Page 35 of Grotesque
The line was silent for a moment.
“Are you serious? After everything I’ve done for you, you’re just going to take all that money and keep it to yourself? I raised you Sorcha, all by myself. I gave you food, I gave you shelter, I took care of you!"
“That’s what you’re supposed to do.”
“Excuse me?” Mom’s voice had gone colder than the Arctic.
I knew I had overstepped, but the grave had been dug so I might as well crawl in. “That’s what you’re supposed to do when you have a kid. You take care of them. I’m grateful for everything you gave to me, but I don’t owe youmyshare of Macky’s home when you got your own inheritance. Y’all each got two million.”
“You’re unbelievable,” she growled.
“Why? Why am I not allowed to have this?”
There was a pregnant pause of fuming energy before she finally answered. “Do whatever you want, Sorcha. It’s clear I don’t mean jack shit to you.” There was a loud bang and then the line went silent.
My hand was shaking as I pulled the phone away from my ear. She’d either thrown hers across the room or hard enough on the ground that it’d ended the call.
I shut the sketchbook and held it close to my chest.
I didn’t think I would ever be able to escape my mother’s judgment. I’d moved out of her place a long time ago, but even living in my own apartment she had managed to force herself into my space, inviting herself over, critiquing the way I decorated, the food I kept in the fridge, the clothes that hung in my closet.
I didn’t know what Mom and her brother’s childhoods had been like, but it was clear something had rotten them, somehow. Momdefinitely had the worst relationship with Macky, and that negativity had trickled down into our relationship. I believed that mothers did the best they could with what life gave them, but I’d spent twenty-six years feeling like Iowedmy Mom something, simply for existing. Like I’d had any say in the fact she’d brought me into this world.
It was toxic.
I’d hoped that putting distance between Mom and I would help heal the wounds that gaped between us. Instead, she was acting as I’d known she would. I was sorry I’d hurt her feelings, but I wasn’t upset that I’d stood my ground. At least the call had ended without her screaming at me, until I was the one apologizing for whatever mess she had instigated.
I carried the sketchbook with me into the kitchen and flipped through it as I started the oven for a frozen lasagna. I loved my mom despite her flaws, but she wasn’t the most pressing thing I had to deal with right now.
I ran my finger over the charcoal drawing of a male figure with horns curling out from the top of his head. Over the blurred, flaming eyes that glared up at the viewer. Whatever issues my mother and I had could wait. Solving the mystery of my shadowy stalker and the history of Glamis Manor was my top priority.
I swiped the clock app open on my phone and began setting a series of alarms to start after 9 o’clock. One every thirty minutes,in the event I dozed off. I tucked a kitchen knife beneath my pillow, pointing the blade away from my head.
The next time the stranger showed up, I would be ready. If he could only come out when the sun had set, then so would I. I wasn’t going to let anyone, or anythingtake Glamis Manor away from me.
The shrill screech of the alarm wrenched me free from the undertow of sleep that had me in its grip. I groaned, reaching across for the tenth time to shut it up, but the offensive sound cut off before I even touched it.
“Did you set this for me?”
I bolted upright, my eyes wide as they struggled to adjust to the darkness. The moon was high tonight, so everything was generously illuminated. Everything but the stranger who evaded me.
“I’ll be honest, I’m a bit flattered by this. But I’ve never really been a big fan of toys in the bedroom.”
I reached under my pillow feeling for the knife that wasn’t there.
He had the knife.
Oh God, I was fucked.
I heard it clatter to the floor.
Huh, silver linings.
“Before I allow you to see me, I want us to play another game.” He was somewhere behind me, at the edge of the bed, hovering just outside of my peripheral. I wanted badly to see him, but not so badly that I was game to disobey him.
“Which one is it tonight?”
I could practically hear the grin in his voice. “Truth or dare… with a twist.”
