Philip looked at her like he was profoundly disappointed, either at her or at himself. “Do you want a ride back?”

His enraged speech against moochers still reverberated between her ears. There was no way she was going to accept another favor. “It’s fine. I have to pick up some things. I’ll grab the subway.”

“Take the ride, Tonya.”

He wasn’t asking. Tonya found herself nodding. “Of course. Yes, Chef. Thank you.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

IMANI

A door slam woke Imani. The view outside the window was a deep gray expanse that could have belonged to any hour save for those between midnight and 4:00 a.m. Beside her, Philip’s breath clawed its way from his throat, a bear emerging from hibernation. Her husband snored whenever he drank or went to sleep overtired. Lately, that was every night.

Imani rolled toward her bedside table and grabbed her cell to check the time. Seven a.m. The door slam hadn’t been the kids. Teenagers squeezed every second of sleep out of Saturday mornings. Most likely Tonya had gone out for a morning jog, maybe to buy some Skippy on toast for breakfast.

Imani pulled back the duvet and rose from the mattress. Peanuts were the least of her problems with her “renter.” The bigger issue was that she was living with the kind of woman not only shameless enough to have an affair with a married man in hopes of furthering her career, but also sufficiently bold to send the resulting child to the same school as the kid’s half sister—no doubt as some sort of power move to blackmail Nate into giving her more money. Keeping an affair silent was worth considerable cash to anyone, let alone a celebrity couple. Avoiding scandalizing one’s child was worth even more. Nate would have paid nearly anything to keep Layla’s parentage under wraps, Imani was sure of it. Tonya must have gotten really greedy for things to end in murder.

Imani headed to the bathroom, even though what she really wanted was to wake Philip and relay everything that she’d learned. He’d returned home past midnight the prior evening, too late to discuss a treasured employee. Philip’s natural response to confrontation was to become defensive—a consequence, Imani speculated, of his father being verbally abusive and physically domineering during his childhood. If she didn’t want her husband immediately launching into an argument about Tonya’s work ethic, Imani needed to wait until he was well rested and had let down his guard.