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“And no trying to eat her lunch this time,” Olivia sternly tells Butterscotch, even though it wasn’t technically his fault. Nova was the one who fed him the small sandwich. Butterscotch was just too polite to decline it.
My mind flicks back to Tuesday night again and the woman at the lake. She wasn’t there last night when Butterscotch and I went for our usual evening walk. I’d hoped to see her. No idea why. The woman clearly wanted nothing to do with me.
But something about her has left me off-balance. It’s a twisting in my gut I haven’t felt in a while. A twisting that surfaced right before I lost my best friend.
But I ignore it.
7
JESSICA
March, Present Day
Maple Ridge
Billie Holiday playsthrough the speaker in the living room as I spend Thursday morning going through Iris’s magazines. Just like I’ve been going through them for the past three days.
The recycle bin is full from yesterday’s discarded pile. I’ve still got a long way to go with the periodicals, but at least I’m getting somewhere.
The doorbell rings, sending my heart rate scrambling.Fuckers and damn.
I push myself to my feet and rub my hands on my thighs, smudging dust from the magazines onto my jeans. This is the first time someone has rung the doorbell or knocked on the door since I moved in.
So far, I’ve avoided my neighbors. Someone might recognize me and out me on social media, making it easier for the media to track me down and bombard me with their relentless questions. Everyone will know my shame.
Nope. Nope. Nope.I’m not letting any of that happen.
I haven’t even left the house since I went to the lake to watch the sunset—other than to take the magazines to the garage and recycle bin. But I need to go to the grocery store soon. I can’t hide in here forever. And I refuse to turn this house into another type of prison.
My heart pounding, I walk to the front door and peer through the peephole. Anne?
Cold fear clutches me in its fist. Has she changed her mind about me staying in her house? Is she tossing me out because she figured out the truth about me?
Dreading her next words, I unlock the door and open it.
Anne smiles, and some of the tension loosens its grip. “Hi, Jessica.”
“Hi, Anne. C’mon in.” I step back from the doorway. “How are you doing?”
She walks into the house. “Good, thanks. And you? I thought that since you don’t have a phone yet, I’d drop by to check if you need anything.”
The remaining tendrils of fear vanish. “I’ve been busy going through the magazines. I didn’t realize your great-aunt spoke French and German. I found a collection of magazines in those languages.”
“That’s right. My great-grandfather worked in the British embassies in Paris and Vienna when my grandmother and Auntie Iris were younger.” Anne smiles nostalgically as she glances at the diminishing piles of magazines and the decades-old furniture and couch.
“Can you speak French or German?”
“Not really. Auntie Iris taught me some French and German when I was a kid, but I took Spanish in high school with my friends.”
I show Anne the progress I’ve made in the living room with the magazines.
Shock widens her eyes. “Wow. I’d forgotten what the place looks like without so many magazines. It looks so much bigger than I remembered.” She chuckles and flashes me a sheepish grin. “The house hasn’t always been overrun with them. In the beginning, she kept them in the attic. When her last TV died, Dan and I were going to get her a new one, but she said she didn’t need it. She was happy reading her magazines.”
“Would it be okay if I decorate the place once I’ve cleared them out?” I’ve been thinking about it since yesterday. The place doesn’t feel like mine, the way the house I lived in with my husband never felt like my home. I wasn’t the wife, the lady of the house. I was the housekeeper, the punching bag, the thing he raped and demeaned.
But now…now I want to make a home while I figure out what to do next.
“Go ahead. Like I said the other day, I’m planning to put the house on the market at the end of the year. And a fresh coat of paint will certainly help. Let me know what colors you’re thinking of. Dan can bring them over, along with the supplies you’ll need.”
