and complained about the food. It was all very normal, if you could ignore the murderous elephant in the room.
I couldn’t.
“Are you sure you’re not forgetting to water my plants?” Lily asked, sounding like she was worried he’d forgotten to feed her baby. In this case, I guessed that was true.
“I’ve been going over there every day to check on them, Mom. They’re all good, I promise.”
Hayle had been going to his mother’s greenhouse daily? He hadn’t mentioned anything about that.
She patted his hand. “You’ve always been such a good boy. My perfect little Hayle.”
“I’m not perfect,” he said with what I could only describe as a sad smile. “You should know that.”
“Lies,” she replied with a wave of her hand. “You’re perfect, and if anyone ever tells you differently, fuck them.” She shot a pointed look my way, and I clasped my hands in my lap to keep from flipping her off. Seriously, this woman.
I wanted to question what the hell I’d ever done to her. But I knew it would be a useless inquiry. She’d been determined to hate me from the first time she met me. Probably like she’d been determined to hate my mother.
“Mom.” Hayle waited for her to return her gaze to him. “Please stop treating Thea like she’s a villain. She’s done nothing to provoke you.”
Lily did her best to appear stricken, though I had no doubt it was fake. “I’m sorry, sweetie. I’m just disappointed that it’s not only the two of us. I’ve been looking forward to this visit for weeks.”
“I know, but I asked Thea to come with me.”
“Why would you do that?” she asked in a small voice.
“Because I need you to tell us the truth about what happened to Amber.”
Lily, who had still been resting her hand on top of Hayle’s, jerked back like she’d been scalded. “What are you talking about? She died in an accident. You know that.”
“No, I know that her death was made to look like an accident. But someone killed her, Mom, and I think you know more about it than you’re letting on.”
I forced my gaze away from Lily’s paling face for just a moment to peer at Hayle. He hadn’t come right out and accused her, but what he’d said was pretty damn close. And the furrow in his brow told me that he was determined to get to the bottom of this. I hadn’t been expecting that.
“Hayle, sweetie, I don’t know what this girl has said to you, but none of it is true.” She said this girl like she was referring to a ruthless dictator. “I would never hurt anyone. You know that.”
“What I know is that you’ve been abusing opium for years and pretending like you’re okay.”
Opium? What the hell was he talking about, and why hadn’t he said anything?
“You’re not okay,” he added softly, “and you know it.”
Lily’s face crumpled then, and I saw the first honest emotion from her since we’d arrived. She was embarrassed and ashamed, and I suddenly felt like I was intruding in something even I didn’t deserve to know about. “How did you find out?”
“I figured it out when you made tea on Thanksgiving, and after you fell asleep, I searched the house and found the opium pods.” He was very matter-of-fact about the whole thing, like he wasn’t discussing drug abuse. “That’s why you grow so many opium poppies, isn’t it? So you can keep yourself high?”
Lily wiped at a tear and then nodded. “But you have to understand. It helps me, Hayle, and the tea isn’t even illegal.”
He opened his mouth, as though to argue, but then closed it and pushed his hair off his forehead. “Regardless, you’ve been keeping secrets, and that includes what happened to Amber.”
Reaching into his coat pocket, he pulled out a packet of papers. Unfolding them, he removed the one on the top and set it on the table in front of his mother. “Does this look familiar?”
Even upside down, I easily recognized the first of the threatening letters we’d found in Vincent’s safe, though this was obviously a copy.
Don’t go through with it.
Lily stared down at it before eventually looking up at her son. Her expression gave nothing away, but I saw her hand shake as she pushed the paper away. “What is this?”
“You tell me. You were the one who wrote it, after all.”
He said that with such confidence, I had to hold in my own gasp. When had he decided his mother was