جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 25

Juno's POVSloane caught me on the townhouse steps, with the trunk's leather handle cutting into my fingers."Leaving so soon, darling? You've only just arrived." She came down two steps, so we were the same height. Inside, Grant was calling his sister's name. She didn't turn around. "Agnes has been with us for twenty years. She's old, and she's loyal, and loyalty is so expensive to keep. I'd hate for her to lose her job over a silly story about my clutch and Mother's diamonds.""Then don't make her."Sloane reached up and fixed my coat collar, just like she did with the maids before a party. "Sleep well, Juno."She went back inside, and the heavy door shut on Grant's voice. I carried the trunk to the corner by myself and waited in the cold for a cab.Rosa Delgado called me early on Saturday morning. She was shouting in Spanish and English at the same time."They are taking my oven, Juno! Men with a truck! Come now!"I jumped out of bed. Rosa owned the bakery around the corner from my

Grant's POVThe brass sign next to the door said OKAFOR LAW, SUITE 3B. That was all it said. There was no other name on the door and no sign in the hallway.That Tuesday afternoon, I stood in a hallway on Court Street that smelled of floor wax. In my coat pocket was a report from the investigator Owen had hired. It had arrived at noon.For years, I had paid Ledger, my secret deal adviser, through a small company called Northline Advisory. I had never asked who owned it. The report said Northline's official address was Suite 3B, and the lawyer listed on its papers was Dee Okafor.This was her door. She was the lawyer who had sat next to Juno at the deposition that morning.A young man at the front desk told me Ms. Okafor was with a client. I said I would wait. She came out nine minutes later, carrying a notepad. She did not look surprised to see me."Mr. Ellison. You're early for the next deposition.""Northline Advisory." I held up the report. "I paid that company for five years. My in

Juno's POV"Let me take you home," Ronan said through the bathroom door.I rinsed my mouth one more time and opened it. He was standing right outside with the tea he had made."You're shaking," he said."It was the chicken.""Then I'm never cooking again." He put his coat around my shoulders.He drove me home himself and didn't once ask why I'd been sick. At my door he looked past me at the bedroom window."Friday," he said. "I'll put a real lock on that window on Friday. Don't open it before then.""I won't.""And tomorrow, eat something I didn't cook."Then he kissed my forehead, which he had never done before, and went down the stairs. I didn't go to bed.Long after midnight, I was still awake at my kitchen table. I didn't know it yet, but a man with a blade was already on the fire escape outside my bedroom.I was reading Sloane's sworn statement for Monday's court hearing. In it, she swore that I had stolen Grant's files. But I kept thinking about Ronan on his roof. I had written