Page 92 of Trial of Deceit

“Jed,” Ashari whispered.

“Not now,” Jediah said immediately.His curiosity was laced with a tinge of anger.

The opposite door of the middle car opened.This time, the red-bottomed heel of a black stiletto sank into the grass.Gasps traveled through the crowd as a white, Bohemian style wide-brimmed sun hat came into view as a woman exited the vehicle.The murmurs increased as she faced the crowd while closing the door.She was dressed in a tight-fitting red leather dress that hugged her curves and stopped at her ankles.The sun gleamed off her gold layered necklaces, bracelets, and watch.Her head turned to-and-fro as she scanned the crowd, then froze.

Jediah gasped as the woman’s attention locked on him.His grip loosened on the pistol.“M-mom?”he forced out, his voice barely above a whisper.

Ashari side-stepped Jediah.Her eyes widened as a woman around her age walked forward to join Malia Richardson and a young man.Ashari’s brows furrowed at the man, who had to be some years younger than her, before she glanced at Reine, who’d removed her glasses.Reine’s lips were parted, her glossy eyes wide.

The woman and the young man flanked Malia’s sides as they approached the crowd — the young man to her right, and the woman to her left.The crowd made a pathway for them without Malia having to command it.Her poised posture was shrouded in an elegance that demanded her nothing less than utmost respect.She walked past Jediah as if she hadn’t noticed him.As if she hadn’t heard him repeat the word Ashari had only heard him utter with reverence.

Stopping before the casket, Malia took her glasses off.Her smoky eyes stared at Kayon’s powdered face before she slapped him across it.Gasps traveled through the crowd as Kayon’s head snapped to the side.The pastor’s eyes widened before he began chanting a prayer.

Malia faced the crowd.Her attention lingered on Jediah before she slipped her glasses onto her face.She straightened her stance and took more calculated steps back to the car.

“Wait!Malia!”came a yell.

Malia froze.

It seemed the Earth stopped moving.Ashari was scared to breathe.

Then, Malia walked off.

The world started spinning again.

A sob rocked through the crowd followed by strings of incoherent sentences from whispers.Dimitri, grimacing, held Reine back from running after the woman.Ashari shifted her focus to Jediah.

He’d seen a ghost that left his eyes watery.

“The nerve of that woman,” Bryony hissed in a low, menacing tone.She scrubbed hard at a plate with a kitchen towel.“How she alive?Why she show up now?Then, fi ignore Reine?!”She stopped shining the plate to turn to Ashari.She cocked her hand with the kitchen towel on her hip, gripping the edge of the counter with the other.“Yu can believe dat?!”

Ashari removed all emotion from her face.“No.I can’t believe it.”

Bryony huffed, satisfied with the answer.She turned back around and resumed drying the plates she’d removed from the dishwasher, then placed them into cupboards.As Bryony went back to her angry rant, Ashari’s eyes darted to the clock.It was nearing eleven, and Jediah still wasn’t back.Was he okay?She hoped he was.Wherever her husband was and whatever he was doing, she hoped it was better than what Reine was currently doing — cooped up in her room, bawling her eyes out.

“I’m gonna get ready for bed,” Ashari said suddenly.She slammed the drawer of utensils closed.In addition to the long day, Bryony’s insistence that she help clean up was taking a toll on her.

Bryony’s rant paused.She faced Ashari.“Alright,” she said with less anger in her tone.“Yu need mi fi come rub ointment pon yu back?”

Ashari forced a smile and shook her head.“I’m alright, thanks.Goodnight, Bryony.”

“Goodnight,” Bryony said.She shifted her focus to the dishwasher again, mumbling to herself.

Ashari left the kitchen.She moved through the house, ignoring the guards posted at the entrance of every private wing.The hallway leading to Kayon’s wing was the most heavily guarded.Scrapes of furniture against hardwood floors drifted from down the hallway.Ashari hadn’t bothered to check, but Jediah had told her that men were moving his father’s things from the bedroom into a storeroom.

She went to Jediah’s wing.She entered the room and made a beeline to the bathroom.While she tended to her back, every angle of the funeral replayed in her head.Trying to make sense of Malia’s appearance — at Kayon’s funeral, of all places — was giving her a headache.Who was that young man?Who was that woman?She had a slight resemblance to—

Jediah stumbled into the bathroom.He placed a hand against the door jamb, sagging against it as he barely kept himself steady.His hazy eyes slowly lifted to meet hers in the mirror.Ashari swallowed hard.

He’d disappeared after the funeral, and Dimitri had followed him.

She turned around as he stalked toward her.“How are you?”she whispered.

He stopped before her as her body pressed further into the cold counter.“I’m horny,” he said.The alcohol on his breath made her nose wrinkle.

“How much did you drink?”Ashari asked as he turned her around and lifted her night dress up to her waist.

“Don’ ask mi stupid questions, Ash,” Jediah said as he fumbled while opening his belt.Finally, he got it opened.He pulled down his zipper before allowing his boxers and trousers to fall in a bundle around his ankles.

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