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We ran across the grounds in the dark. It was overgrown with weeds and bushes, hardly the spectacular gardens I remembered from years ago. As we came up to the house, I heard Nikki draw her breath.
“Good Lord.”
I knew what she meant.
“It’s like a haunted house or something from the Addams Family.”
“Look!” she pointed at a small car parked in front of the house. “Someone’s here!”
I walked up to the car and tried to look through the window. On the backseat, I saw a cardigan that I recognized, it was Zoë’s.
“She’s here!”
We crept up to the house, trying to find a way in. We found a window that had not been closed properly and I went in first, followed by Zoë. Inside, the house was woefully neglected. Linen covered the furniture, but the smell of mold and animal dung was overpowering. I led the way and Nikki followed.
We had come through the side rooms in the front of the house. I listened, but all was quiet.
We went up the wooden stairs.
“Careful!” I pointed to rotten parts of the steps.
It was impossible to avoid creaks. The house was on the verge of collapse. I couldn’t image Jade bringing Zoë here. The place was a death trap.
At the top of the stairs, I tried to remember where the bedrooms were. I followed the way and pushed open a few doors before I finally reached the right one. As soon as I opened the door, I could hear breathing and a bed creaking. Zoë always had been a noisy sleeper.
I walked up to the bed and held up my phone for light, confirming that it was indeed, Zoë in bed, lying next to Jade.
I carefully picked Zoë up.
Her eyelids fluttered open. “Daddy?”
“Shhhh… I’m here, everything is fine now.”
She smiled and her eyes closed again.
I carried her over to Nikki, who was hovering in the doorway. I carefully placed Zoë in Nikki’s arms. “Take her downstairs, phone 911 if you can get a signal.”
When I turned back, Jade was watching me from the bed.
“You’re here,” she said with a smile. As if she had been expecting me, waiting for me.
I had to control my temper, which was threatening to explode. I wanted to rip her from that bed and shake her like a rag doll.
“What were you thinking?!” I snarled at her. “Taking Zoë like that!”
“I wanted to bring her here, and you, so you could see how lovely it is here. How we could be together again.”
Dawn was breaking and there was light coming in through the window, beside which hung a broken curtain, shredded by time. The floors were bare, wallpaper came off in ugly strips from the wall. Next to the bed, on Jade’s side, was a bottle of whiskey.
“Jade, we were never together.”
“But… Zoë?”
“We slept together, but you wouldn’t even have coffee with me, never mind go out with me! Don’t you remember telling me that a Moorcroft had certain standards and I didn’t meet them?”
“Oh, that?” She smiled dreamily as if it had been a big joke.
She was not well, I realized. Perhaps it was the alcohol, or something else.
