“What happened?” My voice sounded robotic. Was this one of my brother’s girls? Was this one of their blood?
“He’s dead.”
My stomach dropped with her words, and right now, I was glad I had Amelia with me more than I had been before.Somehow, I found my hand in hers and tugged her down the hall with me.
I knew it wasn’t one of my brothers. The shirt the woman wore was not one of theirs, but I couldn’t get that thought to connect inside my head. There was a trail of red down the hall coming straight from my father’s office.
My jaw ached as I clenched my teeth together to keep from crying out. We’d never been super close; he always preferred the company of my oldest sister, but… this was all too much. I didn’t remember letting go of Amelia’s hand, but one minute she was next to me, and the next I was pushing my father’s office door open to find him in a very indecent manner with most of his head exploded into the back wall of his office.
The little bit of airport food I’d consumed came up as I rushed out of the room and down the hall. The woman my father had previously been engaging with was being held up by Amelia in the kitchen. Amelia’s face was drawn and horrified, especially as I emptied the contents of my stomach in the middle of the hallway.
I didn’t know how long it took for the paramedics and police to arrive, but it seemed like no time as they rushed through the front door. Tears blurred my vision as someone tried to pick me up off of the floor, but I couldn’t be bothered.
“Can anyone tell me what happened?” A man shouted from the door as a stretcher was wheeled into the room. It was all a blur through my tears, and there was no way I could answer. My throat was raw from crying and throwing up.
Thankfully, Amelia was better suited for trauma. She’d been through enough in her life, I guessed. Her mother was murdered in front of her on her father’s ranch when she was a child. Did that prepare someone for something like this?
“We came home to this bimbo covered in blood, screaming, and crying.” Amelia patted the woman on the hand as if she hadn’t just insulted her, and I watched it all happen as if it were an out-of-body experience.
“Ma’am, do you mind coming down with me to the station?”
She looked up at him with glassy eyes and nodded her head. “I just want to get out of this nightmare.”
“Are you hurt? Do the paramedics need to look at you?”
The woman shook her head. “I could be dead too, but I’m alive…”
The man in the blurry police uniform turned to me next, still on the floor. “Do you have someone we can call?”
“I’ve got her,” Amelia released the woman she was holding and knelt down beside me. “I’ll bring her to a hotel down the road and call her brothers.”
“Who is she to the victim?” The man pulled out a notepad and a pen.
“He’s her father.”
He nodded as he scribbled the information down and then handed Amelia a small card. “I’ll be in touch.”
Somewhere behind us, crime scene tape was being rolled out and people were bickering about something that didn’t even matter.
“You need to talk to me, honey,” Amelia probably said it for the millionth time.
I could barely hear her over the rushing in my ears and the sight of my father’s body, bloody and broken, playing on repeat in the back of my mind.
I blinked and then blinked some more. “What?”
“You need to change and get some food in you,” Amelia rubbed circles on my back as I shook my head.
The thought of food sounded revolting. Doing anything just feltwrong.My phone rang and Amelia picked it up without hesitation. At one point, I thought she was the most obnoxious human, but now, I was thankful she was with me. We’d known each other most of our lives, but between her southern drawl and acting stupid… I couldn’t handle her in large doses. Now I didn’t know what I would do without her.
“Hi, Mrs. Fairchild, I don’t know what’s happening. Poppy is in shock.” She paused. “Yes, she found... um, the body.”
Amelia decided it was time to take the call in the other room, while I continued to spiral in the living area of the fanciest hotel Amelia could find on such short notice. The call could have taken five hours or five minutes; it was still all the same to me. When she came back, she sat down next to me on the couch and placed the phone face down on the glass coffee table.
“Do you want toknow any details?”
I saw enough details, I wanted to say. My father’s naked body, for one, and all of the blood that was supposed to be under his skin… not.
“Your mom is coming home with your sisters, and your brothers are meeting with the police now. The whole penthouse is a crime scene.” She pushed a piece of my hair behind my ear as she tried to look me in the eye. “Your family will probably come stay here.”
