Chapter 3
Three
Gemma
I wake up to the sight of snow falling. Flakes gently settle on the outside window ledge.
I shiver and that wakes Ethan up. Cora is still asleep in her cot, and she’s snug in her blankets.
We’ve been here for almost a week now and, luckily, I haven’t had to leave the apartment once.
I think of the woman in the white hat and I can’t face her, not now or ever.
Ethan stirs and turns the electric wall heater on, over his side. ‘It’ll soon warm up.’
Cora punches the air, her eyes still closed. I snuggle close to Ethan and place my head on his chest. He puts his arm over me and kisses my mussed-up hair.
I think of our workload and I get palpitations.
I’ve only briefly walked around the rest of the house and it’s a shell of what it was all those years ago.
I realise I need to be more hands-on with this project if we’re to get this house completed ASAP.
In the past, I’ve bashed down walls, I’ve helped him to fit kitchens, bathrooms and with every other job needed.
It’ll be time to roll up my sleeves, but this time it’s going to be harder, and not just because we have a baby in tow.
Ethan places his hand on my stomach and I place my hand over his.
We didn’t plan for this but we’re happy.
‘Are we going to have this place finished before Beanie arrives?’
He nods. ‘I’m going to make it my mission. We can do this. We can do anything. I always said that, didn’t I? I’m going to make things up to you by getting the jobs done fast and moving us out of this house.’
I lean up and kiss him on the lips. ‘Beanie is very happy to hear that.’
We both laugh and that’s something we haven’t done for a while. All I should think of now is the bigger picture. Bad decisions led us here but good decisions are going to buy us our dreams.
Cora shrieks and beams a smile at me. She doesn’t know she’s going to have a younger sibling yet and neither does Morgan. My stomach turns a little.
‘You okay?’
‘Just a bit of nausea. It’s to be expected.
I think Beanie is telling me he or she wants lemon marmalade on toast, and then we should get up and do some work.
’ My sweet tooth is insane whenever I’m pregnant and marmalade and chocolate spread helps.
I’ll be eating straight out of the jars soon if previous pregnancies are anything to go by.
‘I am going to make my beautiful wife breakfast in bed then, and I’ll bring Cora some milk and a yoghurt.’
My husband pulls his lounge pants over his bare backside.
He still turns me on. I think back to how we argued over having to sell our house.
Those rows had lasted all of two days before we passionately made up.
He leaves the room and I hear clattering behind the door as he pulls a plate from the pile on the shelf.
Then he patters across the creaky floor. ‘Morgan,’ he calls out.
Something’s not right. Why is he calling Morgan? Our daughter never gets up before midday and it’s early. I go to grab my phone to check the time and it’s gone. Morgan has taken my phone. She must have come in while we were asleep. I sit up. My nightshirt falls over my knees.
Cora stands in her cot and holds her arms out. ‘Pick up,’ she says with a chuckle.
I reach in and lift her onto my hip before opening the door that leads straight into the living area at the far end. ‘Ethan, Morgan.’
No one replies. I hurry to Morgan’s cupboard.
The door is wide open. The quilt has dropped onto the floor and all her clothes are still there in a messy pile on the chaise longue that we brought from her old room.
The main door to the apartment is open, so I hurry to it and look out onto the landing with its cracked stained-glass window, showing a scene of a bird’s nest but without the baby birds anymore.
The absence of the babies unnerves me so I hug Cora close.
‘Ethan.’ My heart is hammering now. All I can hear is banging coming from downstairs somewhere.
A gust of wind whooshes across the landing, bringing in with it a flurry of snowflakes.
We must put something over that broken glass to keep the elements out.
The chandelier with all its missing crystals sways slightly.
There’s no way I’m going any further without my shoes.
I hurry back in, slip them on and wrap a blanket around Cora.
‘Morgan,’ I call out as I hurry down the sweeping staircase and along the corridor, trying not to trip on all Aunt Dorette’s clutter. That’s when I see the huge wooden door has been left wide open.
Ethan is walking back down the path with Morgan and, from what I can tell, he doesn’t look happy.
‘I found her at the entrance to the woods.’ He shakes his head.
‘I needed a signal. There’s none anywhere in this dump of a house.
Mai tried to call me and I couldn’t call her back, obviously, because we don’t have Wi-Fi.
’ Morgan glances in the direction she came from, her brows furrowed.
She’s treading clumsily in her zebra stripe slippers, and her pyjama and coat get up are certainly making her stand out.
I shake and gasp for breath. Morgan was by the woods, the very place I never want her to go, all because she wanted to make a non-urgent phone call. ‘You took my phone and worried us half to death for a call. You could have just asked, Morgan. How would that have been so hard?’
She looks back again, a goofy grin across her face, and that riles me up even more. ‘You were asleep.’
‘And stay away from the woods,’ I say. ‘Never go into the woods.’
‘Why?’
‘Because they’re woods and they’re dangerous. The weather’s bad. It might bring some branches down.’
She scrunches her nose up at me like she thinks I’m being ridiculous, but I don’t care as long as she stays out of the woods. I place my free hand on my racing heart.
I glance up and curtains are twitching in three houses opposite. The younger woman who lives next door to us stares directly at me, like she’s rudely weighing me up. We’ve been here five minutes and we’re already arguing with our teenage daughter in the street.
This is a small lane with only five houses. It’s probably normally peaceful. My cheeks burn and Cora begins to cry. ‘It’s okay, lovely,’ I say to her as I bounce her on my hip.
As we head back towards the house and through the main door, Morgan glances back at the path.
She throws my phone into Ethan’s hand and runs towards the front door.
I want to shout that she’s grounded, but then I realise she has nowhere to go anyway, and then I feel guilty.
I know she’s taking this hard because I am too.
Something catches the corner of my eye and it’s not Morgan sulking. ‘What’s that?’
Ethan turns. There’s a small basket at the side of the door, neatly placed next to the unruly bush. There is an envelope placed on top of what looks like a hamper of mucky vegetables along with some homemade cookies. Morgan turns on her heel and darts upstairs. Ethan passes the envelope to me.
Hello. It’s lovely to see you again, Gemma. I hope you fall for the charms of this lane again, like when you were a girl? You loved it here, especially the woods. Do you remember? I remember everything. I beg you to once again FALL for Clover Lane. Welcome home. Xxx
I fight for breath and Ethan steps closer and holds me. ‘Gemma, are you okay? Is it morning sickness?’
Tears slip down my face. Everything I feared might happen is coming true. Whoever sent this knows my darkest secret. They remember everything. The woods…I feel lightheaded. ‘No…no, we shouldn’t have come here.’
‘Gemma, it’s just a hamper. Let’s go up and make a drink then I can get some work done. I know you’re struggling with being here but everything will be fine, okay?’ Ethan hugs me and Cora. I nod, but I’m not okay.
‘I wonder which one of the neighbours sent this. They forgot to put their name on the note.’ Ethan grabs the hamper and closes the door, shutting out the wind and snow at the same time.
The author of the letter knows me, they know about my past and they know I’m scared of the woods.
I remember everything. It’s threatening but Ethan won’t see that because he doesn’t know my secret.
Then there’s that word, fall , written purposely in capital letters.
My aunt fell to her death, and this letter feels anything but welcoming.
I glance up at the balcony. The ragged police tape flutters in the breeze.
The author of the letter wants me to fall and die, like my aunt did.
I’m now wondering if someone pushed her . I beg you to FALL.