His words felt so sincere, laced with such sweet poison, I almost crumbled and folded right there, but my hand gripped the side of the sink to steady myself and slipped.
Red stain smeared across my palm. I saw how it painted my skin crimson and jolted away from it.
Immediately, Jameson steadied me by putting an arm around my waist and gripping my wrist softly.
“You can’t promise anything. There’s blood. His blood iseverywhere.” I wheezed, and suddenly my breath caught like it didn’t want to enter my lungs. Blood—like at the school, like in my nightmares—filled my eyes. That red would not wash away no matter how hard I tried.
“Mia.” His voice was steady, strong, solid. “DarlingMia,” he murmured again, and I felt the tone of it, like I was too sweet, too naïve, like I couldn’t handle this.
“I saw you kill a man, and now I’ve seen you piecing another one back together. That’s what a life like this is. Destruction and then piecing it back together as if it can be whole again. You realize that, right? Whatever you’re in can’t just be fixed.”
He nodded like he agreed that it was complicated, that my emotions were relevant, that I wasn’t spiraling into the panic attack that I was. “I like to think I can fix most anything.”
My brain tried to catch up with what was happening. I clawed through my memories and hoped to find more clues, things I’d missed, evidence in this estate. “The letter and the emblem on the seal—”
“You can’t go back to the life you lived, Mia, if you find out about this one. I’m trying to—”
“I’m already here. I already can’t go back. Because none of this is normal.” I gasped for air, but he didn’t let me get lost in my feelings or emotions.
“It’s normalhere. Where you live. Now.” He yanked me into his chest, body to body, and let go of my wrist for a moment to turn on the water. Then he gripped it again to put my hand under the faucet.
When he splashed it over my hands, the ice-cold water jolted me, but he held me steady, firm, and with care as he rubbed at the red on my hand.
“Paradise Grove? A paradise in hell?”
“Maybe.” He took a breath. “Isn’t it normal to help a friendthough? It was a minor procedure. I’m a doctor, he’s a patient. You saw him up and talking. His blood is being washed away.”
Washing away the stain didn’t mean that I forgot it had been there, that I wouldn’t be traumatized from this now too. “Everyone is just okay with this. How are you all okay with it?”
Jameson’s jaw worked up and down before he responded. “Time allows for adaptation. And we’ve all had time. I realize this is hard for you. If you need someone to help you teach Franny until you’re ready—”
The panic screeched to a halt as his words hit me straight in the chest. “I don’t need help with teaching.” There was a difference between doing my job and not being comfortable with what he did, with adapting to a new environment.
Franny was thriving because I treated her like a child rather than an adult all the time. She trusted me. Yesterday she’d had her father, not just stuffy Mr. Knight, at the clubhouse. I saw how the light glittered in her eyes, how her smile reached higher than it normally did. “I’m good at what I do, and your daughter trusts me.”
Was he trying to dispose of me now after holding me here against my will? And after I cared for his daughter in a way that others weren’t? Nobody else saw her. They weren’t paying attention to how reserved she’d become.
He narrowed his eyes. “I wasn’t insulting your work ethic or skill, Mia.”
I tried to pull away, but he held me there. “I. Don’t. Need. Help.” Maybe I was stubborn, but I found myself holding firm on this. I’d put Franny’s needs first. Always.
Could he say that about someone else he’d bring in?
“Okay,” he said slowly, “but if you need more time to acclimate. Her psychiatrist—”
“Valerie?” That woman definitely wouldn’t put Franny’sneeds before Jameson’s or her own. Was he kidding me? “The woman at the country club yesterday?”
“She knows Franny. And maybe a little time and patience with this change would help, Ms. Darling.” I was starting to realize he used my formal title when he pushed me professionally, when he wanted his way and thought he could get it with a stern hand.
I lifted my chin so that we were just a breath away from one another, his thumb still rubbing away whatever was left on my hand. “If that’s the case, why did you alreadyletValerie leave? And why on earth would you bring someone back who didn’t work in the first place?”
He tilted his head as if considering, “How do you know?”
“Franny told me,” I blurted out.
He hummed, his voice vibrating between both of us.
“I’m guessing she was fine with all this as well? Is she a part of it?” I glanced at the blood washing away in the sink.
