“Will you be at the auction?” Santiago asks me, bringing me back to the present.
The auction. It’s set to take place in a few weeks at IVI. I have my eye on something that will be auctioned off. “Yes,” I tell him.
“You’ll bring your wife?”
I nod.
“Introduce her to Ivy. I think they may have a thing or two in common.”
I nod, my mind still wrapped up in my reason for coming here. In what Santiago didn’t say and what that tells me. It was my own question that triggered it. If my sister’s and my father’s deaths are related. Zeke knows something I don’t. And whether or not it has to do with Carlton Bishop, I mean to find out what it is.
39
Isabelle
Jericho is gone a lot over the next several weeks and when he’s home, he’s distant. Something is going on between him and his brother and whatever it is has them both in a foul mood.
I spend my days with Angelique and my nights in his bed. That’s one area he’s consistent, his appetite never waning. And something is growing between us. At least in those moments. A strange connection. But maybe I’m reading too much into it. I mean, it’s sex. And although I sleep better in his arms than I have on my own in three years, I need to remember that.
Just sex. That’s it. No matter how good it feels when he holds me after.
I talk to Julia regularly now although I haven’t seen her since our brief visit at the compound. I wonder how things are at the house. How Carlton is. How he is with her. I’ve never really understood their relationship. She moved into the Bishop house before I did. Monique, his wife, left soon after that although she has returned to attend certain IVI events. I know he still pays her monthly living allowance and in the arguments I’ve overheard, I wonder if that allowance is contingent on her showing up. On them giving the impression they’re still together.
I was surprised at the extent of Monique’s dislike of Julia and even Matty. Who can dislike a child? I wonder, though, if it’s envy more than anything else. Monique and Carlton don’t have children.
But if what Julia said is true of the inheritance, I wonder why Carlton keeps up appearances as far as his marriage goes. They don’t love each other. That’s obvious. So why not divorce her and find someone else? And have children to ensure the inheritance remains his? Although I guess he’s tried. Monique is not his first wife.
I’m just considering this when my phone rings. It’s Julia.
I slip into my bathroom to answer even though I’m feeling relaxed about taking the call since Jericho is out of the house. But I won’t take a chance I’m wrong because I’m pretty sure if he finds the phone, he’ll take it from me and punish me for having had it in the first place.
“I have a very interesting story about your husband and his brother,” Julia says, sounding excited. Ever since I told her about Jericho threatening to cut off the hands of any man who touched me, including his brother, she’s been like a dog with a bone.
“What is it?” I ask.
“I managed to get hold of a woman who used to work at the St. James house. Rose Smithson.”
“Okay. I don’t know the name.”
“No, you wouldn’t. She was let go years ago. About six years ago. Less than that. She and almost the whole of the household except for a woman named Catherine.”
“I know Catherine. She’s in charge of things and I get the feeling she’s been around since Jericho was little.”
“Yep, that’s right.”
“So, what happened that the whole household was let go?”
I can almost hear her grin when she next speaks. “Well, there was a scandal involving the brothers and a certain woman.”
“Kimberly?”
“That’s the one.”
“What happened?”
“Did you know Kimberly and Ezekiel were a couple? They apparently met at some event he was attending and she was working.”
“Working?”
“As a waitress. It was a work event so nothing at IVI. They dated for a few months, and he brought her home to meet his family and I guess things went a little sideways then.” She sounds almost gleeful.
“You mean she met Jericho and the two of them…”
“Ended up in bed together.”
“What? While she was with his brother?”
“That’s when Leontine started to let some of the staff go although Rose wasn’t one of them. She stayed on until Kimberly started to show.”
“Wait. Back up. So, Ezekiel and Kimberly were dating, and Jericho stole her from him and got her pregnant?”
“That’s what I’m hearing.”
“And Leontine fired the staff to cover it up?”
“She sounds like a witch.”
“She’s not though. Not as far as I can tell. But that was years ago and maybe she’s changed. I know she’s been sick.”
“Breast cancer. It was touch and go for a while from what Carlton told me, but she is in remission.”
“I guess something like that will change a person,” I say.
“Back to the juicy stuff though. So once Kimberly got pregnant, Jericho proposed marriage. I guess he’s old-fashioned that way.”
I can almost see her rolling her eyes.
“And according to Rose anytime the brothers were in the same room for a while there it felt like a bomb went off. They’d fight, I’m talking physically fight. Ezekiel was in bad shape according to Rose and I’m honestly not sure if Leontine even liked Kimberly. Probably thought her beneath them. And when she came between the brothers, well that was that.”
“That’s a lot to take in. And you’re sure she’s telling you the truth?”
“I mean, it’s not like I can fact check her.”
“How did you find her?”
“That wasn’t hard. It was finding one who’d talk to me, and she was it. The others have been hush-hush. Rose, though, answered to cash. She also hates Leontine so maybe this was her version of payback.”
“Why does she hate Leontine?”
“Said she was a bitch to her.”
I feel the beginnings of a headache coming on and press my hand to my forehead.
“Listen, I have to run,” Julia says and honestly, I’m grateful. “I’m getting Matty before dinner and we’re going to the toy store for his birthday. Carlton’s letting him pick out his own gift.”
“Carlton’s going to a toy store?”
“I know. Shocker. But if he’s buying, I’m in.”
Julia hasn’t worked since she moved into the Bishop house. She’s told me how much she hates having to depend on others to pay her way but hasn’t done much about it. Although with a four-year-old, I’m not sure how much you can do.
“Well, have fun. And thanks for the gossip I guess.”
“Are you doing okay?”
“I’m fine. Settling in.”
“You’re not pregnant or anything are you?” she asks, her tone worried.
“No. I’m still taking my pills. I won’t get pregnant. I don’t think it’s what he wants, Julia. I’m pretty sure he’d have taken the pills away if it was. He controls everything.”