The Wife Who Knew Too Much(54)
We helicoptered home together, our hands entwined, our mouths locked together as we rushed through the air. At Windswept, Dennis took Connor’s luggage from the trunk, but Connor waved him off.
“Leave it. I’ll get it later,” he said, pulling me up the stairs in a rush.
“Yes, sir.”
I blushed, self-conscious at the thought that Dennis knew what we were going to do. But as soon as Connor slammed the bedroom door, there was only him and me.
“I missed you so much, Tabby,” he murmured. “I hate being away from you.”
The sex was different now that I was pregnant. Gentler, more emotional. Afterward, he stroked my abdomen, cooing to the baby, and I wondered how I’d ever doubted us.
I went to the bathroom. When I came back, he was gawking at his phone, his face slack with dismay.
“What is it? Is something wrong?”
I hurried to his side, leaning over him to see the screen. My own image stared back at me, stepping from the car in front of the restaurant. Eyes wide, I looked like a deer caught in the headlights. But it wasn’t my face that Connor was staring at. The Levitt emeralds glittered at my throat, as lavish as the crown jewels.
“You let yourself be photographed in that necklace?” Connor said, his voice flat with shock.
“Some guy jumped out at me with a camera. I didn’t ask him to.”
“You should’ve told me.”
“I don’t understand. Did he send you the picture? Why is it on your phone?”
“He’s a photographer for ChitChat. The online gossip rag? I have a Google alert on my name, and it popped up. There’s a whole story with it. Listen to this—‘A mere three months after Nina Levitt’s suspicious death’—”
“‘Suspicious’? How can they call it that, when the cops—”
“They say whatever they want. ‘Nina Levitt’s suspicious death, Connor Ford has a hot new wife. Tabitha Ford didn’t waste any time in helping herself to the famous Levitt emeralds.’”
“‘Helping herself’? It wasn’t even my idea. They don’t know the first thing about me. How can they write that?”
“Tabby, they don’t care if it’s true or not. They’ll say anything for eyeballs. Jesus, listen to this, they’re talking about the lawsuit. ‘The late Mrs. Levitt’s sister has raised doubts about the cause of her death.’ Yeah, because she’s trying to steal the money. Nina hated her guts. She wouldn’t want that witch to see a penny. Fuck. This is bad.”
When I rubbed his shoulder to try to comfort him, he glared at me and flinched away.
“How could you be so reckless?”
“Wait. You’re blaming me?”
“I told you to keep a low profile.”
“This isn’t my fault. You made me go to that dinner. I had no idea what to wear. It was Juliet who gave me the necklace.”
“You can’t trust her.”
“Why not? These are the people you left me with. Why wouldn’t I listen to them?”
“You don’t know where people’s loyalties lie. This whole place is a vipers’ nest.”
“It’s understandable that the staff cared about Nina and might take a while to accept me. But if we can’t trust them, that’s a problem, Connor.”
“What do you want me to do? Start firing people? That’s not smart.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“They’ll sell stories to the press. Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.”
“I understand. I don’t want anyone getting fired. But what about Lauren?”
“What does she have to do with anything?” he asked, a sick look on his face.
“I sat with her at the dinner. She’d been drinking, and she had a lot to say about you, none of it very nice. She said you were a gold-digger, that you use women. You used her. She basically insinuated that you killed Nina.”
“She’s full of shit. Don’t tell me you believed her.”
“This is someone you were involved with?”
“We had a fling, before I met Nina. It was nothing. Lauren and Hank were in the middle of a divorce—”
“Lauren was married to Hank?”
“Yes. But he left her for Nina.”
“Wait, Hank and Nina were together?”
“For about five minutes once, but long enough to cause Lauren’s divorce. She rebounded with me. I thought it was just a fling, that it didn’t mean much to Lauren. But when I got involved with Nina, she went ballistic. She hated me. She hated Nina more. If someone wants to suggest that Nina was murdered, they ought to be looking at Lauren, not me.”
“You think Lauren killed Nina?”
“No, I think Nina killed herself. I’m just saying, if push comes to shove, Lauren would make an excellent suspect.”
“If push comes to shove. You’re saying we should frame her?” I asked in astonishment, a sick feeling in my stomach.
“Jesus, no. I wouldn’t do that. But you can’t take anything she says at face value. She’s out to get me.”
“Connor, it’s disturbing to me that you have all these enemies. Stalked by the press, surrounded by people who want to hurt us. What kind of life is this?”