Chapter 13
“Who’s that?” Nina turned to Oliver, curiosity written all over her pretty face.
Oliver’s eyes lingered on Marian for a second before he looked away, a flicker of annoyance in his gaze. “Just someone Grandma knows.”
“Why didn’t she come in for a bit?“&
Oliver pulled the sheer curtain closed, cutting off Nina’s view. “She just dropped something off. She’ll be gone in a minute.”
Marian was already on her way out.
Inside, Kelly helped Grandma through the door. “Mom, do you think Patricia sent Marian here on purpose?“>
“Shouldn’t she have?” Grandma replied, calm as ever.
Kelly frowned, not understanding. “Mom, do you really think it’s okay for Patricia to send someone to keep tabs on us? If you’re siding with Patricia, what do you expect Nina to think?”
Nina?
Grandma had never thought much of Nina. She was young, barely in her twenties, a sheltered rich girl who had her eye on a married man. Grandma found her sense of right and wrong deeply lacking. If Patricia wasn’t unsatisfying, would Grandma have ever allowed something so disgraceful in the family?
If there was even the slightest chance Patricia could recover, if she could have children herself and carry on the Newton family line, Grandma would never have agreed to this mess.
Patricia was so much sharper than Nina ever would be.
Marian came by today, supposedly just to deliver something, but it was really a test–a warning.§
“I’m tired, I’ll skip dinner,” Grandma announced as soon as she entered the living room, using her discomfort as an excuse to head straight for her room.
Kelly was still staring after her, stunned, when the bedroom door closed.
What was that about?!
“Oliver, does Grandma not like me?” Nina stood up to greet her, but Grandma just walked past without a word, her face unreadable.
Kelly jumped in quickly. “Don’t overthink it, Nina. Grandma’s just not feeling well. She gets like this sometimes.”}
Nina nodded, though she didn’t look convinced.
Oliver patted her shoulder, quiet but reassuring, and left it at that.
When Marian got back to the villa, Patricia was by the window, looking at a pot of white daisies. The flowers were perfectly pruned, pure and elegant.
“You guessed right. Ms. Miller was there,” Marian reported.§
Patricia just hummed, picked up the pruning shears, and snipped off a bud, letting it fall into the trash.
“Some flowers only bloom, never bear fruit. Some bear fruit but never bloom,” she said softly. “You can’t have it all in life.”
As long as she and Oliver stayed together, Nina would never really belong in that house. Even if she did get in, she’d always be just a mistress.E
The next morning, Patricia went out for her rehab session.
She had just arrived at the hospital and was waiting for the elevator when someone grabbed Marian’s shoulder.
A man brushed Marian aside and took over pushing the wheelchair.
“Hey, who are you?” Marian shot the well–dressed man a glare, not hiding her annoyance.M
He looked down at Patricia, a grin in his voice. “Your know who I am, right?”
Patricia glanced up at him in the elevator’s mirrored wall. She did know him.
Joseph–Nina’s brother, Oliver’s lover’s sibling.
“Did you need something, Mr. Miller?”
“Yeah, actually, I do.” Joseph nodded, wheeling Patricia into the elevator as the doors opened.
The mirrored walls reflected both of them, every nuance of their expressions clear as day.
They’d seen each other plenty as kids, but the last time they’d really crossed paths was when Joseph came to the villa for Oliver
They were barely more than acquaintances Not close at all.
