Chapter Nine
Utensils clinked. Glass thudded on wood. Chewing filled the air. The air conditioner rattled and hummed.
If I thought a family dinner would defuse the tension and clear the space for conversation, my delusions were soundly and thoroughly popped.
Every attempt at conversation I made was only picked up by Lily—the only person in the room who wanted to talk to me. Thirty minutes into the awkward silences, I was on the edge of giving up.
Micah rolled his eyes. He picked up his wineglass—filled with the merlot he pointedly stood up and rescued after being told I chose to serve the strawberry-ade. “We’ve had bulgogi before, Sue. We’re not the uncultured swine you think we are.”
“Oh.”
I thought he’d say more. Nothing came.
I turned my smile on Lily. The five of us were sitting at a dining table built to hold twenty. I sat at the head of the table with Lily sitting directly to my right. All three of the guys sat at the opposite end, making the distance between us literal. “What do you think, baby girl?”
“Mmmm.” She tipped her head to the ceiling—little face scrunched up in thought. “It’s okay.”
“Okay enough that you’ll take leftovers to school tomorrow for lunch?”
That got another ponder. “Mmm, no, thanks, Mommy. Tomorrow is pizza day.”
“Course it is,” I muttered. “My cooking doesn’t beat out microwaved pizza, but I bet you don’t have these mixed feelings about boogers.”
“Ewwww!” she squealed.
“You ewwww! I know you’re a booger-eater just like your mama!”
“Nooo!” she carried on, nearly pitching over and laughing herself out of her seat.
Eeee!
Three chairs scraped across the hardwood.
“Time for bed, Lilybug.” Micah set his empty glass down next to his full plate. “Daddies will race you.”
“Okay!”
“Wait,” I cried, jumping up. “I can do Lily’s bedtime routine tonight if you want—”
“No need.” Rhodes scooped up a giggling Lily mid-run. “You did the cooking, so you just relax. We’ll get Lily down and then clean the kitchen.”
“But—”
They were already gone.
Blowing out a breath, I turned my attention to clearing the table and washing the dishes despite Rhodes’s offer. Truth was, both Courtney and Alex got me thinking I was spending too much time playing homemaker and hiding in the house because I didn’t know how to move forward from here.
I knew I wanted my chance to graduate from college, and that I wanted a degree that would help me serve lost and abandoned people who had to watch all of their dreams get stolen from them, but knowing wasn’t the first step to doing like so many thought.
Money was the first step to doing. And that was one thing I had none of.
Giving everything in Sue’s bank account to Lily was the right thing to do, and I’d do the same thing again, but it didn’t leave me with any of that steal-my-life-back-from-that-treacherous-bitch money I was counting on.
All I had to my name was the one hundred and twelve dollars sitting in my real bank account.
Getting a job under my real name in the same town where I was pretending I was Sue, and the real Sarah was still away, was stupid to the extreme.
On top of that, asking Micah, Rhodes, or Alex for money was out of the question.
Once again, that was taking the fraud too far.
Improper disposal of a body was enough of a charge.
Didn’t need Sue’s widowers to tack theft to the docket.
My hands slipped in and out of the soapy water, working on autopilot as my mind ran a mile a minute. There’s got to be something I can do for money that doesn’t involve stealing it from innocent people...
My mind crashed into a wall—it’s run over.
The fact was, if I were overflowing with marketable skills, I wouldn’t have been in the bleak situation Sue pulled me out of.
That was the downside of having a mother who shamed you out of having interests or exploring hobbies outside of academia.
Even with drama camp! I was only able to convince her to let me go with Courtney because I spun some yarn about it being good practice for when I had to stand in front of a jury and give a defense I didn’t morally believe in.
“Those drama camps were fun,” I muttered to myself. “And I already have experience working with kids after years of volunteering at the children’s home. I could—”
—get laughed out the door when the face of the person who threw scalding hot coffee on a woman, then called her a Black bitch, walks in. And that’s before they ask me if I’m there to sell more bird shit face cream.
I tossed my head back, groaning. I was carrying around Sue’s baggage now, and that shit was heavy.
“Okay, so I need to do something solo,” I concluded.
“As my own boss. Something that fulfills a need in a wealthy community that can already afford to buy whatever they want. Something that I won’t need to put my face on, because I can’t have that bastard finding out I’m still alive.
