Total pages in book: 166
Estimated words: 169305 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 847(@200wpm)___ 677(@250wpm)___ 564(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 169305 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 847(@200wpm)___ 677(@250wpm)___ 564(@300wpm)
Good news for him.
Devastating news for me.
His fingers tightened around the shoe. “Do you have any other daughters, Mrs. Ballantine?”
My shoulders tensed.
“What? No. These two are more than enough. They keep me busy. Trust me.” Her hands curled into fists. “Ha. Ha.”
More silence.
Zach didn’t feel the need to fill the void with meaningless words. It was probably the only good thing about him.
Finally, he set the knockoff Vans down on the island. “Are you certain, Mrs. Ballantine?”
“Well, I would know if I had an extra daughter tucked away in the house, would I not?”
Oh, the irony.
Reggie and Tabby began to squirm. I could tell, even from this angle.
Tabby cleared her throat.
Tabitha Ballantine, don’t you dare choose this moment to be honest for the first time in your life.
“Lovely.” Zach’s chair scraped across the floor as he stood. “In that case, both the Ballantine sisters should accompany me to the police station. In fact, the D.A. happens to be a good friend of mine. We’ll go straight to his house. I’ve been meaning to check out his new renovations, anyway.”
Vera stood taller, finally dropping the sweet aunt charade. “W-what are you talking about?”
She couldn’t even land a direct-to-streaming role with that acting.
I often wondered what my father saw in her. Part of me kind of knew the answer. He wanted someone—anyone—to be his.
He’d grown up an orphan in Scotland. Moved here with no ties. No friends. Nothing.
And Vera? She had the entire package. Sisters, aunts, and a daughter with another on the way.
Too bad that, in gaining one family, he’d betrayed another.
Me.
Zach plucked the shoe off the counter, dangling it from his index finger. “I’m talking about the fact that whomever this shoe belongs to tried to steal my pendant the night of the soirée. Since it came from your household when I bought it, I am going to go out on a limb here and guess that someone got too attached and thought they could get away with stealing it back. Well, theft is illegal in all fifty states. Your daughters should be taught a lesson.”
“Oh, this is all a misunderstanding. They don’t want that useless piece of cra—” Vera stopped herself at the very last second, drawing in a deep breath and replacing it with a superficial giggle. “I can assure you that the girls could not care one bit about the pendant, Mr. Sun.”
“And still, this shoe proves to me that one of them did,” Zachary insisted, milking the truth out of her without her even realizing it.
“It’s probably Farrow’s,” Tabby rushed out.
And I’d thought Vera would be the one to rat me out.
My cheeks flamed. Freaking Tabby.
Zach lowered the shoe. “Farrow?”
“Our stepsister.” Tabby’s cheeks flushed, no doubt excitement at the sudden opportunity to please Zach. “She dresses like a homeless person and our dad—her biological dad—used to own the pendant. She kept it in her room before we sold it. She always gets into trouble.”
Up until now, I might’ve saved Tabitha if we were ever in a Mufasa-and-Scar situation. I made a mental note not to.
The woman was as likeable as a deadly virus.
“So, there is a third sister.” Zach sounded like he was trying to fleece nuclear codes from a toddler.
“Sh-she’s not really a sister.” Reggie fussed with the collar of her Oxford dress. “Though I wouldn’t say no to sharing her metabolism…”
“My stepdaughter is estranged from us.” Vera tried to sound dignified. “I’ve tried my best with her, I have, but—”
Zach cut her off. “Where is Farrow?”
“Somewhere in the house.” Tabby’s shoulders sagged, now that she was no longer at risk of jailtime. She gestured to the rags on the tiles. “She needs to finish cleaning up here.”
The sting of her words pinched my cheeks. Heat exploded from my sternum, buzzing up and down my entire body.
My lousy excuse for a family had no idea how they sounded.
Or maybe they did, and this was their goal all along.
Working as a cleaner didn’t embarrass me. I prided myself in my stellar service.
But being paraded as the lowly maid of my own family? I found myself surprisingly embarrassed. Surprising because I didn’t usually give half a crap what people thought about me.
But somehow, I did when it came to Zachary Sun.
Once upon a time, and for three hours only, I’d managed to capture his attention. Something no other woman had ever done.
Yes, I liked the idea that he thought of me as mysterious and alluring.
Not as someone who scrubbed her step-monsters’ toilets.
“Find her for me.” He snapped his fingers once as if he were delivering a decree to his devoted subjects. I could practically hear the prick sitting back like the brusque king that he was. “Or you’ll find yourself in one hell of a lawsuit.”
The commotion that followed made my head spin.
Vera pointed to her daughters. “Reggie, you look upstairs. Tabby, do the pool house and the basement. She can’t be far. Her car’s parked out front. I’ll check here.”