Page 190 of Papa's Bébé
Still. Her stomach was tight as she watched him. He should be careful of his blood pressure. He didn’t want to have a heart attack.
Maya found herself moving closer to Matthieu as her father turned to them and Kathryn stood up from where she’d been sitting on the floral sofa.
Kathryn put her phone down and straightened her skirt. She looked perfect as usual. Wrinkles wouldn’t dare appear on her clothes.
The other woman’s gaze narrowed in on Maya, then moved to Tank and Big Berry.
“What on earth are you doing here, Maya?” she asked. “And why would you bring those two beasts with you? A pig? Are you serious? Get it out now!”
Kathryn stomped toward her and she suddenly found herself facing Matthieu’s back.
“Stay back,” he warned.
“What are you doing?” Kathryn demanded shrilly.
“Stay away from Maya and her pets,” Matthieu warned.
Tank leaned into her leg and Big Berry stood on her other side. Flanking her, defending her.
She’d never felt so protected. She’d never had people stand up to Kathryn for her.
“This is my home. You all are here as interlopers and I will go where I like. I do not want those beasts in my house!”
“It was Maya’s house before it was your house,” Matthieu said. “And I believe this was actually her mother’s family home, was it not? So I would think it makes this house more her home than yours.”
Under other circumstances that might have sounded harsh, bordering on cruel. But Kathryn had done her best to ostracize Maya from her family home.
And she wasn’t going anywhere.
“Kathryn, sit down and leave Maya alone,” her father said, surprising her.
“She has a dog and pig with her. A pig should not be indoors!” Kathryn cried.
“We have other things to worry about right now,” her father snapped. “I just heard that you’ve put an APB out on Vince! Why? He cannot possibly have been the person who threw a fire bomb at my daughter’s house!”
She moved up next to Matthieu. He put an arm out to stop her going any further, but she hadn’t intended to.
Kathryn sat but still sent daggers at Maya with her eyes.
She really didn’t seem too alarmed by the fact that Vince had tried to kill her stepdaughter, did she?
“There’s no denying video footage as proof,” her brother said grimly. “I have it on my laptop.”
She hadn’t noticed that Marlin was even carrying a laptop. He set it up on the coffee table and her father sat down next to Kathryn as they watched it.
“This . . . this is insane!” Kathryn said. “Vince wouldn’t do this. Perhaps it’s someone that looks like him.”
“As far as I know, Vince doesn’t have a twin,” her brother said dryly.
Maya was watching her father. He seemed frozen, his gaze locked on the screen. If he was pretending to be shocked, then he was a very, very good actor.
“You need to get out there and find the real criminal,” Kathryn said. “Darling, get Robert and Malcolm onto it. They will get to the bottom of this.”
“I can assure you that we are working hard to find the actual perpetrator,” Detective Reeves said smoothly. “That person being Vince. Who, by the way, has disappeared.”
Her father stood at this, bumping into the coffee table and sending the laptop flying. Thankfully, it didn’t smash as it landed on the carpeted floor.
Her brother calmly picked it up without a word.
