Chapter 6 #2
But when I was arrested, it was different. Vincent was bloody, and my house was destroyed. I was terrified and confused.
I took a deep breath and decided to press forward with my plan. There had to be something that might push Juliette’s empathy buttons.
I looked down at my plate. “Juliette… Do you think you could try putting yourself in my shoes for a second?”
“God, no.” She looked offended. “I don’t wear secondhand shoes, Susan. That’s disgusting. I’ll admit, the Jimmy Choos you were wearing at dinner the other night were lovely, but if I wanted to wear them, I’d just buy my own pair.”
“No, that’s not—'' I paused, and shook my head. “You know what, never mind.” I blew out an exasperated breath. “I get that my life might seem exciting to you, and it’s worth gossiping about, but it’s my life, Juliette. Your gossip has real-world consequences. One of which was that it was quite triggering having the police show up at my door with a warrant to search my house and to interrogate me.”
Her eyes widened. “Oh. Oh, I get it. Because of how you were arrested before.”
She did get it. Whether or not she actually cared was another matter. “Yes. It was a truly awful thing to go through. It was painful and confusing.”
Another waiter silently glided past, slipping more plates in front of us.
A single mussel drenched in lemon aspic.
Marron with finger lime. A tiny cheese puff filled with red wine jus.
Every single plate was less than a mouthful, and I devoured all of them with one bite.
The food was exquisite, but almost maddening.
Cloud had really nailed the whole always leave them wanting more thing.
Juliette pushed all the plates away and leaned towards me, eyes sparkling. “Tell me more. Tell me what happened that day you got arrested.”
Maybe I was getting somewhere with her after all. I leaned in and lowered my voice. “Imagine you came home one day after a hard day’s wor— er, a hard day at a charity luncheon, to find the worst thing you could possibly imagine happening, right in your bedroom.”
She gasped. “Dan stealing all my weight loss pills?”
Dan Raine was Juliette’s best friend; he read the weather report on the evening news. “Well, that’s not really…” I shook my head. “You know what, let’s roll with that. Imagine you found Dan stealing your weight loss pills.”
Her eyes narrowed. “He wouldn’t fucking dare, though. I would skin him alive.”
“Well, imagine he did dare. And now, imagine that he called the police and told them that they were actually his pills, not yours. He says you stole his prescription. He shows the cops his name on the prescription, so the police believe him. They wrestle you to the ground, place you in handcuffs, and throw you into the back of a police car.”
Her mouth twisted. “I’d burn the whole city to the ground,” she growled.
“But you can’t, Juliette. You’re in handcuffs.
You’re in jail for a crime you didn’t commit.
You can’t do anything. The confusion and frustration are overwhelming, but you’re powerless to do anything about it.
” I paused for a second, watching her face carefully.
“Now imagine that two years later, cops turn up at your door to interrogate you, accusing you of another crime you didn’t commit.
All because someone ran her mouth off without knowing the truth. ”
She wrinkled her nose, thinking for a long minute. Every now and then she took a big slug of her champagne. I watched her carefully, looking for any signs of understanding. Any hint of remorse. Any fragment of empathy.
Unfortunately, Juliette seemed incapable of introspection. “This is about Vincent, isn’t it? Are you saying that you didn’t try to kill him? And that he…” She took a deep breath; her eyes widened. “He framed you? Was he doing drugs? Was that it?”
Martina would kill me if I mentioned anything about the lawsuits we’d filed against the Andresanos.
I sat back in my chair and took a sip of my wine.
“I’m not sure I want to talk about it. My point was that being arrested was incredibly traumatic, and having the police show up on my door with a warrant brought all that back.
That was your fault,” I said pointedly, since she wasn’t getting the hint.
“You lied to Jessica Morningside about me.”
“Yes, but there’s more to this story than you’re telling me. Come on.” She leaned forward eagerly. “Susan, you can tell me. I’ve heard whispers, you know. Gordon and Delilah Andresano are losing their minds about something. You might as well tell me what it’s all about.”
I checked my watch. Goddamnit, I had to wrap this up quickly. “I can’t say anything. If you want to know, you’ll have to ask them directly.” Do it, I added silently. Find out why they hate me so much.
“I could ask Seraphina, I guess. I see her at the spa almost every other day.” Juliette’s eyes narrowed, almost sharpening. “Although she loses that languid serenity of hers whenever your name is mentioned. Still a little raw from you trying to kill her beloved, I suppose.”
I met her eyes and spoke clearly and firmly. “I never tried to kill him, Juliette. Not even when I found Seraphina on top of him.”
There was a long, loaded silence. Juliette’s eyebrows didn’t move, but if her forehead possessed any range of motion, they would have hit her hairline. “Huh.” She wrinkled her nose. “Well, that’s not exactly hot gossip. Everyone knew they were sleeping together, Sue.”
I hesitated for a second. Goddamnit, I should have seen that little punch coming. It still hurt. “Maybe they did. But I didn’t know, Juliette. I loved Vincent, and I thought my husband was faithful.”
