Page 29 of A Hidden Past

She smiles at me when she says it, but I decide she means it a little too. I laugh and say, “Well, anyway, I’m glad I’m off the hook. I can’t afford a lawyer, and a public defender’s just going to tell me to plead no contest.”

She gives me a fishy look. “You sound like you know what you’re talking about.”

Shit. “I mean, that’s what they do to poor people, right?”

“Right.” She keeps the fishy look on me a moment later, then says, “Can I tell you something crazy and have you not throw it in my face?”

“You can have me do pretty much anything you want right now.”

She chuckles and says, “Yep. Nineteen. Gotta remember that.” Her smile fades a little. “I think Clara might have killed Lila.” She looks at me expectantly, and when I don’t react with surprise, her eyes widen. “You think so too. Do you… do you know something?”

“I don’t even know what I know or don’t know anymore,” I say honestly. “But if I know anything, I know the Kensingtons are fucked up. Both of them.”

“Oh yes, both of them. But her more so.”

“Why do you say that?”

Vivian laughs. It’s not a pleasant laugh, and for a split second, she makes a face that looks actually ugly to me. I don’t want to see her like that, so I push the thought away.

"She's an old-school Hollywood starlet. The moment her looks turned, she turned. Straight to drugs.”

“How do you know?”

“Let’s just say this isn’t the first time the police have been to her house. Have you heard her talking to herself yet?”

I grimace. “No. Seriously?”

“Oh yeah. There’s a reason she almost never leaves the house.”

“I didn’t know she almost never left the house.”

“Well, she does. Or doesn’t. However, you want to say it. Julian married her because he was young, and she was pretty, and like most Hollywood starlets, uninhibited. He thought he'd won the jackpot, and so what if she liked pushing things up her nose every now and then? I think he figured she'd grow out of it."

I scoff. “You don’t grow out of shit like that.”

She gives me a fishy look again. “No. You don’t.”

I realize I’ve stepped in it again, so I say, “So you think that she snorted a little too much and had a bad moment with Lila?”

“I don’t know. But she could have. Or Julian could have decided that Lila was in the way, and maybe if he got rid of her, Clara would go back to getting on her knees whenever he wanted her to.”

I grimace again. “Really? You think he’d kill his daughter to get sex?”

“I think he’d do anything to get power,” she said.

She fell silent, and I tried to digest what she said. Before I could wrap my head around it, though, she downed the rest of her wine and said, “but enough about that. It occurs to me that I haven’t gotten on my knees for you yet.”

My heartbeat instantly quickens. “Oh?” I say.

She giggles and stands up. “Oh?” she mocks.

She leans over me, and I feel my body begin to respond. She smiles slightly, then kisses me softly.

Then she kisses my throat. Then my chest. Then my navel just above my belly button.

Then she gets on her knees, and once more, I forget about everything but Vivian.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

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