6
AFTER VERENA LEFT the Cohens’ house, she wound down the hill back to her family home just south of Little Santa Monica, as the locals called South Santa Monica Boulevard. She pulled her car into the narrow driveway that led to a detached garage in the rear yard. Walking past old vine roses, she drank in their heady aroma. She opened the back door and walked in, her leather pumps clicking across the dark polished hardwood floor.
Their house was modest in comparison to the mansions north of Santa Monica and Sunset Boulevards, but she loved it. It was the home her grandfather had built for Mia, which she’d moved into after her parents had died. It was one of the original cottages on the street, nestled now between larger new homes. She loved it and had always felt at home here.
The twins
