Page 43 of Greed
“Thank you.”
“Not a problem. We’re about to be married, after all, what’s a little holding hands?”
He was amused at his own joke, and that made her laugh.
They walked through the picket gate and along the cobbled path up to her old front door. The internal house lights were on behind the frosted glass, indicating someone was well and truly home.
Still holding Griffin’s hand, Lilo rang the doorbell. A few seconds later, a shadow darkened the glass at the door, and it opened.
“Hello Renata,” Lilo said to the housekeeper, and then held her breath. Logically, she knew she wouldn’t be turned away—they’d let her in at the gate after all—but her heart couldn’t help being afraid they’d refuse her.
Renata was a short, portly woman in a maroon dress. Her brown hair had been cut close to her scalp, and she had fire engine red lipstick on. Lilo couldn’t say exactly why she thought it, but it never seemed like Renata enjoyed her job at the Liota household, despite her working without complaint. Perhaps she’d seen too much like Lilo and was too afraid to leave. Whatever the case, Renata’s eyes lit up upon landing on Lilo and she touched the pendant she wore around her neck.
Oh great!It was delivered in time.
“Miss Lilo. Is good to see you.” Renata swept her judgmental gaze over Griffin, taking the time to stop at way points over his body: his broad shoulders, his strong arms, his face. She pouted and turned back to Lilo with a pleased flash to her eyes. “And this tall man is fiancé? Will he come to coffee date next week?”
“My name is Griffin Lazarus, ma’am. Pleased to meet you.” Griffin held out his hand. “I’d be happy to come along to a coffee date with you.”
Lilo smiled at Griffin. She knew he was probably acting and had no intention of coming to a coffee date with her old housekeeper, but she kind of wished he wasn’t. It felt good to imagine all of them together.
Renata lifted a brow at Griffin, unimpressed. “I will know if I be pleased after I meet you. Come. I take you to the Mrs. She is packing for trip to vacation house on Menagerie Island, and well, you will see. She make big mess. Guess who will have to clean.”
Her abrupt manner came from a good place. Renata was more of a mother to Lilo than her own kin, often being the one who did all the hard parenting like helping her with her homework, teaching her to bake, and make her own bed. If Renata hadn’t spent the time to ensure Lilo grew to be a capable young woman, Lilo would probably still be living there, hopelessly under her rich parents’ thumbs. And it cost Renata nothing more than time.
They walked through the overly wide hallway, passing the gallery wall of photographs, still portraying the happy family before Lilo left. Griffin tugged her hand as they came to a large picture of Lilo and her parents. It had been taken on her sixteenth birthday, the night everything went dark for Lilo, yet they hung it in a place of pride. She couldn’t tell if they were delusional, or deranged.
“This is your father?” Griffin’s brows lowered.
“Yes. Dad and mom and… I don’t know who that girl in the meringue is.”
“That’s you, clearly.”
She tried to hide her blush by turning her head. That dress was hideous, but so were her parents’ outfits. Her father wore a cerulean blue polo shirt with a camel colored sweater wrapped around his shoulders. Being an Islander, his skin was already on the brown side, but somehow he’d managed to make it look tinted orange with fake tan. Next to him stood her mother with her trifecta of plastic. Fake bobble breasts, botox face, pouty pink lips. Her olive Italian skin turned a complimentary shade of orange to her father’s. To be honest, there were more fake things about her mother than she could count. Lilo wasn’t even sure which features she inherited from her mother’s side. No, that wasn’t true. They had the same brown eyes.
Griffin moved to another photograph. Ridiculously, it was of Lilo in her room, surrounded by her crystal animal figurine collection. Looking at the obscene materialism she was brainwashed with made her sick. To think there were people in the world—in their own city!—too poor to find their next meal, yet there she was surrounded by thousands of dollars of shiny rock.
“I can’t believe I used to be impressed by that sort of thing,” she murmured.
“What impresses you now?” he asked quietly, focused intently on her.
“None of this, that’s for sure.” She waved around at the expensive decor lining the tables in the hallway. Some of it looked terrible, but it had a price tag, so her mother had wanted it. “I guess, I’m more of an actions speak louder than dollars kind of girl.”
He stared at her.
It made her uncomfortable. “Can we go?”
She tugged his hand, and they continued along the hallway into another room.
Now it was Lilo’s turn to stop. The room had been ransacked. Torn cushions were turned from couches, all with the stuffing pulled out. Side tables had tipped over. Drawers were out, exposing bits and pieces of paper and clutter. Everything had been pulled apart, and it wasn’t the only room. The designer kitchen was in pieces with cutlery and pots and pans everywhere, and as they continued to follow Renata, they learned the rest of the house wasn’t far behind. Surely this mess couldn’t all be from her mother packing for a trip.
“Renata, have you been robbed?” Lilo asked. It didn’t make sense, not with the extensive security at the complex. Unless it was someone who lived inside the community.
Renata made a sound deep in her throat that suggested her resignation. “You will see.”
They ended down some stairs at the back of the house leading toward the area where Lilo knew her father’s den was… and where the safe was.
Chapter Fifteen
