Page 69 of The Sin

“Where are we going?” I asked Lisa as we turned a corner in the opposite direction of Rose’s house.

“You’ll see.”

I bit down on a snarky comeback. As haughty and infuriating as Lisa loved to be, this wasn’t on her. She was following instructions.

Lisa flicked her hair over one shoulder and looked at me. “My mother mentioned you and Roman are attending this year’s Foundation Ball. How on earth did you scorethatinvitation?”

“Councilman Edgar,” I said. “I didn’t realize it was interesting news.”

She rolled her eyes my way. “My mother’s livid. She managed to finagle an invite for me and Brian. Now that literally every St. Ives graduate and their dog is attending, it’s not quite as special.”

I laughed. This was a side of Lisa I’d only recently come to see. She reveled in the snooty, elitist family she’d been born into, but she also had a tendency to speak bluntly, to call a spade a spade.

“Who else is going?” I asked.

“Only you and me, that I’m aware of.”

“It’ll be nice to see a friendly face there.”

She snorted. “Times must be really bad, if I’m your friendly face.”

“You’re a St. Ives girl.” I nudged her with my elbow. “You’ll always be a friendly face.”

“That’s so sweet.” She wiped a mock tear from beneath her eye, but she smiled, and it was a smile, not a sneer.

At the end of the block, we turned another corner and she drew to a halt.

“That’s you.” She pointed up the road of brownstones. “Number 62.”

The way she said it, I turned a frown on her. “You’re not coming?”

“I’m just the escort.”

“Do you know who lives there?”

“I’m just the escort,” she repeated and made a shooing gesture. “Go. Have fun.”

I went, scanning the numbers on the pale oak doors on the stoops at the top of each set of steps until I found number 62. The window from the garden level peeked out just above the ground from behind a wrought iron rail. The drapes were closed, so I couldn’t sneak a look as I crossed the road and made my way up the steps.

I knocked, my stomach crunching at what I was about to walk into. Sisterhood business, definitely. I wasn’t an idiot. Of course this had something to do with my visit to Rose this morning.

But I’d told her everything.

What more did they need from me?

I was so low down on the totem pole, I wasn’t even on the pole. Rose never missed a chance to remind me.

I’d just raised my knuckles to knock again when the door opened inwards. The woman who greeted me with scowling eyes was old enough to be a grandmother, and so short, she barely reached my shoulders.

She didn’t say anything, and I wasn’t sure how to start this conversation without giving away something I might regret.

Rose had instilled that much in me at our very first meeting.When someone else has all the advantages, let them do all the work. Force them to incriminate themselves first, and it might save you from a disastrous mistake.

I offered a dubious sounding, “Hello?”

She looked me up and down another moment, then stepped back. Still without a word.

I assumed that was my invitation. I walked inside, into an airy living room with a tall ceiling, parquet flooring and furnished with a pair of sleek, cream couches.

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