Chapter 3 #3
She smiles sweetly and I realize two things. This woman is an idiot, and like evil Sue from The Heath, she loves the power she has over me.
As I suspected.
‘I noticed there’s no razor in the shower,’ I begin, and she starts shaking her head before I’ve even finished talking.
‘What do you need to shave for?’ she asks.
My nose wrinkles. ‘What do you mean? Don’t you?’
‘Well, of course, honey, but you’re… well, who do you need to shave for?’
‘Myself?’ I mutter.
The nurse purses her lips. ‘I don’t see why it’s necessary for someone…like you to shave, but you can’t have one. You might hurt yourself. If you need to shave, I’ll either do it for you, or maybe, if you show me you can use one without hurting yourself, I’ll supervise you.’
‘You do realize I’ve been living as a normal human being since I returned to Richmond, right?’
‘An oversight that Mr. Banderville would like to rectify. You’re clearly not suited to everyday life. You got yourself hurt. Very badly.’
My eyes narrow. ‘How was the…gas leak my fault?’
‘Well, it wasn’t, not directly, but Mr. Banderville just doesn’t understand why you were in a place like that. It’s dangerous for girls like you.’
I try not to sneer at her, but it’s very hard.
‘Eat your dinner. Lights out at nine. Tomorrow, maybe you can have a little walk outside for some fresh air if you eat all your dinner and you’ve slept properly.’
‘I have class.’ I say. ‘I’ll need to attend.’
She titters. ‘Sure you do, sweetie.’
I tilt my head. Does she think I’m lying about having to go to school?
With a final little laugh and a roll of her eyes, she leaves the room, and I stare at the door after her.
I open the stinking silver dome and look down at the seabass that’s staring up at me.
As predicted, the knife and fork are plastic.
The fish hasn’t even been deboned. I cut it into small chunks and, leaving the spine and the head, I put the rest into the toilet and flush it.
I eat the steamed carrots and broccoli, even though they’re tainted by a dead aquatic creature, and a couple of the small, boiled potatoes. Afterward, I sit on the bed and message Lu, who starts blowing up my new phone immediately with questions and righteous anger on my behalf.
She makes it funny, too, and in no time at all, she has me laughing quietly at the situation I’ve found myself in. Knowing that I have her in my corner makes me feel better, at least on the surface, even though I know that almost no one out there can truly help me.
A maid comes in around eight thirty, giving me a tight-lipped smile.
‘Are you finished with your dinner, Miss Marguerite?’ she asks.
I nod and she picks up the tray, but not before she puts something into my trashcan carefully.
‘You’re Samantha?’ I ask, wondering if she’s actually on my side, or if this is a trick of some kind.
She nods. ‘Is there anything else you need? Stephens said I should ask you whenever I’m in here if we’re alone and he says he’s sorry you never got the refreshments you asked for earlier. The nurse said no.’
Yes, the nurse is a giant problem I didn’t anticipate.
I glance around the room. ‘A TV?’
She winces. ‘That nurse told us all that you weren’t allowed screens in case it made your condition worse.’
‘My condition? Are you fucking kidding?’ I mutter. ‘What a Class A bitch.’
‘No arguments here,’ Samantha says under her breath.
‘Nothing right now, thanks,’ I say, flopping back on my bed with a sigh.
‘It’s kind of warm in here,’ Samantha remarks.
I nod. ‘I’m not allowed to open the window in case I die, or something.’
The maid snorts and puts down my tray. From her pocket, she takes out a bunch of keys and unhooks a tiny one.
‘All the maids have one of these so we can clean the outer panes,’ she murmurs, handing it to me.
‘You won’t get in trouble?’
She shrugs. ‘I’ll just say I lost it in the house somewhere. No big deal.’
‘Thanks,’ I say.
She winks. ‘The bitch said lights out at nine. She’ll come check. She’s been here two days, making our lives hell with her orders. Seriously, it’s like she thinks she’s the new Mrs. Novelle, or something.’
‘Ugh, she isn’t going to be, is she?’
Samantha shakes her head. ‘Nope, but she thinks she’s something special, that’s for sure.’
The maid goes to the door and opens it, giving me a nod and leaving the room. The door is locked behind her again.
I open the window first, basking in the cool air for a moment before I go to the trash and find a bag of crisps potato chips and some fruit.
I take one of the apples and bite into it.
The rest I put on a shelf in the closet behind a spare pillow.
It’s not the best spot, but my options are limited and it’s the best I can do.
