I set the container down on the counter and search through the cupboards. “Maybe try baking?”
“We’ll see. I ran into an old friend at the supermarket the other day. Mrs. Wilkins. You remember her, she used to babysit you when you were younger.”
With a smile, I pour the leftover chicken into a plate and place it in the microwave. “Yeah, of course I remember her. How is she?”
When I spot Jen out of the corner of my eye, she hesitates and gives me a slow smile. I freeze, and my mind goes blank replaying our kiss. She hurries back into her room.
“She’s good. Spending time with her grandkids. She told me the strangest thing, though.”
My phone beeps, so I pull it away from my ear and place my mother on speaker. “What did she say?”
“She was staying at the Conrad, and she said she saw you inside the hotel talking to the Slades. Some big press conference or something. According to her, you all looked friendly.”
I frown. “I think she must have confused me with someone else.”
My stomach drops. I need to be more careful about being seen with the Slades in public. Otherwise, I’ll blow my own cover, and considering how much effort I put into this mission, I have no interest in having it go up in flames when we are halfway to the finish line.
My mother breathes a sigh of relief. “Good, because you shouldn’t be spending time with the Slades anyway.”
I skim through my emails and pause. “Why not? I thought you said you knew them once.”
“I did, but a powerful family like that has a lot of enemies, and you don’t need any more of those.”
I take my mom off speaker.
Something isn’t right.
By now, she is usually talking at a million miles a minute, and it’s hard to get a word in edgewise. For as long as I’ve known her, my mom hasn’t done lulls in conversation.
“Mom, what’s going on?”
“Nothing!”
“I know when you’re hiding something from me.”
“Matthew.”
“Mother?”
I hear her sigh. “I can’t tell you.”
“Can’t or won’t? What happened? Did they hurt you?”
“What? No, Miles would never hurt me.”
“Miles? You know the head of the Slade family? You conveniently left that part out.”
My mom went silent.
Lead settles in the pit of my stomach as I pull a chair out and sit down. “What are you not telling me, mom?”
Somewhere in the apartment, I hear Jen’s quiet voice, before it’s drowned out by the sound of running water. Then the sound of a TV covers everything else.
Did my mother owe the Slades money?
Did she know something about them they wouldn’t want getting out?
Each scenario left me feeling worse than the last.