Page 130 of A Heart So Haunted
“Don’t deservenone ofit,” she shouted. But her hands weren’t steady, and I stumbled into her. Grabbed her wrists while she used both hands to try and light the Zippo.
“Stop it,” I demanded, eyes blurred. But it was useless. We wrestled over the lighter, the sound of hurried feet after us as we careened closer to the porch. Hadrian appeared at my right, just as Mom tripped on the first porch step. He grabbed for her upper arm at the same time we went down. The lighter went skidding across the porch. She struggled to go after it, and I saw the split-second decision: If she got the lighter and flipped it—
Hadrian gave chase.
She cursed and kicked under me. I tried to shift my weight. My knee shoved awkwardly on the second step, and I attempted to brace myself with my left hand—right when she elbowed me in the jaw. “Let me go!”
Stars burst into my vision. I let go out of reflex. Hadrian’s blurred silhouette came into view right as I heard her footfalls barge into the house.
“What did she leave you?” she shouted. Something crashed. “You owe me money after keeping all her good stuff.”
I scrambled after her. A tantrum—that’s what this was.
She’d already turned over the foyer table by the time I shoved the front door open. Emma held the phone to her ear, eyes wide, relaying everything to the operator.
“Where’s her jewelry then, huh?” Mom shouted. She moved to the office, tearing anything and everything off the shelves—the book nook, encyclopedias, the journals—and heaved them onto the floor. She wrenched every drawer open with so much force they tried to bang shut.
“There’s no jewelry,” I said, voice rising. I went behind her and tried to close the desk drawers. Surely, the police would be here soon.
“Landry.” Hadrian said my name like a demand—urgent. The hairs along the back of my neck rose. A sinking feeling grew in my gut.
Something wasn’t right. But I couldn’t let her out of my sight.
“She has to have something in here,” she snapped. I tried to round on her and block her way to the hall, which led to the sunroom and library, but she clambered through quicker than I could move.
“Yes, as quickly as possible,” Emma said into the phone. Hadrian pushed by her, after me, eyes hard.
He took me by the arm. “Let me handle her.”
I tried to slip away as I heard books hitting the floor, splaying open,thump, thump, thump. I gave him a pleading look.
“She’s my mother,” I whispered.
“She is not—”
I jerked away, already crossing the hall. A tight ball of frustration rose in my throat. He didn’t know my mother—Ineeded to handle her, to stop this, but I felt like I was six years old again, trailing after her as she swayed in the hall, cursing and pointing at me.
“Look what you did, Landry,” she’d spat. Now, in an almost identical fashion, she whirled when I entered the library, Hadrian tight on my heels.
“All of this, foryou? Really, Landry?” Mom muttered under her breath as she continued her search. Her pupils were blown, her breath smelled rancid, and her teeth—the roots were grayed. “Can’t even—”
She swayed.
I didn’t reach out, I didn’t grab her shirt, I didn’t try and get her back to the front of the house where there were witnesses, I didn’t do anything.I didn’t. I didn’t. I didn’t.
Because when push came to shove, I couldn’t. I froze.
She upturned books and boxes and portraits I’d hung on the walls. Then she stopped at the mantel, checked the bottoms of all the little elephants and roosters I’d found in Aunt Cadence’s things. And started pocketing them.
My father’s voice held me back.Why not let her? Your mother is going to get something whether you like it or not.
Hadrian slammed the door shut and brushed around me.
Something inside of me broke. I couldn’t let him do it—he couldn’t be the one—
Take, take, take, just like she always had when I was a child. But this time—I’d furnished this place. I’d fixed it, I’d polished and painted. Fissures in my heart started to crack wider until it split in two.
She reached for a blown-glass hummingbird just as I grabbed his elbow. He froze, eyes darting between me and my mother. I gave a tight headshake as she moved to the candleholder.
