Her gaze darkens, and I don’t even dare ask what she has in mind for when she receives such a gift. That’s between her and the devil to know. But I promise I’ll give it to her. As she pulls me in for a kiss, I know she wants more than promises right now. Her body’s demand is something I will always obey.
42
LEONORE
My phone rings from somewhere in the tangled sheets.
I pat the sheets, looking for it. When I find it, I look at the name on the screen.
Nessa.
I fight the urge to answer, but Nessa isn’t much of a caller which makes me think something is wrong. A bad feeling sinks into my stomach, and although I told her I was walking away, I can’t help but worry.
I swipe to answer, and the first thing I hear is crying.
But it’s not Nessa’s crying.
It’s Larissa.
“Auntie Leo?”
Her voice is small and broken, and the sound cuts through the lazy haze of the afternoon and obliterates everything else.
“Larissa? Honey, what’s wrong?”
Beside me, Silas goes rigid at my tone.
“Mommy is gone.”
“Gone? What do you mean, baby?”
“I came home from school, and she’s not here,” Larissa says in a confused, little voice. “Mrs. Curnow dropped me off,and when I came up the stairs, the front door was open, and Mommy’s not anywhere.”
I sit up in bed and pull the sheet against my bare skin. Mrs. Curnow is her sitter and picks her up from school and drops her off at home.
I turn to Silas. He’s propped up on one elbow beside me, his dark eyes alert and sharp.
“Larissa, listen to me.” I press the phone harder against my ear. “I need you to be really brave for me, okay?”
She sniffles, then says with a small voice, “Okay.”
“That’s my brave girl. Now tell me exactly what happened. Start from the beginning.”
She takes a breath. “Mrs. Curnow dropped me at the door downstairs like she always does. But when I came up the stairs, our front door was already open. And the apartment is all messy. The coffee table is knocked over, and Mommy spilled her coffee, and she didn’t clean it up. But she’s gone.”
My stomach drops. Nessa would never leave with Larissa due home.
“I looked everywhere. I looked in Mommy’s room and the bathroom and even the laundry closet. But she’s not here, Auntie Leo. Where did she go?”
My eyes close.
I’m going to be sick.
This is unlike Nessa.
“Okay, sweetheart, it’s going to be okay. Do you know any of your neighbors? Is there someone you could visit for a little while?”
“No. Mommy says we don’t go to Mr. Denton’s apartment. He’s a mean old man. He yells at me if I make too much noise. And he smells like cabbage.”
