”
“I can tell. You look at him the same way I used to look at your father.”
“Tell me what really happened with Hewitt, Mom. I’m sorry, but I don’t believe he stole Dad’s formulas.”
Her eyes filled with tears, and she turned away, but she didn’t get up and walk out. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Your dad and I had a terrible fight the night of the accident. He found out I’d gone to Hewitt and asked for help when the winery was going under. It was the reason he’d made the offer to buy it. Your father was absolutely furious with me for going behind his back.”
“What else happened?”
“He stormed into the bedroom, and I heard him on the phone, talking to Hewitt, demanding they meet. When he came out, he had a manila envelope in his hand. It contained his formulas. I’m sure of it.”
“What makes you think Noah’s father stole them?”
“They weren’t in the car when the police went through it. I asked them to go back and check.”
“You’re sure that’s what he took with him?”
“Almost positive.”
“What do you think Dad planned to do with them?”
“Your father was a very prideful man, Seraphina. While I don’t know for certain, my guess is his intention was to give them to Hewitt in exchange for helping us. It was really the only thing of value he had left. Other than the house, which we ended up losing anyway.”
“If he gave them to Hewitt, you can’t accuse the man of stealing them, Mom.”
“But how could he take them? How has he been able to live with himself, making so much money off something your father created? And there we were, destitute.”
“Did you confront him about it?”
“I thought about it, but with your father in the hospital and the deaths of that family, it was all I could do to get out of bed every day. If it weren’t for you girls, I don’t know I would have.”
“But it’s been eating away at you all these years.”
“It’s the only thing that makes sense, Seraphina.”
“It’s one explanation, Mom. If what you think did happen and Dad gave them to him, you don’t know Hewitt ever used them. There’s no way to prove he did. I looked. There are no patents. I told you that before.”
“Why wouldn’t he give them back? At least then, you girls would have something of your father’s. It doesn’t matter if they’re worthless. They were a piece of him.”
“There’s something I have to tell you.”
