Page 97 of Twisted Ties

“The aunt who was keeping you hidden?” the old woman asks.

“I’m going to kill that Petunia,” Winnie mumbles. “She has such a big mouth.”

“A big mouth everyone knows she can’t keep shut. It’s your fault for telling her.” The old woman turns back to me. “You were hoping to find some answers? At your aunt’s home?”

I glance at Winnie who shrugs. “Not something I told Petunia,” she says.

“Something I deduced on my own.” Rosa sips her tea. “Pass me a cookie please, Winnifred. Now I’m old I can eat as many as I like.” Winnie holds up the plate and her grandma takes two, snapping off a piece and feeding it to her dog. The birds all begin to chirp angrily and she crushesthe rest in her hand and uses her magic to toss the crumbs inside the cages.

“Yes. She kept me unregistered and hidden away all my life and I never knew why.”

“She must have told you something?”

“That the authorities couldn’t be trusted. That she was keeping me safe from them.”

“How did she pass, sweetie?”

I look down at the dark liquid in my teacup. My aunt’s death is definitely not something I want to discuss. It’s too raw. Too painful.

The room is silent except for the low chirping of the birds and the rolling purrs of the three cats.

“Please don’t take this the wrong way, Rhianna, but has it ever occurred to you that maybe your aunt was …”

I look up at the old woman and her shrewd brown eyes.

“Wrong?” I venture. “She was always so certain, so adamant. She must have had her reasons.”

“I wasn’t going to say wrong, my darling, but I’ve also just met you, rather like you, think you may be a good influence on my favorite granddaughter,” Winnie blushes next to me, “and I’d rather not offend you if I can help it.”

“It’s okay. I’m kind of used to people going out of their way to offend me. I can handle it.”

“Okay,” the old woman takes a gulp of her tea and holds my gaze, “are you certain she was all there?”

“All there?” I frown.

“Completely sane.”

My mouth falls open in astonishment. “Are you asking me if my aunt was mad?”

“It is one of the possibilities. One you ought to consider.”

“No, she wasn’t. She was one of the most pulled-together, bravest, strongest people I’ve ever known,” I say,raising my chin in defiance. The old woman nods. “And besides, I heard the man in black and Stone talking last night. About my mother. There’s something they’re not telling me.”

“The man in black? Stone?” Rosa asks.

“The Enforcer and Professor Stone from the academy. They’re best buddies or something.”

“What did your aunt tell you about your mother?”

“Only that she died along with my father when I was a baby. I don’t remember them. And the only connection I ever had to them was my father’s knife.” The knife Renzo Barone still has. I frown harder.

“The knife offers no clues?”

“I no longer have it.”

The old woman nods.

“Rhi scoured the academy’s library for any records of her parents or her family. She hasn’t found anything. Isn’t that strange?”