Page 64 of Midnight Curfew

I wouldn’t miss Vincent or Jerome, and what a fucking glorious place this would be if Mrs. Johnson, Dr. Schmidt, Mitchell Kenmont, and all the other fucking ugly, sagging souls in the Wolfe Room disappeared.

I shake, my mother’s face drifting into my head all of a sudden. I don’t think of her often, my memory of her so limited, but what if she were still alive? Would I be off with her, somewhere in the world right now?

I can almost feel her hands on the back of my neck, cool and calming.

Something cold drips down my skin, and my stomach starts to unknot as, finally, I exhale a full breath. In a moment, I’m breathing easy, everything relaxing again as the headache gets duller.

“Will you answer me?” a voice gripes. “Are you okay or not?”

Lifting my head, I blink my eyes open, seeing Liv Jaeger leaning over me and pressing her hand to the back of my neck.

My eyelids flutter, my hand reaching up and taking the soaking cloth she holds there. I pull it away, and she stands up straight.

A small cooler sits on the pavement next to her feet. I heard her crew was using part of the grounds today for a shoot.

The last time I saw her was high school graduation. Her whole family was in attendance, more as protection for what I tried to do to her than in support of her.

Turns out, I’m an ugly soul, too.

I fist the cloth in my hands, squeezing the icy water she probably got from the cooler. I whisper, “I really am sorry sometimes, you know?”

Standing up, I let my eyes trail over her flip-flops, up her black shorts and white linen blouse.

I toss the cloth onto the ground. “And then I remember you’re a fucking Jaeger.”

I see her jaw flex, but then I turn around and climb into my car.

—

An hour later, I’m bursting through the front door of my house. “Sophia!” I shout.

Goddammit. I really need a fucking drink, but I got to the school and found that she was already gone. The office had no idea who picked her up, and when I went to her favorite classroom and her favorite fucking teacher, he was gone, too. I drove around to the spots she liked. The library. The park. The dessert shop with the garden courtyard. Nothing.

I even called her therapist. Not that she would’ve gone to him outside of her scheduled appointments, but I had no clue why she would just leave school without telling me.

She wasn’t at his office, though.

I was about to trudge over to the damn Bay. If Dallas took her over there, we wouldn’t be waiting till Friday night for some fun. I thought it best to check at home first, in case her mother came back.

Or my father.

I stop in the center of the foyer, listening for her reply or her music or the TV, but the house is silent.

“Sophia!” I bellow, my throat stinging.

I’m exhausted. I almost hope I don’t find her, because I might strangle her.

I charge for the stairs, but then I see something in the sitting room and stop. Her old pink drapes are threaded through a warped wire hanger and secured to one of the chandeliers. The bottom balloons out around the carpet, like a tent. A small light glows from inside.

I cock an eyebrow, exhaling.

Stalking over, I whip open the curtain to see her lying asleep inside, her record player still spinning even though the music is over.

She wears the same thing as this morning. Her overalls and red T-shirt, not looking the slightest bit twenty years old with her petite frame and doll face.

I nudge her with my golf shoe.

She doesn’t budge.