Chapter 59
I bang on the door, fury in my blood.
Madeline answers, a look of surprise on her face.
“Elinor, what’s going on? Is everything okay?”
“How did you not tell me about this?” I shove the article in her face.
She squints a moment, to see what’s in front of her, her eyes widening as she reads the headline.
She reaches up to take the paper, but I snatch it away.
I spent last night stewing about what I’d discovered.
Why did no one tell me? How was I allowed to go through my existence and either allowed to forget or, perhaps, even lied to about this traumatic event?
I can’t take my anger out on my parents or my grandmother. But I can take it out on her.
“Well? I come here, telling you about these dreams that I have about wandering in the woods at night. I ask you point-blank if anything terrible happened here. And you never thought to mention that as a child, I went missing and spent a night in the woods alone?” My voice is shaking with rage.
“Elinor, I don’t know what to say,” Madeline says slowly.
“Tell me why you wouldn’t say anything!” I tilt my head back and almost yell at the sky.
“I didn’t think it was my place! I wasn’t here when it happened, I was living in New York at the time. Yes, I heard about it, but when you didn’t mention it when you were talking about the dreams, well, I figured there was a reason for that.”
“What reason could there be?” I demand.
“It must have been traumatic! Maybe you’d buried the memory. Who am I to force you to face it again?” She shakes her head helplessly.
For a moment, I soften. She’s right, it wouldn’t have been her place.
But then I remember what Alice said, about Madeline trying to get Wildwood.
I think about what I know in my gut. That the Brooks were involved in something that happened here.
There’re still the unmarked graves that haven’t been explained. She’s hiding something.
I know I should bite my tongue; I know I should keep the cards close to my chest. But it feels like a torrent is about to be unleashed.
“You are such a fucking liar,” I spit.
Madeline’s face freezes. “Excuse me?”
“You lie about everything. You use everyone!”
“Use people?!” She has the audacity to look offended.
“I know my family hated yours. I know you wanted Wildwood for yourself. You lied about what happened to me as a child. You sent kids into my woods to scare me. I’m going to find out everything. Everything.”
“You’re losing it, Elinor. You are really spiraling.”
“Of course you’d say that.” I laugh, mirthlessly. “Tell me if you see my dog.” Then I turn and march down the driveway, though my legs are shaking and feel as though they might give out.
I think she must have gone back inside, but then I hear her voice calling down the driveway.
“Be careful who you talk to, Elinor,” she says. “Be careful of who you talk to, and what you believe, before you go spreading your venom.” And then I hear the door slam.