Page 4 of The Manor of Dreams

“And you didn’t—call me.” Her mother’s voice collapsed into a croak. Rennie wanted to fall on her knees right then and there and weep. The sky had darkened in the windows. “All those years. You only ever came when you wanted to take something from me.”

“Ma,” Rennie pleaded.

“You were the one I wanted to hear from the most. You were the most like me, my???.” In the dim light Rennie could see that her ma’s teeth were darkened and rotted. Ma’s eyes narrowed. “You became the cruelest.”

Those words had punctured Rennie, and she’d lost all sense of feeling. She’d turned on her heel and stumbled out of the house to her car. She had driven by instinct down the deserted road, away from the house, in the dusk, not realizing that her headlights were busted until she was almost a mile out.

Now, Rennie leaned against the staircase. She couldn’t stand to be here. She wasn’t capable like Lucille, who could bend things to her iron will. Rennie was simply ready to give in. Twenty thousand was enough for a few more months on her sublet and some crucial payments. She just wanted to leave with the money. But she knew Lucille would never leave without the house. If anyone could negotiate to get it back, it was her.

And if that happened, it would be worth staying.

She collected herself and went back into the dining room, leavingher purse out in the foyer next to the stairs. All eyes latched on to her. “Sorry.” She swallowed the remnants of her stomach acid. “I’m back.”

Her older sister’s eyes narrowed in question. Rennie kept her gaze blank. Lucille looked back toward Reid. “As I was saying. I would like to discuss this with my family in private. Will you excuse us?”

Elaine looked toward the lawyer. He paused. “Of course. I can give you a moment to discuss this in private.”

“Yes,” Lucille said. “Just a moment.”

LUCILLEherded her daughter and sister into what used to be their family’s library and shut the doors behind her. She strode across the room to the office table in front of a wall of inlaid bookshelves, and they followed her. Rennie still looked ill. Lucille frowned. “Are you okay? What was that?”

Rennie nodded, not quite meeting her eyes.

Then Madeline said, “Did Wài Pó really… cut us out? Of her will?” Her daughter stood uncertainly to the side, her arms wrapped around her willowy frame.

Lucille shook her head. “I don’t think that’s what happened.” She nodded toward the door. “Okay. She was involved in our ma’s death. I’m sure of it.”

Madeline tilted her head. Rennie looked up.

Lucille mouthed,Elaine.

She watched the shock fall over both.

“I was watching her the entire time. She told me to let him finish reading the will. It was like she knew she was getting the house. Her face gave it away when I pressed her on it. She looked guilty. Didn’t she?” Lucille had decades of cases under her belt as a personal injury attorney. She’d conducted enough depositions to know how someone’s expression could reveal a key truth. She could sense it; the way Elaine’s eyes had widened the moment Reid read out the terms of the estate. It hadn’t been a look of surprise. It had been one of fear.

“Lucille,” Rennie whispered. “You’re saying she could have—?”

Lucille nodded.

“Are you sure?” Rennie asked. “That’s—that’s too far, isn’t it? Therecould have been so many other reasons. Maybe Ma… changed her mind! Or had some kind of dementia. Or—”

“You think Ma had such severe dementia she accidentally gave the entire house toElaine Deng?”

Rennie chewed on her bottom lip.

Lucille told herself to focus on the facts. “The will was changed two weeks ago. She was found dead a week ago. Elaine hasn’t spoken to us in thirty-four years. She walks back into our lives the morning the will is read. The timing can’t be a coincidence.”

“Elaine said she had no idea,” Rennie said.

“And we believe her?” Lucille paused. “After everything that’s happened?”

“What happened?” her daughter asked. “How do you guys know each other?”

Silence.

“She knew our family,” Rennie said quietly. “Elaine’s parents worked for us.”

Madeline nodded. Her expression changed slowly. “Oh.”

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