the green sweater she was wearing. It was in that brisk movement that a whiff of something unmistakable floated towards me: the scent of jasmine. The smell I was never able to place, the scent the triplets told me I’d been imagining. Lee had been coming and going all this time.
She’d been part of the equation from the beginning, the brain behind it all. The “real estate agent” who’d handled the sale of the house? Had that been Lee? Because we never had spoken, just been in touch by email. The email address that Lee, with her comings and goings, must have left on the back of that photo of Cliffside. How Lee must have had the last laugh when she confirmed the triplets’ identity to me, after I’d scanned and sent their photos to her.
“My kids screwed up. The snowflake generation. Too soft, too sensitive, especially Jen. I had no choice but to step in,” she said languidly, stretching her arms. “The drink binge plan didn’t work, and then my fool kids were taking so long to get things wrapped up. Then Florence fucking Nightingale gate-crashed the party.”
I stared at her, confused. Was Pippa on Lee’s side or not?
“Poor pathetic Pippa,” Lee went on. “She was over the moon when Juan and I broke up all those years ago, but then you came along and spoiled her chances—at least in her eyes. Keep your friends close, your enemies closer, I guess.” Lee smirked. “Thank you for coming here today, by the way. It’s made our lives so much easier.”
A chill razored through my body. The drink binge plan. The way she said it so nonchalantly, as if attempted murder was the most natural thing in the world. “What are you planning?” I rasped.
She raised an eyebrow. “You’ll just have to wait and find out.”
In a panic, I grasped the door handle to make my exit. But I heard a car approaching. The triplets, no doubt. Or Pippa? I turned to face Lee again.
Gripping the gun, I drew it out from my pocket and aimed it at her, moving with slow, backward paces towards the stairs. I could escape from the lower ground floor. But even with the gun aimed at her chest, Lee just tossed her blond bob, unfazed. Her mouth curved into a sardonic little smile.
“I’m leaving now,” I said, my voice reedier than I wished. “Just let me walk away in a nice easy manner or I’ll call the police.”
Lee snickered. Now she looked like Dan. A mocking Dan. Handsome and cold. Her stony green eyes held mine, unrelenting. But a twinkle spoke of a familiar touch of humor, the crease of crow’s feet, mirthful. “Good luck, my dear. The landline’s down.”
I made a couple of wary steps backwards, not letting my eyes leave Lee’s for a second. The landline was down, but Lee’s cell might be working. It lay glinting on the kitchen island. Wait, no! It was my phone. My iPhone that had disappeared. The diamanté cover was unmistakable. I waved the gun at her. “That’s my phone, Lee. Give it to me.”
“Now why the hell would I do that?” She picked it up and cradled it close to her chest.
“Skid it across the floor. Quickly, or I’ll shoot. I mean it.”
“No you won’t. You’re a pathetic chicken-shit coward who’s been a victim all her sorry-ass life. An eleven-fingered freak who doesn’t have the guts to call the shots let alone fire a shot. Is that thing even loaded? I doubt it.”
I fumbled with the gun, jabbing it in the direction of her heart.
She chuckled and went on, “You know, I always wondered what Juan saw in you. Now I get it. You’re kind of funny. Kind of comic, if not unbelievably dumb. How you ever got to be an attorney, I’ll never know.” She made her way towards the kitchen, waving my phone, hips swaying with confidence.
“Stop moving, you bitch! Or I’ll shoot.”
Lee spun to face me, her gaze uneasy as she flicked her eyes at the door. “You killed Juan”—her voice shrill, it had lost its cool—“and now you want to kill me, is that it?”
I had her in my line of fire, gun loaded or not. The car outside squealed to a halt. The style of driving told me it was Dan. Maybe his sisters were with him.
One big, happy family. Out to kill me.
“It won’t be long before we find Juan’s body, you scheming whore!” Lee screeched, pointing her finger at