“Rob, I’m so sorry.”
My eyes flash to meet devastated blue ones and I’ve never seen him look so lost before. I can’t seem to hold back the burn in my eyes as tears fill my own. “Why didn’t you tell me? You promised if it happened again you’d tell me and we’d find another facility. I thought moving to York helped, right? You haven’t been high the entire time?” I have to stop myself from asking him more questions because I can recognise myself spiralling. I feel like such an awful friend, not noticing any of the signs of another relapse. But this isn’t about me and my hurt friendship, it’s about Phoenix and if he’s ok.
“No, I promise I haven’t. I don’t want to make excuses, but I’ve just had so much on my plate constantly building, I just needed a release,” He lets out a shaky breath and runs his fingers through his wild hair. “After this weekend I’m going to look into a health facility that's close. I still need some help to get good habits back on track and Merle agrees it’s a good idea to move forward. I never wanted to keep you in the dark. Any of you.”
Lil lets out a small cry as her lips wobble. “Oh Darling. You absolute massive idiot.” She wraps one arm around herself and wipes furiously at her eyes, never being able to deal well with sadness.
“I know. Massive idiot. World's biggest fuck up right here.” Phin tries to smile through his own tears, but it causes her to let out another cry and suddenly he’s across the room and they’rehugging. Her shoulders shake as she buries herself into his chest.
After her quiet cries turn into hiccups, he plants a gentle kiss on her hair and walks over to throw himself into the armchair next to Wren. The latter takes hold of his knee and gives it a shake. “It’s for the best, mate.”
“Yeah. It really is.”
“I don’t like it when Daddy’s are fighting.” he teases, causing both my friends to roll their eyes playfully. I honestly think they’ll be ok. Phin only meets my eyes briefly, but I accept that maybe we’ll need time to build that trust back up too.
“I’m sorry to interrupt the moment,” Cardinal says slowly, aware his purpose of being here for this moment may be foggy. “But what’s the plan with Corbin and finding the secrets? Do we just confront him?”
Merle sighs gruffly, slipping both hands into his crumpled pockets. “Unfortunately I think we’re going to have to continue playing his game and find all the secrets. The man’s out for blood.”
Phin nods. “Whatever is going on Rob, I don’t think it’s a coincidence anymore that he’s throwing a murder mystery party. Not when you’ve just published your book, which features a murder mystery party.”
“The sewing society takes Detective Featherton to the yearly murder mystery party, thrown at a local Manor House. One of the murders actually takes place there.” I say, but Merle is already steaming rolling ahead, almost becoming frantic to get his words out quickly.
“We need to get one step ahead of him and find these clues. If we can get all the secrets ourselves, then we can decide what to do with them. Hell, we can just not even read them if we want.”
“I have no clue what my secret could be,” I admit, “Does anyone else?”
Lily throws a straight strand of golden hair over her shoulder. “This is insane. People throw murder mystery parties all the time, our brother isn’t on some journey for revenge because she decided to stop returning his calls.”
Probably from embarrassment, my words come out a little short. “I mean it was a little more than just not returning his calls Lil,” I sigh, looking at the grain in the wooden table instead of looking up at anyone. “But I think you're right, I don't have a dark secret to reveal. How can he show me up?” Last week I admitted defeat and looked up how to keep my banana plant alive, because he looked sad.Not exactly anything to gossip about.
“All I'm saying is maybe the six of us should just try a little harder than everyone else to find the secrets. Then we can decide on what to do.” Merle suggests with his palms raised.
“Darlings, maybe he just wanted to out your little problem? I'm pretty sure the rest of us will go unscathed. I have nothing to hide.” Lily stands, pressing down her denim skirt. “I just want a weekend of going a little too hard on the champers and relaxing in the sun. Not playing Scooby Doo.”
Letting out a stream of air, Phin rakes his hand through his hair as she leaves the room. “She's such a nightmare sometimes. I don't know how you put up living next to her.” Before I can answer, Wren stalks out of the room next. It instantly feels dimmer, like he took the growing light with him. It's Merle's turn to sigh, looking between the remaining three of us.
“Let's just grab some breakfast. We’ll have time to look for the clues in-between little activities I planned today. Try to engage with Corbin as little as possible.”
We nod in unison. I'm not above hiding out all day if it means staying away from him.
Chapter ten
Wren
AFTERfleeing from the library after it started to feel too confining, I find solace in the kitchen, nursing a black coffee that might be able to help get my thoughts in order. In the space of one day the little sense of control over my life has evaporated, but our kiss last night has me so frazzled, I can’t seem to care that Corbin Claythorne is unraveling my life. I should leave, maybe beg his brother to come too despite this being his hotel opening weekend and hey—I’ll take Robin over my shoulder too because I don’t want to leave her here, where that bastard could try and touch her again. Try being the key word because I won’t let him near her.
I’m starting to think that I made the kiss up. I was tired, the entire thing could be a gut wrenching delusion, because it may have been the best kiss of my entire life. The way my entire body was set on fire the moment our lips touched, surely I couldn’t make up this desperation for more. I wanted to consume her, get her so deep into my skin I’d never go without her touch again. No, Ineededher like a starved man would choke on food just to feel satisfied again. That thought scares me so much, but not asmuch as if the entire moment was some exhausted fever dream I created. I can’t stand the idea of not kissing her again, so it was unbearable watching Robin scramble to put her walls back up this morning. Lily seemed to confuse her feelings for me and for a brief moment, I swore I could see shame flicker through her. Shame over kissing me? The thought has me groaning, resting my head on the cool marble top as I let the coffee work its magic and bring me back to life. I’m envious of normal human beings who can wake up and just get on with their day, but touring has ruined my natural body clock for so long now that I cling to caffeine a little too hard.
Before I can start to spiral over the tiny writer I only met yesterday—yes I’m very aware this crush has manifested quickly—Pheonix enters the kitchen and I know it’s him from the weight of his stride. Weird? Probably, but we lived together in the same room for eight years at boarding school. It became handy knowing it was him sneaking back into our room at night, or else he’d have gotten a tactical swing to the face if I thought it was anyone else.
“Wrenny, you ok?” He asks, rubbing up my spine with his flat palm. I groan again, the contact comforting but doesn’t help clear my swimming thoughts, so I stand up.
“Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine. I’m more concerned about you. Are you both really ok with this weekend still happening? You don’t need to accommodate everyone, especially your brother.” I bite my tongue to end what I really want to say, but he knows how much I loath him. I think that’s the general feeling most have towards Corbin.
“I don’t want him to think he ruined this for us. It might even be the reason he’s doing all this in the first place.” He sighs, running a hand through his untamed hair that now stands on end like he’s done this all night. “Merle’s keeping face, but I think we’re far from ok. Last night we just kind of exhaustedourselves and decided to really sort out what we’ll do after this weekend. I don’t think we’ll break up, but unless I put in a lot of work, he’s going to be mad at me for a while.”
“Fuck man, I’m so sorry. Maybe we shouldn’t have kept it a secret—”
