Tyler.
He reached over and turned on the light. Shadow's meow filled the room, the sound emanating from the phone in Tyler's hand. Sterling lay on the floor beside me, her eyes closed, a smear of red on her temple. Len was face down closest to the door, blood streaming from the base of his skull to pool around him.
"You left," I said, inanely, staring up at Tyler, a gleam of metal at his fist. Had he hit Sterling and Len with something? They needed medical attention. I couldn't help them until I got away from Tyler.
He laughed as I struggled to my feet. "I let you think I left. I figured you'd be too stupid to verify it with the gatehouse."
I swallowed my angry retort, trying to think. It burned that Tyler had been right. I'd heard him say he was leaving, saw him go to the garage, and I'd assumed he'd left.
It had been less than a week since the dumbwaiter, and I was already making mistakes. If I survived this one, I was leaving Heartstone Manor. Assuming that assaulting Sterling and Len didn't get Tyler kicked out. I eyed the growing pool of blood under Len's head. I wanted to be rid of Tyler, but not at this cost.
"Why are you doing this?" I demanded, fed up with all of it. "Hurting my family isn't going to get me to come back."
"I don't want you back, you stupid cow." Tyler flipped his hair off his face, glaring at me in disgust. "You were a drag as a wife. Nag, nag, nag, bitch, bitch, bitch. Until you came around, Mom loved me the best. Nash was always off working, and so was Dad, but I was there and mom fucking worshipped me. I took her to tea at the club and played tennis with her, and she gave me everything I wanted. Then she said it was time I married, that you'd settle me down, and instead she loved you best, more than she loved me."
"What are you talking about? Claudia loves you, Tyler. You're her son. Of course she loves you."
"Not enough!" He screeched, spittle flying from his lips. "As soon as you showed up, you were the daughter she never had, and no one loved me the best anymore. You were both supposed to love me. And you never did. Don't lie and say you did."
No, I wasn't going to lie and tell Tyler I'd loved him. That I thought I had when we married didn't matter. "Tyler," I started, trying to soothe when all I wanted was to scream. "Your mother loves you so much. You know she does."
"Not enough! It's never been enough since you showed up. She cut me off! I have no money. No home. Don't you get it? She did it for you, said I was treating you horribly, blah blah. Like I should care about you. Your own father couldn't get rid of you fast enough, and there you were sucking up to my mother, stealing her from me, fucking my brother behind my back–"
"I never slept with Nash when I was with you!" I knew I shouldn't argue with the crazy man, but I couldn't help it. "Not until after I filed for divorce. Never! And you were cheating on me the whole time! For years, you were cheating on me."
"So what? It's not the same. You were mine. I was the only man to fuck you, and then you ruined it. You took everything."
"Then sign the divorce papers and get rid of me if I'm that awful. Why all this drama?"
Tyler stretched his right hand out in front of him, the metal wrapping his fingers coming into focus. Curling his fingers into a fist, he smiled at me, his mouth stretching slowly wider, the gleeful menace in his eyes freezing my soul.
"If I divorce you, I get nothing. I'll be homeless and poor. But when you're gone–you and Nash both–then mother will have to take me back. She'll be all alone. I'll be there to comfort her, and she won't be able to stand the idea of sending me away again. Everything will be back to the way it was, only better. I wish I'd thought of this years ago." He grinned maniacally. "When you're gone, everything will finally be perfect."
"You're insane," I whispered. How had I been married to this man? "How do you think you're going to get away with this? Maybe you can kill me, but you'd still have to deal with Nash, and he's not going to fall for your tricks."
Tyler cocked his head to the side, studying me and nodding, that manic grin still stretching his mouth out of shape. "You'd think so, wouldn't you? Nash is smart when it comes to business and computers, but he's a fucking idiot when it comes to you. Trust me, once he thinks you're in danger, he'll be easy to take out. And one thing I've learned in the past few weeks–it doesn't matter if they think I did it, it only matters what they can prove. They're not going to pin your death on me. Yours or Nash's."
He leaned in, his face only inches from mine. "I win," he whispered with glee, right before he swung his fist at my head.
The moment I felt it coming, I ducked. Too slow. Pain exploded in the back of my head and I fell, smacking my forehead into the wood floor. I let myself go limp, so Tyler would think he'd knocked me out like he had Sterling and Len.
I was hoping to buy myself time to make a plan.
I wasn't expecting Tyler to leave, flipping off the light and closing the door behind him.
Even after he was gone, I waited, laying still, listening. I caught shuffling sounds on the other side of the door. Something being dragged. And finally, after endless minutes in the dark, his footsteps striding away.
Carefully, I got to my feet, easing around the bodies on the floor to reach the light switch. Getting rid of the dark was a relief, even if it didn't get me out of this room. My voice had recovered from the dumbwaiter, but screaming wasn't going to do me any good here. I was well over a hundred feet from the stairs, and the rooms at this end of the family wing belonged to Brax and Tenn. Brax, who only came home to sleep, and Tenn, who'd moved into a room in the guest wing to be closer to Scarlett and the boys.
I yanked at the door handle, throwing my weight back, trying to force the door to give. The handle turned, but the door didn't open. Was there a lock on the outside? I had no idea. I could count on one hand the number of times I'd been in the attic. With the delays on the cottage, Savannah, Hope, and I hadn't gotten around to looking for furniture up here. If there was a way to open the door from the inside, I didn't know what it was.
Spinning around, I searched the room for something to break down the door. It was too much to hope there was a spare hatchet lying around. I found boxes of papers, a trunk filled with ancient bolts of fabric and dressmaking patterns from the twenties. An equally old sewing machine. A long, sturdy pair of fabric scissors.
Snatching up the scissors, I jammed them in the seam where the door met the frame, wedging them in as close to the lock as I could and pushing back to pry the door open. It shifted, just a little. Widening my stance, I jammed the scissors further into the gap, throwing my weight against the handle, shifting the door a little more. Not enough. It wasn't enough.
Glancing back over my shoulder, I checked Sterling and Len, still unmoving, the smear of blood on Sterling's temple welling up, dripping down her face. Len was looking grey, the pool of blood beneath his head spreading wider with each second that passed.
We were running out of time. I shoved at the scissors again, wrenching them back, begging the door to give. If this didn't work, I was going to have to try something else. I was not going to let Tyler kill me, and I sure as hell wasn't going to let him kill my baby sister.
