Chapter 4 #2
I loved that his arms were around me right then. They all moved until they stood facing the window except for Jer who remained where he was.
“I woke up in a strange place. The headmistress was there. She told me the rules. Put me in solitary—everyone starts in solitary. I think you saw it? Were you there?”
Julian kissed my hand. “We were all there. Not that you would remember. Kit tried to leave us home. That was cute he thought that was happening.”
I smirked at him. “I love how you put that.”
“I have my moments.”
“Anyway, they dosed us with things every week. Kept us compliant, but if we needed something else, they did that too. I was always being sent to solitary for standing up for the little kids. And I cleaned and hung around with some girls who didn’t mind sneaking out at night to look at YouTube.
It’s kind of hard to really explain to you what it was like.
It was just… horrible. All the time and I was pretty sure that I was never getting out until I was eighteen. ”
Someone cleared their throat. Kit Lent stood in the doorway. “We have to talk about that. Come see me. The boys don’t know about this yet. Bring her home. She’s released. We’re having dinner. Come to the big house.”
Having delivered that order, Kit left us alone in the room. I froze where I stood. I was leaving the hospital. It had been awful going through this, but at least it had been safe.
“What’s the matter?” Barrett held my gaze. “You’re okay.”
“What’s out there? Where we’re going? Who… will be there?”
He tapped my chin until I looked at him. “Only us. My parents. No one else unless you want to see someone else.”
There were enemies everywhere. It seemed everywhere I turned around there was someone new. “This is where the people who hurt Phoenix live.”
“I’m not scared of them here.” Phoenix ran a hand through his hair.
“It’s funny. But I’m less frightened of them right over there, just a few miles away, than in Manhattan.
They don’t come around here. It’s like they know we’re here and the fact that we are scares them.
Not the other way around. No one saw them coming years ago.
But now we’re wide awake. It’s going to be okay. ”
Phoenix was not an optimist. If he said that he wasn’t scared, then okay. “Truthfully, I’m just waiting for my aunt to jump out of a bush and take me back to that place.”
“She can’t.” Jeremy shook his head. “Granny Monk would eat her.”
I laughed. This was all so new. It was going to take some time to get used to.
Barrett drove us to their home. Since he was the only one with a driver’s license, that wasn’t surprising. We were in a Jeep. I couldn’t help my smile. “Do you miss your baby?”
He didn’t misunderstand me. “I do. I wish I could bring the car down.”
Jeremy looked at Julian, who stared out the window. “We need to get our driver’s licenses.”
His twin nodded, but Jules seemed pretty out of it. Maybe he would sleep tonight. Maybe I would. Who knew anymore?
I turned to stare at the houses as we pulled up.
Of course, they were beautiful. On my left, a small—only relative to the fact that this was the Lents and they always had big homes— stilted house perched above the shoreline.
It had a soft gray facade and crisp white trim.
A wooden dock stretched from its porch. The guys said that we had the smaller house, so that must be where we were staying.
Further down a path, closer to the lake, a bigger two-story house stood, its beige exterior catching the last of the light.
It was getting late. Wide windows framed views of the lake, and the sprawling porch with white railings looked like something out of a painting.
Tall pine trees framed the scene, casting long shadows across what must be a well-manicured lawn in the spring.
Right now, it was quietly waiting for the spring to come again.
What had Dina called this in her diary? The veil of pines? Or something like that. They were everywhere, hiding this place from the world. Keeping its secrets.
I stepped out of the car and became immediately aware that it was really cold.
Or maybe it was only moderately cold, but I was freezing.
I had no coat and the top of my head, which had never experienced the cold because it had always been covered in hair before, made it hit even harder.
I tucked my arms in front of myself and bent down
“You okay?” Julian put his arm around me, turning me toward the house.
“I’m really cold.”
He blinked. “We need to get you a winter coat. You don’t have one. We brought all of your stuff here. Jer and I packed it, but I didn’t see a coat. I thought for sure you’d have one, but you don’t. You were in Chicago before New York. What did you do for a coat?”
“I had one there. They didn’t let me keep it. You’re not wearing a coat. And you don’t seem to be freezing.”
He smiled. “I’m cold. But I can’t let you think I’m cold.”
I laughed, which he must have liked, because he grinned bigger.
“Hey,” their mother called out from the porch in her house, where she had suddenly appeared.
Or maybe I had simply not been paying attention.
“Come eat dinner now. If you go in there, you’re all going to fall asleep and want to eat at two in the morning or not at all until tomorrow and then you’ll have low blood sugar. Come on. Dinner is on the table.”
Jules looked at me. “Can you make it, or do you want me to go inside and grab my coat? I can give it to you.”
I shook my head. “It’s like ten feet. I’ll be fine.”
We walked the rest of the distance, the other guys catching up with us. “This must be gorgeous in the summer.”
“It’s super humid in the summer,” Barrett supplied. “Pretty in the spring and the fall. But we don’t come here very much.”
“Then why have the house?” I asked before I closed my mouth. “Sorry, not my business.”
Jeremy turned around walking up the stairs into his parents’ house backward. “You’ve backslid about that. Everything is your business. They keep the house because it keeps them essential here, as part of the crowd even though it’s highly unlikely they’d ever live here for any length of time.”
