Chapter 9 – Padraic
Chapter Nine
Padraic
Iexpect to find Cullen upstairs reading or painting when I get home. Instead, the house is empty except for Zack, who couldn’t have arrived much earlier than I did.
“Where’s Cullen?” Zack has to pop out his AirPods and make me repeat the question before he gives me some dumb ass non-answer.
“Good question,” he asks. “I assumed she was upstairs.”
“You haven’t checked on her?” I don’t know why I get so instantly defensive. I’ve barely seen Cullen… It’s starting to get painful to be away from her for this long. A feeling that I didn’t expect, along with this bristle of irritation.
“Why would I check on her?” Zack asks. “She’s your wife. I’m here to work.”
He infuriates me. I hired him to handle things tonight so that I could spend time with Cullen. Of course her whereabouts are my greatest concern.
“I’ll search upstairs.”
On the way upstairs, I run into the housekeeper who works in Cullen’s room, I think her name is Jelena.
“Excuse me? Is my wife in her room?”
“No, Mr. Tyler,” Jelena responds, keeping her eyes respectfully averted. “She went for a walk a couple hours ago.”
“It’s dark out,” I respond. Jelena visibly shudders. I haven’t lost my temper with the staff in ten months – not since Zack held his so-called “intervention” with me. Jelena’s response causes anger to bubble to the surface that I haven’t experienced in months. Suppress, Padraic.
“Yes.”
She doesn’t know what to say. I huff and return downstairs to find Zack fussing around the kitchen, probably searching for a drink.
“Jelena says Cullen went out for a walk a couple hours ago.”
“Where?” he asks.
I sneer at him. This is impossible. I call Cullen – no response.
I have her location turned on, but the stupid phone is upstairs in her bedroom, where she definitely isn’t.
Of course, she left without her phone. Fuck.
This property contains several acres of woods and not all of the paths are well maintained at this time of year.
It’s getting colder out – and she’s alone.
I turn on my heel to leave the room.
“Where are you going?” Zack asks.
“To find her.”
I throw on my old Barbour jacket that I’ve had since my days at Phillips Academy Andover.
There’s a large flashlight hanging near it as well as a pair of tall LL Bean boots that can tolerate deep mud and untouched trailheads.
It briefly occurs to me that she might have run away.
No. She wouldn’t violate the contract. I can’t accept that.
This is the last thing I had planned for us tonight.
I start out on the trails, calling her name but hearing nothing in return.
The deeper I walk into the woods, the faster my heart beats.
What if some bear mauled her to shreds? Or a mountain lion.
There have been claims of sightings out here and my house is far away from the downtown area of our small town…
If you’re a billionaire, it’s best to stay on the outskirts where you and all your money are out of sight. Out of mind.
“CULLEN!” I roar aggressively as the thick woods form a dark enclosure around me and I’m far enough away that I can’t see any lights from the main house.
She might not be out here. I keep walking, convinced that I can at least walk along the perimeter before morning and if I don’t find her by then, I might have to call the local police department – idiots, but potentially useful ones if they can bring dogs to find her.
“CULLEN!” I call out again after more crashing through the woods, about to give up and quietly admit to myself that while I might continue my search, it would end up being fruitless. Then I hear a weak, horrified response.
“Padraic…”
I whip around with my flashlight and understand immediately the source of Cullen’s horror. The animal is rather large and nipping at the bottom of the tree she found herself in.
“Hey!” I yell at the large orb of black fur sniffing at the base of Cullen’s tree. “Get out of here!”
She shrieks something unintelligible to me, but I can’t allow her to distract me.
“Go on! Get out of here!”
“You can’t yell at a bear!”
Can’t I? I clap my hands again and swing my flashlight around.
The bear seems to rise up a little bit, but decides better than picking a fight with me and runs off into the woods.
Cullen keeps making some frustrating noises, but I’m sure the bear is gone and that we’re safe.
I run it down a little bit and the creature disappears into the woods.
Cullen keeps yelling my name, but I don’t return to her until the bear is gone.
I stand at the base of the tree and look up to find Cullen in the branches with my flashlight. It’s dark, and she appears to have hidden herself well, so it takes me a few seconds of searching to find her crouched.
“ARE YOU CRAZY?” she asks. Her eyes are wild with fear, but I’m nothing short of relieved that she hasn’t been scratched up within an inch of her life.
“Come down, Cullen,” I respond calmly. This does nothing to calm her down.
“There’s a bear,” she hisses. “You should come up here.”
“I have a gun.”
“And you didn’t use it!?”
“The bear ran off. You have nothing to worry about.”
Nothing I can do convinces Cullen at first. She argues with me for what feels like an hour, before I coax her to a much lower branch. Getting her to jump into my arms proves even more difficult, but eventually I swear to her that I won’t let any creature harm her and she leaps into my arms.
Once I wrap my arms around her, Cullen wrestles herself away from me and stands on her own two feet, looking a little shaken up but otherwise totally fine.
“Thank you,” she says huffily, peeling herself away from me. “I would have found my way back… if it weren’t for the bear.”
It’s hard for me to hold back a smirk. I strongly doubt she would have found her way back given how long she’s apparently been gone, how far she is from the main path, and how dark it is outside. I’m lucky that I found her myself.
“Of course.”
“But thanks,” she says.
“You’re my wife. It’s my job to keep you safe.”
She says nothing in response to that. I wonder if I’ve made it awkward between us. I think she must have understood me.
“I’m sorry for ruining your date,” she mumbles. “Or wherever you were.”
“My date?”
“I thought–”
“I didn’t have a date tonight,” I answer tersely. “This way…”
I put my hand on Cullen’s lower back and guide her back on the path towards my house.
Date?
What on earth does she mean by that?