Chapter 33
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
BELLATRIX
“Iwanna know what you know about the tunnels under Briarwood. Because I know you know something.” I pushed my way into Vee’s office, slamming the door behind me before I approached her desk.
The picture frames on the wall bounced and turned cockeyed, and a trinket on one of the bookshelves tipped onto its side.
Vee didn’t react, though. She was used to my outbursts so she barely looked up from her computer screen as she pinched the trinket between two fingers and set it right on its feet.
She could have been working on something important but she could have just as well have been ignoring me.
“And I want to know where you’ve been for the last forty-eight hours.
” Vee calmly closed the laptop and set her hands on the back of the monitor, one over the other, as she finally glanced over.
Her mouth pursed and her nostrils flaring each time she took an exasperated breath, clearly aimed at me.
“Except you just answered my question, didn’t you? ”
Her eyes flicked to the top of my head or rather whatever was stuck to it.
And I lifted a hand, feeling around until I plucked a stray twig from that rat’s nest that was my hair.
Must have missed one. I was more concerned with replacing my pump, taking the meds I’d missed over the last few days, and crashing out somewhere warm than I was with looking presentable.
That was nothing new either. Half-dead chic was the vibe I was going for.
I crossed my arms over my chest and fell into the chair opposite her desk. Stretching my neck as I stared up at the ceiling. There were more watermarks than I remembered there being. Then again, this place was a shithole.
“They lead back to that creepy old well. The one everyone said to stay away from because it was haunted. But that’s not why they really wanted us kids to stay away from it, was it?
” When Vee didn’t respond, I dropped my chin and quirked a brow.
“They just didn’t want us to know what was down there. ”
Vee’s lips twisted. It was the only indication that whatever she was about to say next was gonna be a bunch of bullshit. “They wanted you to stay away because it was dangerous. It’s a giant hole in the ground, Bellatrix.”
I shook my head and leaned forward. “Nope. There’s more to it than that. Just being in that house was dangerous. Just being a girl in that house was dangerous. But you know that too.”
“Some of us didn’t have a choice but to be in that house, Bellatrix.”
“Some of us, yes,” I hummed. My mother. Most of the women who worked with her. Me and Allie. The other kids whose parents decided it was better the devil you know than the one on the streets. She said my name again so I said hers. “But not you, Veera. You chose to be there. Why?”
Vee was long gone before my time at Prescott Estates.
But not my mother’s and grandmother’s. They worked together.
I saw the pictures. I heard the stories.
We all did. Vee was educated. She was going to law school.
She had options the rest of us didn’t. The women employed under Mr. Prescott and the children they brought with them.
The children who couldn’t leave until they were old enough to live on their own.
Like me. And the children who never made it out.
Like Allie. And a few others we didn’t talk about because it was easier to pretend they didn’t exist.
Vee lifted a dismissive shoulder. “You already know the answer to that too.”
“If I did, I wouldn’t be asking you,” I threw back.
She clicked her nails on the top of her desk, waiting for me to figure something out while I had no idea what it was.
She sighed. “I know you took the journal, Bells. You and your sister aren’t as clever as you think you are.”
“Not my—” I started to argue, and Vee raised a hand to cut me off.
“I don’t want to hear it. You two are sisters in every way that matters, and Alice would have wanted that for you.”
I rolled my eyes. “The only thing Alice would have wanted for me is a rich husband. And only because that was what she wanted for herself.”
“You don’t know what she wanted. You don’t know what anyone really wants until you’re standing in their shoes, until you get inside their head.”
“Yeah, well, there ain’t much inside Allie’s head besides worms anymore,” I snorted.
Vee didn’t seem to find that as funny as I did, though. She held out a hand to me. “I want it back.”
“What? Oh…” I stiffened as realization sank in. Shit. “I don’t have it.”
“Gabby then.” Vee nodded once and pushed up from her desk.
“Gabby doesn’t have it either,” I called after her before she could make it to the door.
She paused in her tracks but she didn’t turn around. Her shoulders pulled back and her chin slightly raised. She was staring straight ahead, like she could see through to the other side. And whatever was there was world-ending. “Who does?”
Two words, one question, that had me feeling twelve years old again. I swallowed, forcing down the anxiety only this woman could bring out of me. “They do.”
“Who? Which one?” She still wouldn’t look at me, and I didn’t know if that was better or worse.
“Adrian.” He had the backpack at least. My gun, supplies, and replacement pump. What he did with them, I had no clue.
Vee nodded once, grabbed for the door, yanked it open, and calmly walked out of the room. It clicked closed behind her, and I was left wondering how badly I’d fucked up while also wondering how she’d managed to get away without answering me.