Daniel opened the door for us. “It got colder today. We have the house because it’s a good investment; it gives us some place to stay when we’re here, which has happened three times this year; my fathers bought the property; and, frankly, real estate is always a good investment.”
Jeremy nodded at his father. “Point taken. But it’s also a fuck-we’re-rich property to remind everyone here just in case they forget to treat you with respect.”
Dan laughed. “Sure. Okay. That too. Come in. Mom drove half an hour and back to get tonight’s dinner. She says she’s going to cook shrimp tomorrow. So watch out, the longer she stays here the more cooking she will do.”
“I would love that.” Barrett walked past us. “This way, Alatheia.”
I wanted to follow, but I was too busy staring at this house.
My breath was taken away by the sheer elegance of the space.
This wasn’t just some lake house they kept around.
Marble floors gleamed under the soft glow of crystal chandeliers, and the walls were adorned with intricate moldings and artworks that I didn’t recognize.
More and more I’d acknowledged that my own education about art was very limited.
The view from the huge windows at the back of the house must be spectacular when it was light out.
The whole moment felt surreal. I just stood there staring.
I’d just been in the fifth level of hell and now I was here?
No, I had to be still on the floor in solitary.
I was dreaming this. I caught my breath.
Wow. Life was really cruel. Unless I was dead.
Oates had told me I would see people who cared about me again when I was dead.
Was I dead?
A hand touched my shoulder. “I know.” It was Rosalind. “Everything is too much. But you’re okay. You are.”
I swallowed. “I was just wondering if I was dead. But I thought I would see my mother again when I was dead, and she isn’t here, so maybe I’m just hallucinating?”
“It’s normal what you’re feeling. Lots of change.
And now this is another one. I would give you your mother in a heartbeat if I could.
” She hugged me. Her accent thickened as she spoke.
“But you’re here with us and we’re very glad that you are.
Come on. Food will help. By now the steak is probably dry and that will certainly tell you that you are in reality because who would imagine that? ”
Eric was pouring wine into glasses, but when he would have put one where Jer stood and was probably going to sit, Jer shook his head. “I’m done with that. For now. Maybe forever.”
Phoenix plopped down and then patted next to him. “Sit here. Alcohol was never my poison. It doesn’t bother me.”
“I don’t want to be out of it.” Jeremy sat, too, and I took the spot that Phoenix indicated. “I don’t want to be off buying beer when someone drugs my girl.”
Barrett and Julian seemed to be sticking to water as well. Wow.
Eric sat down next to Rosalind while Stephen placed food on everyone’s plate.
“Alatheia, Kit came and got you so we never got to talk. Tomorrow they’d like you back in the clinic at nine.
They’re going to go over some things with you about your treatment plan.
I’ll drive you over since I’m taking a shift. ”
“No, thank you, Eric.” Barrett shook his head. “I’m going to drive her back and forth anywhere she needs to go while she’s here.”
With a shrug, Eric smiled. “Great. Then you can take me tomorrow morning, too.”
Since I was absolutely certain that Barrett had meant to get alone time with me, that sort of defeated his point. “Sure.”
“Don’t do that to him.” Rosalind laughed. “Barrett, Eric will take his own car and you’ll take Alatheia. That’s fine.”
Everyone dug in, and I tried to ignore how strange it was to be sitting here like this.
Somehow this was less tense than the Hamptons.
My first night there with them all at the table had been awful.
But then again, the Chinese food for the twins’ birthday had been great.
So, maybe the Hamptons was the exception and this was more the rule.
“Listen,” Kit interrupted. “I want to get this over with.”
He did like to make a speech. I’d noticed that about him.
“You said something I overheard about turning eighteen and leaving that place.”
That’s right, he had interrupted us. I cleared my throat. “They had to let us leave at eighteen.”
“They do. But I can’t find record of anyone leaving that place, of anyone who actually got out and went anywhere else.
That’s why I couldn’t find it to begin with.
I’ve been going over this with one of my partners and with Stephen all day.
” He must have just gotten back. Stephen had stayed to see the place closed down on the island.
He stared down at the table, not making eye contact with anyone.
Kit continued. “And I think people don’t leave.
I think those girls who aged out, died.”
There was silence and then an eruption as everyone started talking at once.
My heart rate kicked up so high I could feel it in my ears.
What? I had known some of those girls. The room tilted left and then right, but I wasn’t going to faint.
I didn’t do that. It was ridiculous, I was sitting on a chair, but I pulled my knees to lean my head on them.
“Okay. I think that could have been handled better.” Was Eric yelling at Kit? “She’s fragile right now.”
“She needs to hear this. What her family is doing. And why.”
“Yes, she does. But if she isn’t in imminent danger, maybe it could have waited for dessert.”
Yes, Eric, the quiet one, was yelling at Kit. I lifted my head. For his part, Kit looked chastened, his brow downsloped. Eric might not yell very much, but when he did, perhaps it made an impact.
Phoenix had his cheek on my back. I hadn’t noticed how he had risen and grabbed me. “No one is going to kill you. We told you that you’re safe, and we didn’t lie.”
“Thank you.” I managed to get my knees back down under the table. This was going to be embarrassing later. “But why wasn’t I?”
He’d opened this door. I wasn’t going to wait to know.