” Thinking of Daniel reminded me that the number of missed calls from him had hit the double digits.
“And something that people will still buy from me even though this is the same face that sold them bird shit.”
I threw my sponge down. “Yep. This is hopeless.”
Giving up in every single way, I claimed the bottle of merlot Micah left on the counter and headed upstairs. What was needed then was a hot bubble bath, and me drunk in it.
I headed for the east wing, leaving through the dining room into the informal sitting room that would take me to the back staircase—that spilled out onto the landing that overlooked the east wing. So much room for only seven people, but to a little kid, it all felt like living in a storybook.
Or at least it does until the day you discover monsters do lurk in the shadows.
I halted, spun on my heels, and went back the way I came—making for the west wing instead.
I’ll just check on Lily and say goodnight. It’s not too late. She should still be up.
I reached the top of the landing, took a left, then slipped through the shadows shrouding the damp and dusty hallway.
Speaking of storybooks, I might as well be living in Beast’s castle right now.
Hera knows why furniture that could dance and sing couldn’t clean itself too, but I know why you can’t.
My fingers skated over the peeling wallpaper.
I need to contact Mrs. Prado. Find out why all the staff up and quit, and after she tells me Sue was the reason, I can beg her to come back and help me return the manor to its former glory.
“...think she’s for real?”
I slowed—my feet sinking into the carpet that muffled me.
“I don’t know.” Alex’s voice floated into my ear. “You should’ve heard her in the kitchen, face leaking as she told me how much it hurt to wake up from a near-death experience and discover no one even noticed she was gone.”
The hallway split into three—one way carrying me back the way I came. The other leading to the wing with their rooms, and the final being where they stood in the shaft of light from Lily’s bedroom... speaking about me in hushed tones.
“She wouldn’t be the first person who got scared straight after nearly flying through a windshield,” Micah grudged. “Even Scrooge heeded his wake-up call.”
“I don’t know. I don’t know, man,” Alex kept repeating.
“We’ve been down this road before. You both know that as well as I.
Sue makes these grand declarations about wanting us all to start over and be happy, makes us out to be the jerks if we don’t give in, and then two weeks later, she’s back again going out to the spa instead of picking up Nari from school, sneaking Rhodes’s phone to hit up his confidential clients to sell them on an investment opportunity, and shouting at Micah for sending his mother money when we’ve already got one poisonous prune draining our bank account. ”
I winced, pressing tighter to the wall. That did sound like Sue.
“We can’t get sucked back into her spinning, swirling vortex of psycho. Not when we’re so close to being rid of her for good.”
Rid of her for good?
I heard the soft footfalls of someone pacing. “Guys, I...” Rhodes began. “I’m sorry, but I think I believe her.”
“What!” someone whisper-shouted.
“Look, you weren’t with her out there when we faced down that bear,” Rhodes said.
“The old Sue would’ve taken off and left me to be that animal’s breakfast without blinking twice.
” He scoffed. “Then, she would’ve soaked up all the sympathy and attention she’d have gotten as a bear-attack widow, while patenting her new, organic line of bear spray.
“But she didn’t do any of that. Guys...” His voice fell, straining my ears to hear. “She didn’t just refuse to abandon me. She... stepped in front of me—standing between a three-hundred-pound killing machine, and a guy that just told her it’d be a cold day in hell before he ever forgave her.
“Yes, okay. Every chance Sue had to show us she changed, she spat on it before flipping us off. But not this time. Maybe this time... is real.”
My heart soared, sending a smile rising unbidden to my lips. They’re going to do it. They’re finally going to give me a real—
“No.”
My heart caught fire and crashed into the dirt.
“No,” Micah repeated. “Alex is right. Something doesn’t add up.
Only a couple of weeks ago, she declared she was dumping us for the piece of shit she’s secretly been fucking, and she wanted us all out of the house.
And now out of nowhere, she’s sorry, she doesn’t want the divorce, and she’s just giving us the manor for a fraction of what it costs?
Not to mention that Silly Lily Fund thing,” he hissed.
“This is the same woman who wouldn’t let Lily have paint, Play-Doh, kinetic sand, markers, or a single toy that might make a mess.
But now all of a sudden, she’s pulled forty thousand dollars out of her ass for Lily to have fun. ”
“That was weird,” Rhodes confessed.
No, Rhodes, no! Not you too. Not after everything you just said.