Page 81 of Petrify

“Haven’t you thought about where he’d be if you hadn’t locked him away?”

Mariane storms closer, face twisting, the prim facade crumbling. “He killed someone,” she spits. “My eleven year old son killed his nanny. Strangled her in a fit of rage. And you’re asking me if I even tried to get him help? He had doctors since he was able to speak. Nothing seemed to work.”

“So you locked him up in this house.”

I see it there under the anger flushing her face—her eyes are glassy, lip trembling. An ounce of regret, or shame. “Yes. To protect him. To protect us.” Her voice cracks, and she turns away from me.

Should I feel pity? Because watching her hide as she dabs her eyes, I feel anything but. Bastien’s issues are not my own. Even neglected as he was, he still lived in a house likethis, still ate meals from a chef. My own upbringing had none of the luxuries of this manor. And yet, I’m familiar with the pain of screaming yourself hoarse and still not being heard.

“You weren’t supposed to know.” She sniffles. “No one was supposed to know.”

“He’sliving in the attic, Mrs?—”

“Ten thousand dollars.” She spins on me again, and if she appeared remorseful before, it is all gone.

“What?”

“Is that not enough for you? Ten thousand dollars. Leave now and it is yours. Put this all behind you. You can puthimbehind you.”

“You want me to leave.” My throat tightens, because I knew it would come to this, Iknew. Telling Mariane what I knew wouldn’t have ended any other way, and still I want to take it all back. Make her like me again. If she even did at the beginning. “What about Henri? What about the party?”

“We’ll find a new tutor. But you—you’ve failed to serve your purpose. I am giving you an out. I can have a car ready for you in ten minutes. You can be home by midnight. Far away from here. Ten thousand dollars. And your life.”

I blink. “You think he’ll kill me.”

She laughs. “Maybe not right away. But he’ll make you wish you were dead. Because if you don’t get out while you can, you’ll be his prisoner, and once he hides you away, no one will dare look for you.”

“You wouldn’t stop him now.” My eyes narrow. She was happy to let him do what he wanted to me.

Bastien, still alive, still haunting these halls, is the ghost reminding her of everything rotten living inside.

“Who’s to say he won’t killyouif you send me away?”

Her bitter smile turns to poison. “You think we haven’t thought this through? He misbehaves, and I’ll have Leo and Desmondhandlethe issue. We were able to find you once, Miss Doyle.”

Bile rises in my throat.

“If you leave now, you’re free. You can pretend none of this happened. And if you trust him, then you’ll never have to worry about us bothering you again.”

You’ve failed to serve your purpose.

Baz alluded to it before—that they brought me here forhim.

Not my music.

Not just to tutor Henri.

“What will it be?”

If I’d left after that first week, all of this could have been avoided. I wouldn’t have caught his attention. He wouldn’t have infiltrated my mind, mybody.

A pain sears into my skull, a hot knife piercing straight through my eye. My breath is stolen, a sudden bright flash of panic?—

But then it’s gone as quick as it came.

I glare at Mariane. “I’m not leaving. Not yet.”

“You think you’ll get whatever it is he’s promised you? Do you really think he hasn’t done this before? You aren’t the first.”