Page 16 of The Accidental Witch

She looked at the inspirational picture she’d hung on her kitchen wall that read:It Is Well, to remind herself she was more well here than she’d ever been with her mother.

“It’s closer to a billion,” she corrected. “And I ditched it so I could keep my soul intact and sleep at night.”

And so all those beautiful children and parents she loved and missed so much would hopefully hate her a little less.

Wanda’s face went sympathetic as she squeezed Robbie’s shoulder. “Oh, Robbie, I’m so sorry.”

Inhaling deeply, Robbie put the cat food away in the upper cabinet, giving the door a hard shove to keep it closed, hoping they wouldn’t see the sting of tears forming in the corner of her eyes. She hated revisiting that part of her life. The guilt-by-association thing would always haunt her.

Swiping at her eyes with her thumb, she stood up straight and turned to face them. “Don’t be sorry. Agatha Tisdale’s getting exactly what she deserves and then some. I hope they lock her up and throw away the key. She’s a despicable human being, and I’m beginning to believe karma just might be a real thing.”

Nina stared at her, her eyes scanning Robbie’s face long enough to make her shudder. Talk about feeling seen. “Where’s your brother in all this? Steadman’s his name, right?”

Her brother. It made her skin crawl just knowing they were blood. He was as disgusting as her mother, but in a much different way. He was a misogynistic scumbag who did very little in the way of work and a whole lot more in the way of spending money and jet-setting. She’d spent a good portion of her adultworking life writing up press releases filled with bullshit excuses for her brother’s bad behavior.

Robbie wrinkled her nose. “Hanging on to her skirts, still blindly devoted to her, I guess. Or at least devoted to her money. I have no idea. I haven’t heard from him since I got dumped out of the nest. I mean, I would have left anyway. My mother just beat me to the punch.”

She tried to keep her tone offhand about her brother. They’d never been close. He was as much a worm as her mother, but somewhere deep inside, she thought he’d at least check on her. It was ridiculous, considering he was likely eyeball deep in the mess her mother was in, but she’d always thought he at least loved Tottington as much as she did.

Apparently not.

“So you’re telling us you didn’t know shit about what she was doing?” Nina asked, rolling her tongue along her cheek, her eyes decidedly skeptical.

Robbie was used to this reaction, but she wasn’t going to defend herself anymore. Even though she knew nothing about what her mother had done, there was always the niggle that sheshouldhave known, and it kept her up at night.

She’d probably have to defend herself in court at some point, but for now, she was exhausted from trying to prove to people she was innocent.

Thus, she kept her words simple. “I was in public relations, not accounting. I handled events and anything related to the image of the hotels. When I refused to ‘handle’ this debacle by writing up a press release of fancy, evasive words—all essentially lies—and speak to the media after I was shown the actual proof of what she’d been doing, I left.”

Tottington cleared his throat. “Roberta speaks the truth. She’s a kind, wonderful woman. Had she known what Mrs. Tisdale was doing, she would have put a stop to it.”

Nina draped her arm around Tottington’s shoulders and pulled him to her side. “And where do you fit into all this, my little Tater Tot?”

Robbie almost laughed out loud when T blanched. It was only a little hysterical that this beast of a woman had taken such a liking to someone so genteel and standoffish.

She smiled warmly at the one person who’d never left her. “Tottington has been with me since I was three. My mother hired him as sort of my manny, and then he evolved into an integral part of the household, managing all things mansion-ish. But he also became my friend, my confidant. When I left, he opted to come with me.”

They’d never talked about it, but T was a big part of her life, a treasured part of her life. Sometimes, she thought maybe he’d come with her to ensure her safety from the big, bad, scary world. She’d never lived far from her family or the security their money and name brought. Robbie guessed he felt as though it was his duty to protect her, despite her being a fully grown adult.

But when she’d given her goodbye speech, he’d followed her right out the door and into this dreadful apartment, where he’d never faltered. He was the same old Tottington, still wearing a crisp suit, his hair trimmed to within an inch of its life, minus the silver platter with which he delivered the mail to her mother.

Tottington, who rarely showed much more than disdain for anything, gave her a small but tender smile. “Thank you, Miss.”

“Anyway, I didn’t know anything about what my mother was up to, but I never felt like I was allowed in their inner circle to begin with. You can either believe that or not.”

“You got balls, kiddo,” Nina praised, gathering up Athos for some love. “Couldn’t have been easy to leave all that dough.” She held up her cat, scratching under his chin. “Mommy’s a bad mamma jamma, huh, snooks?”

Clearly, Marty hadn’t been lying about Nina’s love of animals. On the way over they’d told her all about their pets and Nina’s dog, Waffles, and an angel named George who owned a rescue with her husband, Dex.

But she hadn’t been entirely convinced Nina wouldn’t eat her cats until she saw how sweet she was with her brood.

Greer had stayed quiet for most of the time they’d been in her apartment, probably trying to bite his tongue to keep from gasping at the tragic state of the place. But as Porthos wound her tail around his calves, he sat on his haunches and stroked her back until she hummed her pleasure.

“What’s your name, beauty?”

“That’s Porthos.”

He smiled. “Like a musketeer?”

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