Chapter 35 #2
I’d asked her spirit to show me what happened to her, and now I was seeing it. Living in it.
I looked back down at her painting, a white page spread with pink and orange flowers. I recognized those flowers. They were the same ones that lined the frame of the front door. Sariah had been the one to paint some hope and life into the house long ago.
The door hit the wall with a snap, startling both of us.
Jacob stepped into the doorway. He was younger, his face lineless and smoothed.
His moustache was shaved cleanly off, and his hair was a deep blond without the gray.
His gait was lighter as he approached Sariah, who turned in her chair with a smile.
“Do you ever knock, Jacob?” Sariah said. Her dulcet tones were so different from what I’d expected after watching her ghost gesture sadly in the study.
Jacob laughed.
“And miss the beautifully incredulous look on your face? Not a chance, my dearest.” He held out his hand to her. “Come. Let’s take a walk.”
“I have to finish this painting for Abby to hang in the nursery.”
“I promise I won’t keep you long. You must come.”
The scene was too perfect, too jarringly different from everything else I’d witnessed in this house. Though I wished the vision could bring me a measure of joy, instead I sank with dread. The air seemed to agree with my fears, and the smell of the room shifted from heavenly floral to a dark tang.
Sariah accepted his hand and stood. The couple scarcely made it to the doorway when Jacob stopped and wrapped his arms around her, pushing her against the open doorframe.
“I thought you said we were going for a walk,” she said as he began to place kisses down her neck.
I averted my eyes as the kisses continued, waiting for the moment to end.
Jacob’s hands wandered down her body until they tugged up the edge of her skirt.
“Jacob, we should at least close the door this time,” Sariah protested.
“Ah, but that’s the fun of it,” he replied.
His lips crashed into hers with a fervor.
Heat stirred in the room as they continued, hands groping and skirts lifting higher.
I glanced down at the floorboards when I heard his belt unclasp and his pants fall to the floor.
Moans filled the room and escaped down the hallway.
Panic rose inside me even though I knew they couldn’t see me and I clamped my eyes shut, praying my feet would suddenly move again and take me from the room so I wouldn’t have to witness this scene anymore.
A screech broke through their lovemaking.
My eyes darted back up. Between the doorframe and their tangle of bodies, I could just make out Abby standing against the far hallway wall, her eyes wide as she took in a wife and her husband in their compromising position.
The couple stopped mid-motion, their mouths hanging open and panting.
Sariah’s cheeks turned as red as her hair.
“You think my witnessing this again is funny, Jacob? You’re a beast—a monster! And you. My own sister.” Abby ran, her footsteps echoing off the walls.
My knees nearly gave way.
The resemblance between them. It was too plain now for me to ignore. Sariah was Abby’s natural sister.
Why hadn’t Abby told me? Two women, sisters by birth, yoked to the same man by virtue of plural marriage.
Forced to live every day in each other’s shadows within the same house.
Perhaps it was simply too painful for her to speak of, sharing your husband in such an intimate way.
And then that sister disappeared at the hand of your mutual husband.
It was little wonder Abby had broken down into the shifting woman I now knew.
I squeezed my eyes shut again, trying in vain to erase the sordid image etching into my mind.
The smell hit me first before I opened my eyes—a putrid leak of spoiled water and rotting flesh.
The couple was gone. The light of the day had faded lower, proving that night was fast on its way. I still stood in my room—Sariah’s room.
Anticipation surged through me as I looked around. The house’s secrets were unwinding before me in all their horror and tragedy. Inevitability settled and cracked in my bones.
Sariah leaned against the open doorframe with her back to me.
“Abby, I’ve said I’m sorry, but you can’t hold it against me forever that I love my husband.”
I crept forward to catch a better view of the conversation. To my surprise, there was no sign of Jacob, only Abby stood in front of her sister in the hallway. She glared at Sariah. Beneath her blue dress and apron, I could make out the faint signs of a growing bump.
“My husband, Sariah. My husband,” Abby said. “He was mine before he was ever yours.”
“It hardly matters who was first. He is mine the same as yours. I have every right that you do.”
The air pulsed with fury so strong it was almost visible.
“He would never have married you if the prophet hadn’t told him to. Jacob chose me. You were his obligation.” Abby’s words dripped with disdain.
Sariah pushed off the doorframe. “This isn’t worth arguing over. You agreed to the sealing the same as Jacob, and now there is nothing to be done about it. You know it can’t be changed.”
“You speak as if I had a choice,” Abby said, her pitch rising. “Brother Brigham would only agree to seal us if we brought you along too. Jacob loved me.”
Sariah lifted her chin. “Well, he loves me now just the same. Perhaps more, given the attention he’s been showering on me lately.”
The house seemed to suck in a breath, squeezing all the air from the room.
In a flurry of motion, Abby sprang forward and grabbed her sister by the hair. Sariah yelped and tried to pry her fingers from her head, but Abby held on, dragging her from the doorway into the hallway. I followed a step after, my heartbeat climbing.
“You. Bitch.” Abby spat out each word. “You’re just as unfeeling as he is.”
Sariah pushed back against her sister, but Abby was like an immovable boulder, barely registering her sister’s struggle.
“You two deserve each other.”
With a heavy thrust, Abby shoved Sariah away from her.
Sariah flailed backward, her feet stumbling as she fell back a step, and then another.
And seemingly in an instant, Sariah plunged from view.
Her scream pierced the air as she crashed down the stairs.
Abby joined her sister’s chorus, screaming too.
A hideous final thump reverberated off the walls.
Then all at once, silence.