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We talked about boys for a while, but thankfully, the topic steered clear of Gareth. I didn’t check my phone for any more messages, letting myself get distracted by Erin and her giddy, hormonal self. Eventually, she asked if I wanted to stay for dinner, and I said yes, because the longer I was there at her house, the less time I had to spend at the manor with Gareth.
Her parents came home around five. They were nice people, what I’d call normal. Both were very interested in me and the fact that I was now Alistair Montgomery’s stepdaughter. Her mom ordered pizza, and we squirreled ourselves away in Erin’s room while we ate.
It was… not that bad, actually. I’d only gone to her house to get away from Gareth, but it was surprisingly fun. Erin was nice, funny when she wanted to be, and sweet. Very normal. Very unlike me in every way, my opposite.
I wished I was like her. I wished things were normal for me, that I had a normal family, a mom who loved me, and no cruel stepbrothers to be seen. I wished things were different.
By the time Erin took me home, it was past dark, which meant the chef Alistair had hired to feed Gareth and me while he was away was gone. I wondered if that meant Gareth would be waiting for me, ready to pounce on me the moment I stepped through that door and make me regret ignoring his messages these last few hours.
Oh, yeah. During the drive to the manor, I checked them. They were numerous and furious, and then, around five, they’d stopped altogether. That was three hours ago. He hadn’t sent a single message since, which I found a bit odd.
As Erin pulled the car up the long driveway, she said, “Thanks for hanging. It was fun. We should do it again.”
I gave her a smile and said, “Yeah, I’d like that.” And, strangely enough, I meant it wholeheartedly.
She waved as I got out of her car, and I stood on the bottom step of the manor, watching her car go. I waited until she was out of sight to turn toward the house and go inside. Thankfully, Gareth wasn’t waiting there in the front vestibule, ready to pounce on me.
The house was quiet. Dark and quiet.
I went upstairs to my room, tossed my bag on the floor near my bed, and changed into my pajamas. Tonight it was an old Star Wars t-shirt that my mom hated and fuzzy pink pants. Again, my mom hated them. She hated most everything I liked, which only made me like the stuff even more. Small rebellions on my part.
Gareth’s room was open across the hall, but no light was on. I took it to mean he wasn’t in there. After showering, I meandered to the window in my bedroom, staring at the pool house. The lights inside were on, illuminating the curtains; he was in there, probably painting away his fury at me for ignoring his messages.
Good. I wasn’t some toy he could use however he wanted, whenever he wanted. I was my own person. I wouldn’t let him hypnotize me again.
I went next door, to my own mini art studio. I shouldn’t call it mini, though, not after seeing the size of Erin’s bedroom and being reminded that not everyone lived like this, especially here in Eastcreek. I chose a canvas and hung it on the easel, grabbed a pencil and started a light sketch.
I didn’t know what I was sketching. I let my hand work while my thoughts drifted, and I caught myself thinking about Gareth once again.
Damn it. I couldn’t seem to get that asshole off my mind.
It was nine when I needed to break for some water, and I went downstairs to the kitchen to grab myself some. I’d made it to the cabinet with the glasses when something hit me: the smell. Turning around, my eyes surveyed the kitchen, that smell strong and undeniable.
What was it? I’d smelled it before.
Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted something on one of the lower cabinets near the fridge. I walked over to it, set my glass down on the counter, and sank to my knees to get a better look. A small fleck of red sat on the gray cabinet door, in the corner, where it’d be easy to miss if someone was cleaning.
And then it dawned on me, the smell and what it was: bleach.
My breath caught in my throat. I couldn’t drag my stare away from the red spot, not even as I got up and straightened myself out. My hands grew clammy all of a sudden, like my intuition was telling me something was wrong, that something very bad had happened here not that long ago.
The chef never used bleach to clean the kitchen after she was done cooking, not once. What were the odds she’d started tonight, out of the blue? Gareth’s messages had abruptly stopped hours ago, like he’d found something else to occupy his time with.
No. No, that was insane. The dots my mind was trying to connect weren’t related at all. Maybe Emily had made a mess and had to use bleach to clean it up. There were other reasons you used bleach; it wasn’t just to clean up blood.
Gareth wasn’t a killer. My imagination was getting the better of me. I was trying to paint him as a villain, as a terrible human being who I should hate above all others, that’s all. With what he’d made me do, with how he’d made me feel that night in the pool house… I wanted to hate him.
Just for kicks, I looked in the dishwasher. It wasn’t running, which I took to mean the plates and pans Emily had used to cook dinner with were clean. But when I opened it and looked inside, I saw not a single dish, almost like Emily had never even cooked dinner.
I then looked in the fridge. She always tried to leave us leftovers, even though neither of us were leftover people. I’d rather eat pizza rolls every single day of my life than have to heat up gross, congealed leftovers of whatever we’d eaten the night before.
Again, no leftovers in the fridge. Nothing at all looked like it had moved or changed since last night. Everything in the refrigerator looked untouched.
I shut the fridge door, my heart in my throat. It beat hard and fast, pounding away inside my chest, that nagging feeling telling me something was wrong, that something had happened, refusing to go away.
Mechanically, I turned to where the sink was, bending over to open the cabinet door below it and pull out the garbage can.
The can wasn’t there. It was gone, the metal bracket to keep it in place all that was there.
