Truth, Lies, and Mr. Grey by Shelly Ellis

Author:Shelly Ellis [Ellis, Shelly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington Books
Published: 2022-01-12T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

Vanessa

“I’m heading to Janeiro now, Cy!” Vanessa called over her shoulder as she strolled down the hall. “I’ll be gone for a couple of hours at most. If you need me, call my cell!”

For the past few days she had mentioned casually that her girlfriends wanted to meet her for lunch.

“They just miss me so much,” she had told her husband, trying to sound forlorn and put upon. “We haven’t met up in ages. I guess they’re getting impatient. I told them I could hang out with them for an hour or two . . . maybe. That is if you can stand me being gone that long.”

“Sure,” he’d said as he typed on his laptop, which was perched in front of him while he reclined in bed. “Whatever! Do your thing.”

Of course it was all fictitious. Her girlfriends hadn’t called her begging for lunch. She wasn’t heading to Rio de Janeiro Grill, a Brazilian steakhouse about fifteen miles from her house, where the servers made a big production of cutting the meat skewered on swords at the diners’ tables. Instead, she was headed to meet Bilal. They were finally putting their plan into motion. They were finally going to kill Cy today.

And it’s about damn time, she thought.

If he followed his normal behavior pattern, he would leave the house soon after she did. Bilal and she would trail him in a rented vehicle, and when Cyrus climbed out of his BMW Bilal would shoot him. He’d hop back into the car while she waited in the driver’s seat and they’d drive away.

It was admittedly a perilous tactic, but if they did it fast enough, no one would recognize either of them before they got away.

“Did you hear me, Cy?” Vanessa now shouted again. “I’m leaving!”

She wanted to make certain he believed she was no longer home.

“Got it!” Cyrus called back. “Just make sure you don’t take all damn day this time!”

“Just make sure you really die this time,” she muttered under her breath before striding to the stairs.

Certain of their success and the end of her drudgery and agony, Vanessa hopped down the stairs to the first floor and sailed toward the front door. She crossed the marble tile of the foyer and swung the door open, only to stop in her tracks when she saw her eldest son, Cy Jr., standing on their welcome mat. She watched him tug off his headphones and adjust the skateboard in his arms.

“Junior! What . . . what are you doing back home, baby?” she cried, trying to hide her panic.

She had purposely made sure her children would not be anywhere near home today so Cyrus would have no reason to keep up his invalid charade. Bryson and Zoe were on an outing with their grandmother, who Vanessa had given express instructions to keep them busy for the next two hours—at minimum. Cy Jr. was supposed to be at the nearby skate park with his friends. He’d left more than a half hour ago.

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