“Men are only ever as faithful as their options,” she said airily. “The only thing scandalous about Vincent and Seraphina is the fact that they started banging when she was still underage.”
I had to turn away from her and take a sip of my wine.
Oh, wow, the hits just kept on coming. Desperately, I wrestled back control.
“Anyway,” I said, taking the last delicious sip of my wine.
“That’s it. That’s the whole story. That’s why it hurt me so much to see the police show up at my door the other day.
It was like my worst nightmare coming true again. ”
“Poor Susan.” Juliette smiled at me, almost gleefully. “That’s truly awful. I had no idea.”
She still hadn’t apologized for making up rumors about me.
Clearly, I’d overestimated her capacity to feel anything other than scorn.
But maybe I’d planted enough of a seed so her curiosity would get the better of her later.
Hopefully, she would turn her gossip-radar away from me and towards the Andresanos instead and start asking them some embarrassing questions.
Maybe one day, I’d get answers. “I’m sorry, Juliette, but I have to go back to work.” I rummaged around my feet, searching for my handbag in the thick mist.
Juliette didn’t seem unhappy with me abandoning her; she had a smug expression on her face. “Is your handsome Italian prince really who he says he is?”
I nodded. “It’s complicated, but yes. And our relationship is new, so I don’t want to talk about it just yet. It’s… uh… complicated. Now, where the hell is my purse?” I waved away some of the mist around my feet, looking for it. “I could have sworn I put it down here somewhere.”
Juliette dipped down, disappearing beneath the cloud of vapor that covered the floor.
“Here it is!” she crowed almost triumphantly and emerged from the clouds holding my patent leather handbag reverently in her hands.
She handed it over, grinning at me wildly.
“You know, Susan, you can’t entirely blame me for gossiping about Prince Stone. ”
Was this the apology I was looking for? No, wait. I frowned, confused. “Donovan. His name is Donovan.”
“Oh, yeah, right. Donovan. As I was saying, I might have jumped to conclusions, but you have to admit, it was all a bit suspicious. You show up, fresh out of jail, with a big sexy dangerous foreigner on your arm. And then when Jessica’s kid went missing, and it came out that you knew her, and you’d been talking to her for months… well.” She shrugged helplessly.
I sighed. “I suppose I can’t.”
“And it’s a shame about Audrina.”
A prickle of unease shot through me. “What’s a shame?”
“I always thought Jessica was exaggerating about her mental health issues. You know, the autism and whatnot? It’s why Jessica kept her at home as much as possible. She didn’t want anyone teasing Audrina.”
I managed to avoid rolling my eyes. Sure, that’s why she wanted to keep her hidden.
“If Jessica was worried about Audrina being teased, I would have thought that it would be a better idea to get her some help.” I rummaged around in my purse, looking for my wallet so I could leave a tip.
I could barely see a thing with all this mist hanging around.
This whole place was a giant OSHA violation; I was surprised they got away with it. My hands dipped further into my handbag, trying to find my wallet. I brushed a compact, my perfume, something that felt like soft leather...
Ugh, something had broken in the bottom of my bag. Something grainy. It felt like cold sand trickling between my fingers.
Just then, a chime went off in my ears. I shook my head, trying to clear it.
“Turns out, she’s gone batshit crazy, too.”
I forced myself to tune back in. “Who?” Goddamn, whatever weird cosmetic Cecil put in here was everywhere. Cold, fine sand littered the whole bottom of my purse.
I pulled my fingers out of my bag to see what it was. It felt grainy but weirdly soft. I inspected my fingers, rubbing them together, trying to see what it was.
But there was nothing there.
“Audrina. She’s gone completely nuts. Hallucinating, talking to the walls. Like you,” Juliette said pointedly.
A tingle of fear rushed through me. I forgot all about whatever strange powdery thing had spilled in my purse.
Audrina had gone nuts? She promised she was going to keep everything to herself. Audrina wasn’t stupid; she knew telling anyone about what had happened with the berserkers and the centaurs was a terrible idea. Why the hell would she tell her mother what had really happened?
“Except I was never having hallucinations, Juliette,” I said cautiously. “Everything I saw was real.”
“Oh, right. Of course.” For a second, she looked thoughtful. No, not thoughtful. Juliette didn’t do thoughtful. She only did calculating. “Anyway, poor Audrina is hallucinating. And she’s getting violent, too.”
Violent? Audrina wasn’t violent. She was the last person I could possibly imagine getting violent.
“Jessica is taking good care of her, though.”
“She… she is?” Suddenly, a wave of fatigue hit me out of nowhere, and I stifled a yawn. “Oh, excuse me.”
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” The yawn overwhelmed me again, this time, I gave in. All the late nights must be catching up with me. “What were we talking about?”
“Oh, nothing worth circling back to.” Juliette smiled and saluted me with her champagne glass. “Thanks for coming to lunch today, Susan. I’m glad we can still be friends.”