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Greer
“Help me understand, darling,” Anna said to Jace, mimicking Eugenia’s catch-all term of endearment. “Why is it that every time I try to get you alone, she’s either with you, or all you can talk about is her?”
Jace edged to the left, taking in the childish pink-and-white bed for the first time. He moved slowly, a testament to how tired he was after climbing the stairs in his weakened state. Was this some sort of trick? A trap? I decided to confront Anna head-on.
“Anna, we know Eugenia has been diverting money set aside for the upkeep of Richmond House. We know she killed Linus Hawkins and Danny Amato. She tried to kill me—and Jace. And we think we know why. If it’s Richmond House she wants, she can have it.”
“I’m afraid it’s too late for that,” Anna said, shaking her head. “My mother wanted Richmond House, sure, but only for the legitimacy of the thing. She wanted to be its mistress. She wanted to be a Richmond, married to Sterling like he promised her all those years ago, and she never got that. Without it, she’d just be the owner of an old house, like every other woman of a certain age in this town. Speaking of age, a little birdie told me you finally discovered the identity of your father.”
“You knew all along?”
“It wasn’t my secret to tell. But I’m nice, aren’t I? I practically spoon-fed the answer to your boyfriend here.”
“How did you even know in the first place?” I asked, ignoring the reference to my relationship with Jace. “No one knew.”
“You’ll never guess—Blair told me herself! Can you believe that? I was so young and I saw them kissing. She told me it was okay because they were going to have a baby. But that it was a secret. Maybe she thought I wouldn’t remember, but I did. All these years later.”
I stayed quiet, hoping she’d give us more information. We needed to know where Eugenia was and what her next move would be.
“Mother told me you found the trap door in Daddy’s ceiling,” Anna continued, leaning forward on the bed to play with her unpainted toes. “He brought this bed into the attic just for me, you know. My mother, your mother—they never slept in this bed. Once your grandmother kicked us out of the house, he brought it up and built the trap door, so he could visit me whenever he wanted. I slept in this attic for years and years,” she trailed off. “I was sleeping up here the first time you came to Richmond House.”
“You were making the noises I heard.”
“Of course I was.”
“And you were the one who took my things.”
“I gave things back too. I stole Blair’s makeup decades ago, but I made sure to leave it behind for you. And I gave back your hairbrush, didn’t I?”
“What about my slip?”
“That slip looked better on me. I’m skinnier than you. And I like to imagine I can smell Jace on it.” She gave a soulless laugh. “I’ve been up here since the night you came back. How are you enjoying sleeping in my bedroom? In my bed?”
“I don’t believe you. I would have heard you coming and going.”
“See, that right there is proof you don’t deserve to own Richmond House. If you did, you’d know that there are dozens of ways of getting into the house besides the two doors—some of them messier than others. When mother had the scaffolding put up, it was like Christmas. When you’re as light as I am, it’s easy to climb up and down the frame and use the window.”
My hands balled at my sides. She had been there the night of the séance. She’d been fucking with me all along. I glanced at Jace. Any color he’d had in his cheeks had leached out since we’d found Anna on the bed.
He needed to lie down.
I thought briefly about how best to extricate us from the conversation so we could leave this house forever, but I still had so many questions.
“So, you and Eugenia lived in the house, siphoning the money Sterling put in trust?”
She laughed then. “You’re so stupid, Greer. How can you even call yourself a Richmond? Sterling had been deteriorating for years before we finally put him out of his misery. He didn’t create the trust—my mother did. You think the house was perfectly maintained all those years and suddenly began crumbling right after Sterling died? It’s been fading since the day you left.”
“If no one wanted the house, then why stay? Why not take Sterling’s money once he died and leave? Start over?”
“That’s a complicated question.” She clucked her tongue. “I guess it came down to Linus. And Jace. And you. Mother wanted to keep fucking Linus. I wanted you, Jace. And you needed to be out of the picture for us to believably be able to torch the house and keep the money.”
“You can have me,” Jace said suddenly. “You can have me. Just let Greer leave. Let me send her back to Louisiana.”
My head knew it wasn’t true, that he was trying to defuse the rapidly escalating situation. But he’d said it so emphatically, my heart kicked.
“I already told you it’s too late for that,” Anna said impatiently. “It would have been much more convenient if she’d died as planned. Any of the times we’d planned. But she’s damn hard to kill.”
“Any of the times? What are you talking about? Eugenia just tried to stab me at a cemetery.”
