Page 18 of The Right Sign
“At home.”
“Alone?”
“Yes,alone. I wasn’t planning on bringing my seven-year-old to a speakeasy welcome party, Dare.” Her eyebrows tighten into a deep V. “What? Do you think I’m a bad mother too?”
“You did this because someone called you a bad mother?”
“No!” She pops to her feet and the towel the paramedics slipped around her drips to the ground. “I told you.” She takes a step forward and almost drops on her face. I reach out to steady her, but she manages to regain balance on her own and lifts her chin. “I saw a deer.”
I groan softly under my breath.
“You don’t believe me, do you?” She curls slender hands into fists and punches my chest. “You think I’m a liar, don’t you?”
I let out another sigh. Lucy takes after dad in her looks—blonde, tan and blue-eyed. I took after mom, who had fairer skin, dark eyes and brown hair.
But while she’s her father’s daughter in looks, Lucy gotallof mom’s crazy temper.
Fortunately, I got all of dad’s patience.
It usually balances things out.
But tonight…
Even if I managed to have the patience of a saint, Lucy is pushing it.
“What happened to Talia’s nanny, Luce?”
My sister reels away from me. “Gone.”
“Gone where?” My voice climbs in alarm. She didn’t… murder the woman, did she?
“Well,” Lucy taps large lips that are the product of her favorite surgeon, “after she found her panties on fire—”
“I’m sorry.What?”
“She packed up, yelled ‘your child is evil incarnate’ and left.”
“I…” Blinking fast, I shake my head. There are so many things wrong with that story, I don’t know where to start. “Maybe we’ll talk when you’re not this buzzed.”
“I’m telling the truth!” Lucy yells indignantly. “And I’m not drunk anymore. Mosely brought my ginger ale. I’ve had, like, seven.”
My nerves wearing thin, I look around for my assistant. The crowd is thinning out. A few cop cars have already left the scene. Still, there’s a decent number of onlookers.
Mosely left earlier to collect phones from eyewitnesses. I doubt he had any trouble taking possession of those videos. Most people would trade their entire devices for our compensation.
“I’ll call Talia to check on her. It’s late and she must be worried about you.” I reach into my pocket.
Lucy sticks the pointed toe of her stilettos into the ground. “You can’t.”
“Why not?”
“I took away her phone.”
“Lucy!”
“What?”
“You took her phone and left her at home by herself?”