Step-Sister Wants My Mafia Husband, I Laughed

Chapter 3

I placed the urn into the backpack I'd prepared earlier, moving with extreme care.

I closed the safe and returned the painting to its original position.

I went down to the first floor the same way I'd come.

I had just pressed myself against the base of the backyard wall when Celeste's voice drifted down from the second floor.

She called out, "Josephine, where's my limited-edition Chanel purse?"

I stopped and shrank into the shadows at the base of the wall.

Josephine answered from downstairs, "Miss, it's in the third cabinet of your walk-in closet."

Celeste demanded, "Come up and help me find it. I'm seeing Jules tonight. Can you afford to ruin my plan?"

I sneered in the shadows, then climbed over the fence and returned to my car.

I placed the backpack on the passenger seat, took out my phone, and opened a hidden app.

The screen lit up with a real-time feed of the master bedroom in Hillside Villa.

I'd stuffed this hidden camera into the bedside lamp base on my first day married into the Hawthorne family.

It was one of the last samples my mother had left behind, something that had leaked from the Hawthorne Group's lab years ago.

I glanced at the time. Celeste should be leaving about then.

I started the car and headed for Port Lucis Pier.

At 11 that night, a boat would be heading out to international waters.

Once aboard, I would leave this godforsaken place with my mother for good.

I was on the elevated highway when my phone buzzed.

Celeste sent me a text message.

Celeste: Brigitte, I'm at the entrance of Hillside Villa.

Celeste: The passcode is really six zeros? You're not lying to me, are you?

I typed back one-handed.

Brigitte: I'm not. Just enter the code and go in.

She replied with a smug emoticon.

Celeste: Good that you know your place. When I become Mrs. Hawthorne, I'll throw you a bone.

I tossed the phone onto the passenger seat and stepped on the gas.

It was 9 in the evening at Port Lucis Pier, where smuggling boats and undocumented workers gathered; the air reeked of fish and diesel.

I shouldered my backpack, pulled my baseball cap low, put on my mask, and walked to Pier 3.

A smuggler with a brutish face was smoking a cigarette.

I handed him a thick envelope. I said, "The eleven o'clock boat to Stormvik."

He squeezed the envelope, gauging its thickness, and said, "You know the rules. No questions when you board. Once you get off, go your own way."

I nodded.

He gestured with his chin toward an abandoned warehouse nearby. "Wait in that warehouse over there. Boarding at 10:30."

I walked in, sat down in a corner, and pulled up the surveillance feed.

The feed still showed that master bedroom.

Suddenly, a flashlight beam swept across the edge of the frame.

Then came the sound of high heels on the wooden floor.

The bedroom door swung open.

Celeste walked in wearing that skimpy lace nightgown.

She held up her phone for light, looking around.

When she found the pre-installed camera, she pressed the remote button to turn it on.

"Jules has such strange taste. Why doesn't he want any light?"

She walked to the bed, lifted the covers, and slid in.

She even struck a pose she thought was incredibly seductive.

I stared at the screen and smirked. "Enjoy your night."