Page 108 of Darkest Obsession

From: [email protected]

To: [email protected]

Subject: (no subject)

Hey Clover,

You caught me.

Your band of bitches and that sicko freak won this round.

You just missed one big detail.

KOLA.

Is she a traitorous bitch who sold you out, or one of my victims?

You decide.

One thing’s for sure: you won’t see her tonight.

How does it feel to get the guy, slut?

You did this. Kola’s gone, and it’s all your fault.

– Spicy Freak

Chapter Forty-Eight

Thomas

It’s been ages since I’ve visited mum. She sends my helicopter for me and I sincerely regret choosing a Union Jack color scheme. I was such a fucking twat as a kid and having to leave the Academy in a Union Jack chopper won’t exactly look subtle. At least mum got permission from the trustees for me to take a quick trip home.

I told Violet about what happened on Halloween and she insists I spend a night at home for my mental health. Home is the last thing I need for my mental health. I have a far better reason to show up at the manor and I definitely won’t be staying the night.

It’s only a twenty minute ride on the helicopter to our place in London, and I only have to stay for an hour or two for supper. I just can’t bear supper in that house anymore. I’ve turned mum down for every offer to visit since the divorce announcement in the papers. I have to dress for home too – no Doc Martens in mum’s house. White button downs, khaki trousers, dress socks, Gucci loafers, the Hermès watch Gran gifted me for my sixteenth birthday and absolutely no fucking nail polish. Mum would chop my hands off herself with the vigor of a Saudi oil magnate.

Home. I don’t know how Violet was ever comfortable here. I don’t know how I was comfortable either. I trusted my dad before I discovered the truth about him. He was my everything.

I can’t live in a house with my father, but I can’t imagine the manor without him. I know he’s a monster, but he’s my dad, you know? It’s like I have memories of a different fucking man – the man I wish he was. Mum has my brothers anyway, she doesn’t need me. They must all be at boarding school now. I don’t talk to them much.

She wishes she had Violet. Can’t help it that Violet’s fucked off to America with her slow boyfriend. Mum greets me in the foyer with two kisses after Marissa announces my arrival.

“Thomas. Come here.”

She hugs me and then smells my hair. “Did you shower?”

“Miss you too, mum.”

Mum purses her lips. She’s had more work done there. It’s beginning to crack her face again. “Parlor?” she asks stiffly. The work must have been recent.

“Do we have to have a formal parlor?”

She religiously takes afternoon tea. I’m not dressed well enough for afternoon tea. I stuffed her favorite necktie of mine into my backpack, but I didn’t expect to need it.

“When you asked for the chopper, I had Stefan make oolong tea. You can skip the tie just for tonight.”

My favorite tea and no necktie, mum really knows how to let loose. Despite everything, she’s not a bad person. She’s stiff. She’s English. But she lost it when she learned the truth about him. If she wasn’t trapped, I know she would have wanted him prosecuted. He just has too much power. I really fucking hate dad for hurting her. Without her saying a word, I know she had the tea poured because she’s all alone in this big house and she’s lonely.