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Greer
Iread every letter until my eyes smarted with the need for sleep. In just a few more nights, ghosts and goblins of all shapes and sizes would flood Astoria’s residential neighborhoods searching for candy and autumnal fun. Not here, though, I thought bitterly.
No, I’d spend Halloween night stuck in a real-life haunted house. The more I read, the more convinced I was that Richmond House was evil incarnate. The fourteen letters I’d found in Sterling’s—or Eugenia’s—secret room were enough to piece together their backstory once and for all, and it was stomach-turning.
Eugenia, molested by an uncle, was sent to work at Richmond House when she was fourteen. Not only did Sterling notice her, but it wasn’t long—just a week—before he started grooming her with his first letter. I doubt Eugenia was Sterling’s first victim. His words to her were deliberate. Practiced. Even worse was the way he’d led her on all those years, the excuses he’d made for his relationship with Blair, the begrudging acknowledgment that he was Anna’s father. And all the times he’d promised to give Eugenia what she’d ultimately wanted—legitimacy as mistress of Richmond House. So many times, he’d told Eugenia he would leave his wife, my grandmother, but it’d never happened. Eugenia couldn’t get Sterling down the aisle even after my grandmother had died.
Resecuring the letters in the drawer where I kept them, I told Wade that I’d be right back and left the house on a solitary walk. It hadn’t rained in days, but the low pressure had pushed the clouds from the sky to the ground, shrouding Richmond House in fog, the abandoned scaffolding rising out of it like a portal to hell. Actually, Richmond House was more like a wooden horse. And who knew what dangers lurked inside?
I marched around the outer edge of the field, past the old shed Linus had rebuilt for himself before he’d been murdered. I kept my head on a swivel—Garbage was nowhere to be seen, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t hiding behind an outbuilding. I needed to be able to make a quick getaway.
With everything that had gone wrong during the past week—my lack of sleep and self-control, someone switching out my medication, my near-fall, and Jace’s inability to let it go…our breakup—I’d lost sight of the very real danger I was living in. Linus and Danny were gone. Someone had been living in the attic and probably knew how to access the trapdoor under the bed.
I thought about calling Jace, but I didn’t know what to say. I’d broken it off with him, yes, but only because he’d abandoned me. Every time we were together, his anger set me on edge. He didn’t care why I’d acted the way I had—he only cared that I hadn’t told him about my OCD. But could anyone blame me? It wasn’t exactly easy to spill your guts about everything going on in your life with someone who always overreacted to everything you said. And besides, I wasn’t sure I could be with someone who couldn’t keep in mind the bigger picture. It hurt, though. Despite the Xanax, I’d managed to cry my fair share of tears during the past two days. For me. For Eugenia. For Anna. For Jace. And now, there’s no doubt I’d be in tears again soon remembering Linus and Danny.
Maybe I should call Jace. I’d tell him I needed him, and he’d come, and I’d tell him about everything I’d found out. And he’d hold me and tell me we’d figure it all out together, that we had a future together, and then he’d take me to bed. I could put my hands on him, feel the muscles of his chest and arms as he moved over me. Feel his hand at my throat, holding me firmly in place while he kissed me like he’d been waiting forever.
I wondered if he’d already moved on. I didn’t know Jace well—everything I thought I knew about him had been perpetrated by Sterling’s lie. But he didn’t seem like the type of man who would sit around and pine. He probably had someone under him right now. I wondered if it was Marina. Probably. Well, good riddance. I didn’t need Jace Blackwell, didn’t want him. I needed someone kind. Someone who didn’t press me too hard. Someone I could hide from when I needed to. Not someone who could burn me from the inside out with just one look.
I turned back toward the house and saw the silhouette of a child walking through the field toward me. Not a child. Anna. My heart kicked into gear, and my hands went ice-cold. Was I seeing things again? No, I decided. Anna wasn’t in black. She wore jeans and a cardigan, her Keds sneakers making her feet look especially small.
“Greer. That man told me you were out here.”
“Anna,” I said, unsure of what to say. She was my aunt, of course, but more like a…friendly acquaintance. We’d agreed to grab a coffee the last time we’d spoken. Now she was challenging the will, and I’d discovered so much more about her and her mother within Richmond House’s four walls. So much had changed.
“Did your mother ask you to come by and check on me?” I asked.
“She said she’d be by later today to look you over, but I offered to come by in the meantime. I thought we should talk.”
“I see.”
“Look, there are no hard feelings on my part. It’s just…I’ve always known I was Sterling’s daughter, so the house should have gone to me.” Anna’s stare was unsettling. So thorough. Like she was memorizing the location of every hair on my head.
“I understand,” I said, keeping my voice neutral. “You’re doing what you think you have to do.”
I wasn’t disagreeing that Anna should prevail as the ultimate owner of Richmond House. But not before I knew everything there was to know about my mother and what happened to her there. Not before I knew who my father was.
“So, you agree the house should be mine? And you’ll move out immediately?”
“I’m sorry, Anna,” I said. “I can’t do that. Not yet. The house still legally belongs to me. Your mother is welcome to continue living here, as are you if you need a place to stay. But I have unfinished business.”
Her eyes narrowed to slits as she hissed at me.
“I don’t need your permission to live in my own house. In my Daddy’s house. No one is going to tell me I can’t.”
“Calm down. I was just trying to be nice.”
She smiled. “Besides, I think Jace might find it awkward. You know, to be in the house with me while you’re there as well.”
“Jace?”
“Yeah, I was with him just a couple of days ago.”
I stood, speechless. Two days ago? As in the day after we broke up?
“He invited me over,” she continued. “He’s so proud of me for doing what I’m doing, what I should have done all along—reclaiming my legacy.”
“What legacy? A legacy of sickness? Lies? I’m sure you know about the slave barracks in the attic.”
