“I would if you’d tell me where to go!” Everything on the walls may as well have been in a foreign language. She understood the words but couldn’t make sense of anything.
“I’ve got a code!” Erin raised her voice to be heard in the other room. “If you’ve got any three-digit padlocks, try one, six, two.”
Astonished, Lia blinked at the side of Erin’s head as the other four scrambled around, no doubt looking for locks. “Where have you got that from?”
With a huff of annoyance, like she couldn’t believe Lia had the audacity to ask a question, Erin pointed toward a poem on the wall. “Read the first letter of each line.”
“Oh.” Read downwards, it spelled out the three numbers Erin had called. “You really are good at this.”
“I told you.” Erin’s eyes scanned around the rest of the room, but she didn’t say anything else as she waited for the others to find the right lock.
Some were clearly more invested in the search than others.
“I still can’t believe the story about Carol Evans.” Adrianna’s voice carried clearly from the other room. She stood beside Alex on the other side of the window.
Lia froze. She’d managed to dodge any questions at training that week—she suspected she had Cerys to thank for that—and had thought the escape room would be a good opportunity to forget all about it. Adrianna’s words brought it all rushing back.
“Do you think Lia knew?” Adrianna asked. “And that’s why she left?”
Lia’s breaths, too quick and too fast, drowned out Alex’s reply. She turned away from the wall to see Erin watching her, head tilted to one side.
“You did know.” Unlike Adrianna, she at least had the decency to keep her voice quiet. “It wasn’t you, was it? The player?”
Disgust roiled through Lia’s gut—quickly chased away by the flames of anger that ignited in its wake. “I was engaged. I would never—” Lia cut herself off and bit hard on her bottom lip to stop a sob. Goddammit, when would the day come that she could talk about Hannah without wanting to break down?
Realisation flashed across Erin’s face.
Great. It wasn’t just escape rooms Erin was good at solving—she could read people like a book, too.
“It was your fiancée.”
Lia wanted to sink to her knees and let the floor swallow her whole. She’d leave the room if she wouldn’t drag Erin along with her.
“I’m sorry.” Erin looked like she wished she hadn’t opened her mouth at all.
“For what?” Bitterness crept into Lia’s voice. “For accusing me of fucking my coach, or because my fiancée did?” Without giving Erin a chance to answer, Lia pounded her fist on the wall separating their prison from the other room.
It made Alex, Adrianna and Erin jump.
“Can you hurry? I need to get out of this fucking room.”
“Sorry, Lia!” Shanice called back. “We’re working on it.”
Work faster.
“I think I know what we need to do next.” Erin’s gaze was fixed on Lia’s face. “I’m hoping there’s—”
“Can we not?” Lia didn’t want to listen to what Erin had to say. She didn’t want Erin to feel pity for her, and she didn’t want Erin to try and make her feel better. “We don’t need to make small talk. I know you’ll get us out of here—I don’t need to know how.”
Erin flinched and snapped her jaw shut.
Lia tried not to feel bad about it.
* * *
Erin couldn’t even enjoy the victory of escaping with fifteen minutes to spare—quicker than the other four groups, despite having a more difficult room—thanks to Lia’s sullenness.
Why did she have to ruin everything?
