AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He nodded carefully. “Okay. Then, how do you know it was her fault?”
I gritted my teeth and stared down at my hands. “Because after I finally got back from the hospital after…him, she never said another word to me, never did anything to hurt me. She just smiled in a sadistic, satisfied way, those green eyes mocking me.”
“He put you in the hospital?” Frost asked in alarm, his eyes blade-like, glinting in anger.
I swallowed hard, trying to drown the screaming inside my head that came with the memory. “Yes.”
“Why was she so angry? Did her parents get a divorce?”
“No. They stayed together. Her mother just died recently. I saw it in the paper. I’m not really sure why she was angry at me. It should’ve been all directed at her mom or Mr. Aaron. But, that’s beside the point.”
Frost stared down at his hands for a very long time. There was a look of such intensity in his eyes that for some reason I couldn’t understand, I regretted telling him the truth. “What is it?” I asked anxiously.
I could hear his teeth grinding together, could almost hear the creaking of the cogs and wheels turning inside his head. Finally, he looked up at me, a level of seriousness that terrified me in his eyes. “Poe…. Nina Faucett was my ex-girlfriend.”
My stomach dropped and it was several seconds before I realized that I wasn’t breathing. The room around us seemed to have disappeared entirely and all I could see were Frost’s intelligent, furious blue eyes. “When did she get out of jail?” I finally whispered.
“December fourth.”
I thought back to the first week of December. Mrs. Faucett had committed suicide on the sixth. Was it possible…? Could Nina have murdered her own mother? Could she have set the fire that destroyed Frost’s family? “Do you know where she is?” I asked. “Was she questioned about Mrs. Faucett’s death?”
Frost shook his head. “We can’t find her. She violated parole and escaped into the city. She’s a suspect in the Faucett case…. I was working that case before…everything.” He shivered involuntarily. “We haven’t been able to make a ruling on her death. Right now, the paperwork says suicide because that’s the most likely option, but…”
My eyes tightened shut and I shook my head. “Why didn’t you say something sooner?”
“I didn’t know what she’d done to you, Poe. I didn’t know you were connected…I didn’t know.”
I met his eyes again, not sure if I was furious at Nina, afraid, panicked, or still grieving. “We need to find her, Frost. This is the curse. We have to stop her from doing any more damage.”
Frost nodded and stood, crossing the room to the kitchen phone. He rapidly dialed and began speaking to Justin on the other line. I looked down at my hands and I could almost see the blood on them. Mrs. Frost’s…Maddi’s…Trina’s…. I could see the ashes of that house mixed with it, clinging to my skin in a dusty coating.
If Edgar hadn’t told me suicide would not end the curse, I would have taken Frost’s gun and blown myself away right then.
----
Despite much protesting from Frost, I had him drop me off in The Heights on his way to meet Justin. I assured him that I would be perfectly safe and as soon as I was done talking to Mrs. Aaron, I’d call a cab to take me home. He agreed reluctantly and left me in the driveway after checking the rowhouse carefully and ensuring that Mr. Aaron was not home.
I rang the doorbell and waited for a minute on the front porch. The door opened and my foster-mother smiled confusedly at me. “Poe?”
I smiled back. “Hi, Mrs. Aaron.” I stepped into the threshold and hugged her. Neither of us said anything for a long time. She probably had not expected to ever see me again after what Mr. Aaron had done to me and especially after he had been released from jail. I was not happy to be there and if there was any other option, I would never have come. I had lost a lot of respect for my foster-mother; she had done little or nothing to stop Mr. Aaron’s abuse or to keep her identity. She had let him make her quit her job as a nurse, she had let him allow her driver’s license to discontinue, she had let him assume control. Things were getting exponentially worse and she was not even trying to fight.
She broke out of the hug after a tight squeeze and held the door open for me. “Come in, sweetie. Do you want anything? Hot chocolate, maybe?”
I shrugged and stepped inside. “Sure.”
Mrs. Aaron nodded, closing the door behind me and heading towards the kitchen. I pulled up a stool and sat down as she poured two mugs of hot chocolate and passed one to me. She started towards the pantry. “Marshmallows?”
I shrugged. “Sure.” Mrs. Aaron opened the pantry and started digging through it, looking for the marshmallows. “So,” she began hesitatingly, “Did you come by just to visit or did you need something?”
I turned my mug in my hands awkwardly. “I need to know everything. Everything about my family and my curse.”
Mrs. Aaron set the bag of marshmallows on the bar and forgot it there immediately. She looked down at her tiny hands sadly. They were bruised again and the bags under her eyes and wrinkles in her cheeks were more prominent than usual. “There are some things you should have. In the attic.”
“Okay.”
We went upstairs and Mrs. Aaron pulled a small ladder out of a closet, then opened up the attic. Looking up at the dark alcove, she shuddered. “Ugh, I hate it up there. Let’s make this quick.”
We went up and I found a lamp and turned it on. The attic was crowded with dilapidated furniture, Rubbermaid tubs of decorations, and endless cardboard boxes and trunks. “Okay. What of this is mine?”
