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Tristan summons me across the room. The butterflies quicken as I hurry to meet my new charge. He shifts aside so that I can step in front of the chair.
Mrs. Carrington is nothing like I expected. The woman is shockingly beautiful, a natural beauty fit for the cover ofVoguemagazine. Her skin is porcelain and minimally wrinkled for a woman of her age. Her heart-shaped face is framed with a chin-length bob of beautiful snow-white hair. The biggest surprise, however, is the pair of big blue eyes that find mineinstantly.
I smile. “Hello, my name is Lavi.”
“Lavi is going to stay with us for a while,” Tristan says, “and help out with whatever you need.”
If Nina understands her husband, she doesn’t show it. Her eyes are locked on mine with a jarring intensity. Tristan’s wife is not nearly as dazed as he implied.
“She just got here,” Tristan says, speaking to his wife. “She’ll be sleeping in the room next to yours. You two will be spending a lot of time together. Mariana will still be here too, but she will be focusing only on the house now.”
I nod like I’ve been in on this plan from the beginning. Still, Nina doesn’t take her eyes off me.
Tristan sends me a pitying glance, and I force a smile.It’s okay. I’ve got this.
“Anyway ...” He returns his focus to his wife. “I’m going to let your new friend settle in her room, and Mariana is going to show her around the property in a bit. But she’ll be back in here soon.”
He taps a white device with a red button, sitting on a small rolling table that I hadn’t noticed. “And you know if you need me, just press this button.”
The device appears to be an emergency button, a “help-I’ve-fallen-and-I-can’t-get-up” alert. I’m assuming Tristan carries the matching button in his pocket. I notice there is no cell phone on the table, but then remind myself that she likely can’t use one.
Next to the button is a pair of binoculars. Tristan catches me looking at them.
“Nina loves to watch the birds. Sometimes I hold them up to her eyes when I see a red bird.”
Next to the binoculars is the baby monitor. Next to that is a collection of prescription pill bottles. Risperidone, Valium, Xanax, and three other medications that I’ve never heard of. I know Risperidone is commonly prescribed for schizophrenia. And Valium and Xanax are for anxiety disorders.
I frown.
Why would a woman who had a stroke need medication for anxiety and schizophrenia?
5
Lavinia
After introducing me to Nina, Tristan disappeared into his office, leaving me to “settle in.” I retrieved a few things from the Tahoe, unpacked, and spent some time decompressing and acclimating myself to my new space.
It is now almost noon, and I am bored and feeling incredibly curious. Mariana, the housekeeper, hasn’t arrived for her afternoon shift, so I decide to explore the Carrington estate on my own.
I peek out my bedroom door, pause, and listen. When I hear nothing, I step into the hall.
I make a quick stop by Nina’s room and confirm she is still asleep on her bed, where Tristan placed her after our introduction. She naps a lot, he told me, and I’d be lying if I said I was unhappy about this. It’s easier to take care of someone who sleeps most of the time, and that’s just a fact.
The second floor is larger than I thought. The hallway opposite the master opens to a library, which leads to another hallway with more rooms. Very maze-like, and it’s going to take me some time getting used to.
I spend twenty minutes in the library scanning the hundreds of books. There is an entire shelf dedicated to Tristan’s thrillers. I slide one from the shelf and flip it open.
Dedicated to my darling wife, Nina, who holds everything together while I live vicariously in a world of fiction.
I look at the publication date, 2021. I want to know more about Nina, what she did before the stroke, what led up to it. I’ll find out soon enough, I assume.
I carefully return the book to its proper place and continue my shelf snooping.
The rest of the library includes every genre you can imagine, from romance to horror. I make a mental note of the erotica section, then choose a lighthearted rom-com to read to Nina later. Book in hand, I venture into the hallway where I find an office (that appears unused), two more bathrooms, a media room, and finally, one last room.
But this door is locked.
I glance over my shoulder, then try the knob again.
