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I said nothing, letting him carry on, “I don’t want to share her. I want her to be mine. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned about Brianna, it’s that I can’t tell her what to do. She reacts very badly when I try.”
That got me to swallow down a smile of my own. I couldn’t reveal that smile to Gareth, but it was hard not to smile while listening to him talk about her. Brianna certainly didn’t mind listening tomyorders.
“What are you going to do about Nicole? You can’t keep her here forever. Eventually, she’s going to get tired of being ignored by you,” Gareth said, “or notice that you’re paying a lot more attention to her daughter. Call me crazy, but I don’t think she’ll like that very much.”
From everything I’d learned about Nicole, I honestly didn’t know about that. Yes, she might be a little hurt and irritated at it, but if she got to stay married to me, got to keep the money and the prestige that came with being a Montgomery, she might just suck it up.
But that’s not what I wanted. I didn’t want to keep Nicole in this house longer than I had to.
“Let me worry about that,” I told him.
“Oh, I’m not worried. I’m just hoping you fuck it up or something, so Brianna stops spreading her legs for you.” He shrugged. “One day she’s going to have to choose, and my money isn’t on old uncle dick.” Gareth said nothing else, getting to his feet and strolling to the door after mockingly saluting me.
I let him go, and I let him have the last word even though he didn’t deserve it. It was my fault for giving in to Brianna that day in the bathroom, my fault for not being able to pull back. Things had simply spiraled from there, reaching places I never thought I’d see.
When my office door closed and I was once again alone, I ran a hand along my jaw, staring at the wedding band around my finger. I reached for it, slow to pull it off and hold it up to study it, just for a few seconds, and then I placed it on my desk.
Turned out, there were other calls I had to make, calls that would ensure Gareth, Brianna, and I would have this house to ourselves for a while, while we figured everything out.
Chapter Seven – Brianna
School came too soon. I didn’t want to go, but I had to. I had no other choice. I drove with Gareth—who’d kept his word and hadn’t invaded the privacy of my sleep with his dick. I didn’t know what to expect at school, how widespread the knowledge would be that there was a fire over the weekend and that charred remains were found once the fires were put out.
Eastcreek was a small town though, so I was betting the halls would be alive with gossip.
Rick had called yesterday, and Alistair had relayed the information to Gareth and me, so we were all on the same page. Neo’s parents had reported him missing, said he hadn’t been home all day Saturday and never came home that night. Of course, we knew he was the body in the house, but couldn’t divulge that information. They were waiting on dental records since the body was so charred—the dentist in question wasn’t open until today, so it was only a matter of time now.
Rick and the others were operating under the assumption the body belonged to Neo, due to his car being present at the house, and the teeny, tiny fact that house belonged to his grandpa.
Odds were today would be nothing like tomorrow. Once everyone knew Neo was dead, once Rick publicly identified the car that had been in the garage, all fingers would point to Neo for Erin’s disappearance, along with her family’s.
Lunchtime rolled around, and I knew I’d hear all of the gossip first-hand from Kaity and Angelina.
Cherith had stopped reading smutty fanfic ever since Erin had gone MIA. She sat there, refusing to eat, using her long, dirty blond hair as curtains to hide herself away from the world. She played with her nose piercing, her eyes focused on nothing in particular.
Angelina had dyed her hair a bright teal color—they weren’t lying when they said she dyed her hair practically every week. She’d gotten whatever the kitchen was serving today, using her spork to pick at the food, a slight frown on her face.
Kaity, on the other hand, wasn’t afraid to dive right in. She lifted a finger, pushing her big glasses farther up her nose, having command of the whole lunch table when she asked, “Did you guys hear about the fire on Leif Road?”
Cherith only nodded, while Angelina asked, “There was a fire? Was it bad?” I was glad she asked, because otherwise I would’ve had to, and I had no idea how good of an actress I’d be when every single time I closed my eyes, I saw Neo and the way I’d left his corpse.
The blood. The muscle tissue. The way I’d finally gotten his skull to peek out near his cheek.
“Oh yeah,” Kaity said as she nodded. Her curly, dark brown hair was pulled back in a tight pony and then wrapped around in a bun on the back of her head. Stray wisps of hair that had escaped stuck out every which way. “It was bad. The whole house, gone. I heard they had to call neighboring cities for their help to put it out.” She leaned forward, lowering her voice as if she was afraid other people were listening in, “And I heard they found a body in the house.”
“Shit,” Angelina muttered, nearly dropping her spork. “What house was it? Did the rest of the family get out?”
“I don’t know,” Kaity spoke with a shrug. “And I only know all this because my parents turn on the news every morning, but they’re saying the body doesn’t belong to the person who owns the house. The firefighters and the sheriffs are investigating.”
“It’s kind of scary, isn’t it?” As Angelina asked the question, Cherith nodded in agreement. I nodded along too, mostly to act involved in the conversation and not seem like I was spacing out. “First Erin and her family, then this… what if it’s connected? Eastcreek is a small town. We never have missing people or house fires with bodies. Never. My whole life, I always thought it was safe here.”
Cherith’s quiet, soft-spoken voice said what they were all thinking, “It’s not safe anywhere.”
“She’s right,” I said, causing everyone’s gaze to flick to me. “No matter where you are, there’s always someone out there who’ll hurt you if they can, especially if they think they can get away with it.”
Kaity let out a sigh. “People suck.”
The lunch table got quiet after that. Honestly, it was never the same after Erin’s disappearance. Kaity mainly held the conversations day in and day out, but we all felt Erin’s loss.