I eat my apple quickly and drop the core out the window into the bushes below. Then, I try to find something to wear to bed. No way am I sleeping naked when that woman, who’s literally threatened to watch me shave, can come into my room at will.
But I can’t bring myself to put on one of the gray uniforms. They’re scratchy and, after wearing normal clothes for the past three months, I just can’t stand the way they feel against even my hands.
So, I decide to go to bed in my tank top and my underwear, refusing to think about what tomorrow will bring.
I close the window, hiding the key under my mattress before I turn out the lights and lay in the dark, waiting for her to check that I’m following her dumb rules. A few minutes later, I hear the door unlock.
She comes into the room, and I can feel her watching me. I pretend I’m already asleep.
‘Yes, she seems to be following your rules. Tried to give me some BS about going to class tomorrow, like I’m going to believe—’
I wonder who else is here, but then I hear another, more masculine voice that’s muffled and realize she’s speaking on the phone.
‘She actually goes to school? Like a real school?’ she scoffs. ‘Wow. Okay, fine. I’ll make sure she goes to the campus, but you’re not paying me to shadow her all day.’
So, she’s speaking to Joe, giving him a little update on me. My fists clench under the covers.
‘Okay. Yes, sir.’
She says the last part weirdly, like a low purr.
I watch her through my mostly closed eyes as she taps the phone, puts it in her nurse’s uniform pocket and lets out a slow breath.
‘Spoiled little retard,’ she mutters, I assume about me.
Then she leaves, locking the door behind her.
I get my phone out and quickly message the guys about my conversations with the evil nurse and about the phone call.
I feel a little better when Blake messages back immediately, clearly outraged.
I think he might even kill her, and I can’t help my small smile.
Yes, I know that’s a really fucked up thing to be happy about, but this woman is a prize asshole.
And clearly very deep in the Banderville pockets.
She’ll do whatever Joe tells her to do and, if I’m honest, past the bravado, that terrifies me.
I was wrong. I underestimated Nurse Asshole. She isn’t Sue. She’s Stoke himself.
I turn off the phone and put it under my pillow. Then, I lay down. Not because she told me to, but because I’m sleepy anyway.
Tomorrow is another day, I tell myself. And John and I made a deal. I’m going to campus. It sounded like she won’t be coming with me, so maybe I’ll be free for a little while. Maybe I’ll be able to see my guys and we can figure out what I’m going to do.
We’ll figure it out like they said. We have to.
SHADE
Daisy has stopped replying. I hope that means she’s going to sleep. I sit and stare at my phone for a long time, reading and rereading what she’s said about my father’s house so far.
I hadn’t anticipated that Joe would have someone there, but I should have. He craves control over her, and he wants her within his reach. It kills me that now she is and all it took was for him to have a short conversation with my father. It was that easy for him to take over her life.
I’m starting to realize why she put so much effort into figuring out the formula for Envy and making sure she was in on the cash. Money was her only way out, and now even that might not be enough.
‘We should have left when we had the chance,’ Mav says quietly, as if he can hear my thoughts.
He’s just staring out of the window. Has been since Daisy hung up mid-conversation.
‘Find out what you can about the nurse,’ I mutter to Blake, not even looking at him.
‘Already been looking.’
‘Anything?’
‘Only that she used to work in some facility for kids and teens that was shut down after allegations of patient abuse.’
‘Jesus. We need to get Daisy out of there.’
‘She has a class tomorrow on her old Lit timetable, the one my father still has. He made a deal with her that she could still come to school until the end of the year. She’ll be here. We just need to intercept her and get her away from whoever’s with her.’
I pace some more and then I pick up my phone, calling Daisy’s best friend.
She answers almost immediately. ‘Trying different numbers now? I told you I don’t deal with your brand of drama, Teddy bear. I’m a badass bitch and I don’t need your jealous alpha bullshit. Not even for your ruby red Miata, jackass. Leave me alone, or I’ll come make you.’
‘It’s Shade,’ I say with a frown, wondering who she thinks she’s talking to.
‘Oh.’ She’s quiet for a second and then mumbles something about putting my number in her phone so she knows when not to pick up.
‘This about the package I left downstairs?’
‘What package?’
She huffs and I get a mental image of her rolling her eyes like I’m wasting her time.
‘The thing you asked me for before the holidays. One of your boys took it from me at the door.’ She lets out a loud sigh.
‘It’s not about the package, but thanks. Did you read what was in it?’