Page 46 of One Last Step

I storm back to the bed.Mother’s eyelids are drooping now, and her speech is slurred.The medicine hit her faster than I expected.

I grab her shoulders and shake her.“What letter?Tell me!When?”

Her eyes flutter.“Said she was… sleeping with an artist.”She chuckles.“Little bitch.”

“You’re lying!”I hiss.“You’relying!”

She smiles.She’s nearly out, but she can hear the tone of my voice, and she knows she’s gotten to me.She laughs softly and shrugs.“Sure.I probably am.”

I reach back and slap her hard.Her eyes fly open, and she gasps.But then they droop again.My handprint stands out on her cheek, but she grins and says, “She hates you too.”

“Fuck you!”I shriek.“You old bitch!You’re lying!You…”

She's asleep now.I let her fall to the bed and stumble backwards, trembling from head to toe.Then I run from the room.I go to my room and collapse on the bed, sobbing bitterly.

It can’t be true.She’s only a mean old woman trying to hurt me the only way she can anymore.It’s not true.Annie loved me.She would never hurt me like that.

But in the back of my mind, a part of me knows that Annie inherited the same vicious streak that Mother has.And I know that there’s at least a small chance that Mother is telling the truth.

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

A burst of noise wakes me.I sit bolt upright, gasping and shaking as a discordant roaring assaults my ears.

It’s midnight.The clocks have gone off again, only this time instead of going off one at a time, they’ve all gone off at one.The sound is deafening.I clamp my hands over my ears and scream, but I can’t hear my own voice.

This is far more intense than it’s ever been, but thankfully it ends after only a few seconds.I sit on my bed, my eyes as wide as dinner plates, my heart thumping in my chest.

I’d forgotten that conversation with my mother.I remember that when she fell asleep, I took a walk outside and convinced myself that she was lying.There was no way Annie would have left without telling me.She hated our mother, but not me.She would never have done that to me.

Except that she did.It occurs to me now that Annie probably did write Mother.I could have looked for Annie years ago.I could have…

I take a deep breath and get out of bed.I can’t stay here right now.That nightmare was one of the most intense I’ve ever had, and I’m already on the edge of emotional collapse.I’ll make myself some tea and walk around the museum for a while until I calm down.Then maybe I’ll try to get some more sleep.I doubt I’ll succeed, but I suppose I’ll try.

I pull on a dress and some slippers, then head out of the room.I half-expect Elena and Sophie to be up, but the lights are still off.How can they have slept through that noise?Well, I suppose they’ve had more time to get used to it than I have.

I flip the light on in the kitchen and reach for the coffee when I hear a thump from downstairs.I pause and listen closely.Maybe I just thought I heard it.

No!There it is again.A thump and what sounds like a scraping noise.

I leave the coffee and head to the stairwell instead.My heart is pounding again.I stop at the door to the stairwell, and it occurs to me that I should bring my phone.If someoneisdown there, I can call the police and Claudia and have them come arrest their perpetrators.

I retrieve my phone and head back for the stairwell just in time to hear another thump.I consider waking Elena, but I don’t want to risk Sophie coming downstairs looking for her grandmother and getting caught in the way in case there are criminals down there.

As I descend to the first floor, I hear a much louder thump, then a voice.“Damn it, be careful!You’ll wake them!”

The voice that responds is, unfortunately, one familiar to me.

“If they didn’t wake up to the sound of every damned clock in the building going off at once, they won’t wake up to this.”

My face falls.So Lukas is one of the criminals after all.I should have known.A part of me did know, I suppose, but… I so hoped that Luc wouldn’t get caught in the middle of this.

The other voice speaks again, and I realize I know that voice too.Margot Keller.

“Use the tools I gave you.Stop trying to brute force your way into all of the clocks.I don’t mean to be the one to tell you this, but you’re not the most macho of men.”

“Oh wow,” Lukas replies drily.“That’s so hurtful.I guess it’s a good thing I’m not with the most attractive of women.”

“Go to hell.Just look for the damned letters.”

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