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“What do you think, Millie?” Devin asked me.
“Sorry, I didn’t hear what you said.”
“I asked if you would be interested in showing up at the next company board meeting? We’re launching our new skincare brand.”
“What would I do at a board meeting?”
Dayana laughed, “You’re the oldest son’s wife, Millie. You’re a Montgomery now. Since Castle wouldn’t be able to take part in the meetings, you can have his seat. If we think you’re capable, we’ll even consider handing over the brand to you. That’s what Castle would have wanted from his wife.”
“It’s an excellent opportunity for you to learn the operations of the company.”
This was a little too much for me to process.
They wanted me to join the company board meeting?
“That’s a lot of responsibility, but it sounds great.”
It sounded too good to be true.
But looking at the two of them, I didn’t think they were giving me a choice to refuse their offer. They wanted me on board.
No one in this family was perfect. Devin liked to drown himself in bottles of liquor and brought countless women home. Dayana was as perfect as she appeared to the public eye, only she wasn’t. She sneaked in buffed up male escorts into her room, sometimes three at one time, and I’m sure it was a nice big perverted party. I was no one to judge. The siblings had peculiar tastes.
The other day, I’d seen one of the other stable boys—Alan, the nice looking one with a southern drawl who was also sweet and respectful, unlike Ollie.
Anyway, one time after midnight, I’d run out of water bottles from the mini-refrigerator so I’d gone downstairs to the kitchen myself.
And regretted it terribly.
There was Dayana and Alan enjoying themselves fucking each other to oblivion.
Dayana could fuck the stable boys, the gardeners, or anyone else for all I cared. I know Theo had walked in after me withAirPodsblaring music, picked up a bottle of chilled soda, and walked out like what was happening in the pantry was just normal.
Before going to bed, I went to Theo’s room. He was the only person in this house that I trusted apart from Castle. And we’d become great friends despite the eight years age difference.
I knocked on his door. “Theo, it’s me, Millie.”
“Come inside, Millie.”
I entered the room.
I rarely visited Theo’s bedroom. It was a typical room for a teen boy. He had a floor to ceiling display of action figures, a black guitar was in the corner, posters of heavy metal bands on the wall, and the furniture was dark wood, carved and custom made.
“You can’t tell this to anybody,” I said.
He closed his book and turned to look at me, “What can’t I tell anybody?”
“What I’m about to tell you.”
He nodded. “Your secret is safe with me.”
I paced around the room.
His brown eyes twinkled as he grinned. “Okay, you need to calm down first and tell me what happened.”
I explained to him about what I’d heard Devin saying, that he’d planned to kill Castle, followed by the discovery of the secret passage and the bodies on the pentagram. I left out the part where I realized one body belonged to Ollie because then I would have to explain how Castle had accidentally killed him.
Theo stared at me and then burst out laughing. “That’s a nice joke.”