We drank coffee, watched trashy reality television, and she told me about how maids witnessed all kinds of things because they were “all but invisible to most rich people.” “Do you want to know stuff even if it goes against your image of your mother?” “I’m not wearing rose-colored glasses. She had faults, plenty of them.” “She had an affair with Hemi. A serious affair. Two of them were like puppies, as if discovering love for the first time.” “You sure?” “I saw letters he’d written her—full of mushy romantic stuff. ‘Love of my life.’ ‘Reason I wake up.’ That kind of thing.” “Did she reciprocate?” “I don’t know—but if she didn’t, or if she decided to break it off, well, a man who feels that strongly about a woman might resort to violence.” “Hemi was at the Mahi Awards the night she disappeared. I found photographic proof online this afternoon.” Lily scrunched up her face. “At SkyCity, right? I was part of the waitstaff there.” “Big coincidence.” “No coincidence.” She took a sip of the green tea she’d switched to after the coffee. “Tia knew I worked with an agency, and one day while I was outside your parents’ house a month or so before Nina fired me, Tia asked me if the agency did bigger events.” A sudden pause. “She was so frail then, and I was pretty sure she was wearing a wig. But she had such a presence.” “Cancer.” It came out rough. “Thought so. Anyway, I gave her the company card and told her to make sure to say that I’d referred her—we used to get a bonus for referrals, and I was still ignoring my father’s blood money. She apparently asked if I could be rostered on as staff lead because she felt comfortable dealing with me.” “Did you see Hemi?” “Sure—and I also saw Tia get shaky about an hour into it. Makes sense if she was recovering from chemo. Pretty tough woman to stick it out that long. She gave me some final instructions before they left to go home early.” I stilled. “You’re sure?” “Yes. I felt bad for her because she’d done so much work for the event.” So Riki had been lying about his father’s alibi—or he just hadn’t noticed the actual time they returned home. That night had never been as important to him as it was to me; he couldn’t be expected to recall all the details. But would my mother have allowed Hemi into her car in the short time between leaving the house and driving off? And would he have left Tia if she’d been feeling unwell? The man had cheated on her while she was battling cancer. Yes, he was fully capable of leaving her to go to my mother. A throbbing in my left temple. Shit. “I better head home.” Lily didn’t stop me, but she did touch my arm again at the door and say, “Come by again.” Her fingers were warm. “It’s nice being with someone who knows they’re equally screwed up.” The pounding had increased in ferocity by the time I got to my car. I wasn’t supposed to take the migraine medication if I was planning to drive, so I gritted my teeth and got going. But when lights began flashing in front of my eyes, I knew there was no way I was going to make it home. Pulling into a small lay-by on the road, the bush falling off into the darkness on one side, I opened the glove box and retrieved the packet of pills I’d thrown in there. It was empty. Fuck. I didn’t remember taking them all, but I must have. Bile coating the back of my tongue, I scrabbled around in there, searching for a pill that might’ve popped out, or for another packet I may have thrown in there and forgotten about. Nothing. The lights turned into hammers, the hammers into a vise. And then . . . sweet oblivion.
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