Total pages in book: 173
Estimated words: 163802 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 819(@200wpm)___ 655(@250wpm)___ 546(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 163802 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 819(@200wpm)___ 655(@250wpm)___ 546(@300wpm)
I threw my sponge down. “Yep. This is hopeless.”
Giving up in every single way, I claimed the bottle of merlot Micah left on the counter and headed upstairs. What was needed then was a hot bubble bath, and me drunk in it.
I headed for the east wing, leaving through the dining room into the informal sitting room that would take me to the back staircase—that spilled out onto the landing that overlooked the east wing. So much room for only seven people, but to a little kid, it all felt like living in a storybook.
Or at least it does until the day you discover monsters do lurk in the shadows.
I halted, spun on my heels, and went back the way I came—making for the west wing instead.
I’ll just check on Lily and say goodnight. It’s not too late. She should still be up.
I reached the top of the landing, took a left, then slipped through the shadows shrouding the damp and dusty hallway.
Speaking of storybooks, I might as well be living in Beast’s castle right now. Hera knows why furniture that could dance and sing couldn’t clean itself too, but I know why you can’t. My fingers skated over the peeling wallpaper. I need to contact Mrs. Prado. Find out why all the staff up and quit, and after she tells me Sue was the reason, I can beg her to come back and help me return the manor to its former glory.
“...think she’s for real?”
I slowed—my feet sinking into the carpet that muffled me.
“I don’t know.” Alex’s voice floated into my ear. “You should’ve heard her in the kitchen, face leaking as she told me how much it hurt to wake up from a near-death experience and discover no one even noticed she was gone.”
The hallway split into three—one way carrying me back the way I came. The other leading to the wing with their rooms, and the final being where they stood in the shaft of light from Lily’s bedroom... speaking about me in hushed tones.
“She wouldn’t be the first person who got scared straight after nearly flying through a windshield,” Micah grudged. “Even Scrooge heeded his wake-up call.”
“I don’t know. I don’t know, man,” Alex kept repeating. “We’ve been down this road before. You both know that as well as I. Sue makes these grand declarations about wanting us all to start over and be happy, makes us out to be the jerks if we don’t give in, and then two weeks later, she’s back again going out to the spa instead of picking up Nari from school, sneaking Rhodes’s phone to hit up his confidential clients to sell them on an investment opportunity, and shouting at Micah for sending his mother money when we’ve already got one poisonous prune draining our bank account.”
I winced, pressing tighter to the wall. That did sound like Sue.
“We can’t get sucked back into her spinning, swirling vortex of psycho. Not when we’re so close to being rid of her for good.”
Rid of her for good?
I heard the soft footfalls of someone pacing. “Guys, I...” Rhodes began. “I’m sorry, but I think I believe her.”
“What!” someone whisper-shouted.
“Look, you weren’t with her out there when we faced down that bear,” Rhodes said. “The old Sue would’ve taken off and left me to be that animal’s breakfast without blinking twice.” He scoffed. “Then, she would’ve soaked up all the sympathy and attention she’d have gotten as a bear-attack widow, while patenting her new, organic line of bear spray.
“But she didn’t do any of that. Guys...” His voice fell, straining my ears to hear. “She didn’t just refuse to abandon me. She... stepped in front of me—standing between a three-hundred-pound killing machine, and a guy that just told her it’d be a cold day in hell before he ever forgave her.
“Yes, okay. Every chance Sue had to show us she changed, she spat on it before flipping us off. But not this time. Maybe this time... is real.”
My heart soared, sending a smile rising unbidden to my lips. They’re going to do it. They’re finally going to give me a real—
“No.”
My heart caught fire and crashed into the dirt.
“No,” Micah repeated. “Alex is right. Something doesn’t add up. Only a couple of weeks ago, she declared she was dumping us for the piece of shit she’s secretly been fucking, and she wanted us all out of the house. And now out of nowhere, she’s sorry, she doesn’t want the divorce, and she’s just giving us the manor for a fraction of what it costs? Not to mention that Silly Lily Fund thing,” he hissed. “This is the same woman who wouldn’t let Lily have paint, Play-Doh, kinetic sand, markers, or a single toy that might make a mess. But now all of a sudden, she’s pulled forty thousand dollars out of her ass for Lily to have fun.”