The Secret Life Of Sunflowers: A gripping, inspiring novel based on the true story of Johanna Bonger, Vincent van Gogh's sister-in-law (Light & Life Series)

CHAPTER ONE

Emsley

The first time I saw the blue box of mystery was the last time I talked with my grandmother face-to-face.

“If you want to murder that cheating boyfriend of yours, I’m in,” she told me. “I thought about it, Emsley. I can’t help you bury his body, or Diya’s, but I can provide you with an alibi.”

She adjusted her Monet-print silk robe, blue-green with a smattering of purple water lilies, until it draped over her frail body just so. The goddess in repose. Stroke or no, prop-up bed or no, she was still Violet Velar, the Artist, the Diva, the toast of New York.

The cloud of disinfectant that hovered throughout the care center like highland mist in a Robinson Hall painting didn’t dare breach her room. Her perfume embraced me. Spicy, unrestrained, bold.

I plunked a stack of art magazines and auction catalogues on her nightstand. “We can let Trey live another day. He’s allowed to have a relationship with Diya, if that’s what they want. We’re business partners. I’m prepared to stick out the rough spots.”

“You could come back.”

I kissed her cheek. “You know New York is my Camelot.” The magical kingdom I always longed for. “But LA is my reality.”

New York auction houses seemed to have a secret charter that required auctioneers to look like the host of a British documentary series. You had to sound like you went to Cambridge in the sixties to be allowed on the stage.

“I’m not of a distinguished age, and here, that matters. I don’t have a stature that commands respect.” I turned down the metal bars around Violet’s bed that the new nurse liked to pop up for safety, but Violet hated. “And I’m not the preferred sex. I’m missing the dangly bits.”

She growled at that.

My sentiments exactly. “You know what Henry Fullerton told me when I asked for a promotion?”

“Henry was always an ass.”

“Expensive pieces of art are bought by the rich as an investment. A star auctioneer must be a person the CEO of a hedge fund would find trustworthy at a glance. Someone they could see themselves golfing with on a Sunday.” Henry’s exact words, his excuse for keeping me in a junior position year after year. “Anyway, if he wasn’t an ass, I wouldn’t have started looking at other opportunities.” When I was in a generous mood, I could almost convince myself that Henry Fullerton had done me a favor. “I wouldn’t have started my own business with Diya and Trey.”

Violet’s Valkyrie gaze softened with concern. “Are you sure you want to keep living with them?”

“It’s not a matter of want. It’s a matter of being unable to predict lottery numbers.” I settled into the recliner next to her bed with my bag and teased my laptop from the mess of papers in there. “Believe me, I want to have my own place. And someday soon, I will. And then I’m going to buy Diya and Trey out of the business.”