Total pages in book: 128
Estimated words: 120230 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 601(@200wpm)___ 481(@250wpm)___ 401(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 120230 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 601(@200wpm)___ 481(@250wpm)___ 401(@300wpm)
“I watched a documentary once,” I said, even more convinced that Darcie was the one who’d unrolled the runner. “It was all about suspicious staircase deaths. They’re really difficult to prove one way or the other.”
Ash rose to his feet, his thighs pressing up against his pants. The beige material bore a small streak near the left hip pocket that could’ve been dirt—or dried blood. Nix’s blood.
I didn’t say anything.
I had no fight with Ash, didn’t want to make him any more uncomfortable. Because though he’d ended up with Darcie, he’d always remain Bea’s. If she walked back into his life right now, I had not a single doubt that he’d dump Darcie in a heartbeat.
And Bea . . . she’d loved him.
A sigh in my mind, a memory of Bea’s luminous brown hair escaping from under her knit cap as she stared out at the crashing winter ocean. “I slept with Ash.”
“Beatrice.” I’d pressed my hands into the cold black sand on either side of my body, and shaken my head. “You know Darcie has a thing for him.”
“I know . . . but the way I feel about him, Nae-nae.” She’d flopped all the way down onto her back. “As if I have fireworks inside me. I’m actually waiting for his texts and calls, can you believe it? Me? Waiting on a guy?”
I’d known of Bea and Ash’s relationship long before the others. She’d told me all of it, safe in the knowledge that that was where the information would stop. Ash had no idea how much I understood about his love for Bea. He might wear preppy clothes for Darcie and pose as she wanted for her social media, but he’d have burned down the world for Bea.
I’d often wondered if the true reason he’d ended up with Darcie wasn’t shared grief, but because she was the only living link to Bea, a shallow stand-in for the scalding flame of a woman who’d smashed all our hearts to pieces when she chose to leave us.
I said none of that as we walked down the stairs.
Neither one of us looked at the wall opposite the staircase at the bottom, a wall that now bore a slight dent—but we saw it all the same. The photograph was missing, too, I realized dully. Darcie must’ve put it away somewhere when she swept up the glass.
Stepping to the right off the final step, we both made a beeline for the living room.
Darcie stood by the fireplace, and Vansi hadn’t moved since I’d last seen her, but her breathing was deep and even and she showed no visible signs of distress.
Kaea, meanwhile, seemed to have fallen into a peaceful sleep devoid of agitated movements. “How’s his fever?” I asked Grace, who sat on a chair next to him.
“No real change.” Twisting out the washcloth she’d just dipped into a bowl of water on the coffee table, she smoothed the cloth over his forehead. “My mamé—my mum’s mum—used to do this for me when I was feverish. I figured it couldn’t hurt.”
I nodded. “Yes, my mother did that for me, too.” And right now, Kaea could use all the help we could give him. “I grabbed the stuff you and Aaron wanted.” Having put it all in a duffel I’d found in their room, I placed both it and my pack near the coffee table. “I’ll go scout out mattresses on this level, see what’s suitable to drag in here.”
Darcie, who’d been whispering with Ash, said, “I’ll come with you. I know which rooms were cleaned.” Clipped, tight, hostile.
I wanted to tell her to leave it be, that I was more than capable of opening a few doors, but this was her house, after all. And who knew? Perhaps, in her brewing anger, she’d reveal the truth about Bea.
Ash made a move as if to come with us, but Darcie shot him a look.
Something unspoken passed between the couple, and then we were leaving. From the faint noises that filtered through from the kitchen, Aaron was still in there. I felt a piercing moment of relief that he was here in this place at this time; Grace was a sweetheart, but still a relative unknown. Aaron, however, was the one person on the estate that I knew I could trust without question.
The one person I couldn’t?
She walked beside me as we headed into the shadows of a long and echoing hallway.
36
Is that what you think of me?” Darcie demanded once we were out of earshot of the living area. “That I’m an evil, vengeful bitch who kept you all away from Bea on purpose?”
No longer in the grip of rage, and conscious I couldn’t alienate her if I wanted any semblance of truth, I rubbed my face with one hand. “I just wanted a chance to say goodbye, Darcie. Part of me can’t forgive you for taking that away from me. From us. We loved her, too.”