Page 29 of Wicked Vows
I wander around the halls looking for my husband and not finding him.
I somehow end up back at the east tower.
That’s when I see her roaming the hall.Catherine’s ghost wearing her white dress that is twin to mine.She’s humming and whispering a nursery rhyme.Is she singing to her unborn child?Is that why she’s still here?Why she haunts this house?
“Catherine?”I call out her name like a fool.She looks right at me but keeps walking and humming.
I chase after her as she disappears into one of the rooms.
The door closes abruptly behind me, slamming shut.I nearly jump out of my bones, but I keep searching for her.
I spin around the room.There’s nowhere she could have gone except out the window.
“Catherine?I call out her name once more.Laughter sounds from outside the window.
I push it open and stick my head out.
“What are you doing?”My breath catches in my throat as she dances along the ledge.She’s going to fall, but she’s already dead.Is this how she died?Did Catherine leap to her death?
“Hush little…” her voice dies being carried off by the wind.She glances back at me, wearing a grim expression, and then she jumps.
Chapter Eleven
“Thereyouare,”Nicogrowls from behind me.“What are you doing up here?I told you never to come here.I strictly forbade it.”He grabs me by the wrist harshly, twisting it to the point of pain.
“I saw her.”
“You saw who?”
“Catherine.She was singing a lullaby, and she went out the window, and I watched her jump.”
Thwack.Nico slaps me.My palm goes straight to the burning sting of my cheek as tears flood me.“Who told you that?”
“Catherine showed me.I saw her.”
Nico grabs me by the shoulders and shakes me.“What are you playing at?”
“I’m telling the truth.I know what I saw.”
He fists his dark hair as I shrink away from him.“I heard you with Marco and Frankie.I know about Lynette and how I’m a distraction.”
“You can’t pay attention to Marco.”
“You didn’t kill Catherine,” I whisper.“She killed herself.”
He nods.“We found out that a baby wasn’t possible for us.”He drops to the floor, and I don’t know why, but I go to him.“She lost her mind.Accused me of cheating all the time.I started losing money.Getting into fights.Drinking.Eventually, I did turn to other women.I was lonely, and my wife had gone mad.I tried doctors.Medications.Nothing could save her from herself.After she passed, I got drunk and set this tower on fire.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No.I should have told you.I shouldn’t have slapped you.You really saw Catherine?”
“I think so.”
A loud scream sounds from outside, and Nico rushes to the window.He looks down, and I follow his gaze to the body sprawled across the driveway and the pool of blood coming from her head.
I press my hand to my mouth.
Nico runs off, and I chase after him.
