“My real name is not Scarlet, is it?”
My dad has had many aliases. I’ve always wondered if Scarlet Stone was what my mum andOscarnamed me when I was born. It’s the name on my birth certificate, but it might not be my original birth certificate.
“I don’t even care.” It’s the truth. “I’m going to check on Nellie.” I stand. “Don’t steal anything.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
My name is Scarlet Stone and very few things in life shock me.
Nolan and Haroldreturned a week ago, so Oscar has been banned from the Moores’ estate. Nothing good can come from Harold and Oscar meeting. The three days Oscar spent going to work with me were filled with flirtation and this unsettling sexual tension between Nellie and my dad. I don’t know why I assumed Nellie’s mental state would prevent her from being a woman in that way, but I was wrong. The two of them shared enough sexual innuendoes to make me want to chunder at least several times a day.
“How’s Nellie?” Oscar asks the moment I walk in the door. He purchased himself a queen-sized bed that takes up half of the main room and a massage chair. My picnic chair rests against the wall, folded up. I like to go straight to my room when I return to my flat to avoid the Nellie talk he always wants to have.
“Married.”
Same question every day. Same answer.
“Now, Ruby… you said it yourself. They have an unconventional marriage. I think that means an open marriage.”
I stop before reaching my bedroom and turn on my heel. “No. Unconventional means Harold is a cunt and Nellie is suppressed from ever getting better because whatever made her this way seems to be quite top secret in that family. She’s so close to remembering. I can feel it. Something will jolt her memory at some point, but I don’t know what that will be.”
I scrape my teeth over my bottom lip. My curiosity and ‘need to know’ has been in overdrive for weeks. It’s not good. My body needs sleep, but between Nellie and Theo, I can’t seem to let my mind rest.
Oscar strokes his neatly-trimmed goatee. “Hmm… I can think of a way to maybe ‘jolt’ her.”
“No! You will keep your trouser snakeinyour trousers. Do you understand?”
“I can’t be responsible if she reaches for my knob—”
“Gross! Stop it. She won’t.”
His whole body shakes as he laughs. “I don’t know… that woman has a real fire in her belly… and maybe a bit lower—”
“Ahh!” I cover my ears and stomp into my bedroom, slamming the door behind me.
*
After a strongcup of chamomile tea and a double dose of valerian, I finally get to sleep. My dreams fill with Theo. Him emerging from the ocean. Him giving me that menacing scowl like he wants to eat me alive. And then… his mouth on me, my head thrown back while he actually eats me—”
“Ruby!”
I jump.
“Breakfast,” Oscar calls from the other room.
My heart pounds as I gasp for my next breath. “Oh god…” I whisper through my panting as I pull my hand out of my knickers. I’m a sweaty mess. This could have been embarrassing beyond words if Oscar would have opened my door to make his announcement.
Sleep masturbating without a lock on my door. Disastrous.
“Coming!” I yell then slap my hand over my mouth and giggle. “I mean… on my way,” I mutter to myself, rolling onto my stomach to bury my heat-stained face in my pillow. “Theo.. Theo… Theo… this…life… is no fun without you.”
I have a quick shower—a cold one—then peek into the kitchen, curious about breakfast made by a man who has no culinary skills.
“Good morning, Ruby.” Oscar’s back is to me, but he always knows when someone is behind him. I used to inspect the back of his head, quite certain he did have eyes back there. He turns. “How’s this?”
“Wow!” I take the tall glass of fresh-pressed carrot juice from him. How did I not hear the juicer running? Oh, that’s right—sleep masturbating. Bugger! I hope I didn’t make any noise. “Mmm… very good.”
He lifts a glass of amber liquid to his mouth.
