All You Desire by Kirsten Miller Read Free Book Online Page A

I’d like to settle this issue out of court, if possible. I’m prepared to make you a deal.”
    The woman laughed louder. “What kind of deal ?”
    â€œI could tell you if you let me in,” Haven said.
    â€œFine.” The door opened. “ This should be entertaining.” It was half past two, but the woman standing in front of Haven was still wearing her nightgown. Her right hand clutched a crystal glass half filled with an amber liquid. Scotch, Haven surmised, judging by the aroma that wafted by on the breeze.
    One night back in Rome, while teetering on the edge of sleep, Haven had been quietly flipping through television channels when she’d come across an episode of Virginia Morrow’s old cooking show, The Sophisticated Chef . Wary of waking Iain, Haven had kept the volume low as she watched his mother sleepwalk around a set that was designed to resemble a humble Tuscan kitchen. The style of the host’s attire told Haven that the show had been taped in the late nineties, shortly before Virginia’s spectacular self-destruction. There were already signs of the trouble to come. Her eyes were hollow and her rouge a bit too bright. She resembled a painted corpse—one that had risen from the dead to take its revenge on the living.
    Curled up beside Virginia Morrow’s slumbering son, Haven had watched the woman on TV and wondered how long it would be until she taped the show that was destined to become a YouTube classic. Leaked to the press by a cameraman who’d finally tired of his boss’s abuse, the footage captured the sophisticated chef hurling eggs, pork products, and curses at her studio audience. A Parma ham had briefly knocked a woman unconscious. Virginia Morrow fled the U.S. shortly after the video made the evening news. People still speculated about the cause of her public meltdown, and from time to time an enterprising journalist would attempt to put the big question to her. But in the end, it remained one of the few mysteries of the gossip age. Only Haven and Iain knew the unsavory truth. Virginia had been destroyed by the love of her life—a love she’d discovered at the bottom of a bottle.
    Now, here she was in the flesh. She looked older, of course, but age seemed to suit her. The woman’s razor-sharp features had softened, and a little extra weight had filled out her figure. There was no doubt that she was the parent responsible for her son’s good looks. Though her hair had turned prematurely white, it still fell in elegant waves over her shoulders. With her white gown and unnatural pallor, she looked like a glamorous ghost. But not a particularly friendly one.
    â€œYou look younger than I expected,” Virginia observed before promptly turning her back on her guest and disappearing down a hallway. “Follow me.” Haven heard the command but remained frozen in the doorway. Without Virginia there to block the view, she saw that the house was little more than a ruin—as dilapidated on the inside as it was on the outside. And the air felt even colder. The villa was at least two hundred years old, Haven thought. Two decades of neglect couldn’t be responsible for all the damage it had suffered. She spied a meat cleaver embedded in the foyer’s wall and knew that some of the destruction had been wrought by human hands.
    â€œDo you see how I am forced to live?” Virginia Morrow inquired without looking back at her guest. “This is what I get for wasting my youth on Jerome Morrow. Are you coming or not?”
    â€œSure, yes,” Haven said, scrambling to catch up.
    They reached a room filled with dusty antiques—the first furniture Haven had noticed anywhere in the house. The chambers they’d passed on the way had all been empty. Here, rotten floorboards were covered by threadbare rugs, and a few meager flames danced around a broken chair leg that had been tossed into the fireplace. Haven waited