Total pages in book: 128
Estimated words: 120230 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 601(@200wpm)___ 481(@250wpm)___ 401(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 120230 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 601(@200wpm)___ 481(@250wpm)___ 401(@300wpm)
I was about to walk into my room when I realized I needed to photograph everyone’s rooms, including mine. Flushing at the oversight, I got to it, and felt no guilt in walking into everyone’s private areas.
Nix was dead. We could all deal.
* * *
—
Every single inch of this part of the house now recorded on my camera, both in stills and on video, I stared at the rug again. It seemed clear that Phoenix had become tangled up in the rug and taken a fatal tumble. The stairs were steep. That he’d broken his neck wasn’t a surprise. The best possible result would’ve still included a broken bone. It just so happened that he’d been unlucky enough for that bone to be in his neck.
My insides churned.
I looked to the left, then the right. The walls. I hadn’t photographed the walls around the staircase. I did so closely, but saw nothing. Not even when I zoomed in. There was no evidence of anything other than a terrible accident.
We’d have to disturb the scene and roll up the rug before it took another life, but I couldn’t make that call myself. I’d talk to the others. In my mind, the safest option seemed to be to stay put in the living room. One of us could be assigned to come upstairs, get everything.
Probably me, since I’d already been up here.
My self-imposed task complete, I went and got the box of tampons I’d thrown into my bag without any real thought, just mechanically following my travel checklist. I put the box in Vansi’s underwear bag. I wouldn’t need any for at least two weeks and if we were still in this hellhole at that point, then I’d have worse problems than my period. I also changed out of my wet clothes and into fresh, warm gear.
When it was time to go down the stairs, I took extra care.
Aaron was seated on the second-to-last step, his head in his hands and his shoulders shaking. Taking a seat next to him, I put my arm around his thin shoulders and held him as he cried.
My own eyes were hot and dry. Brittle.
It was difficult not to look at Phoenix, given our location and his, but I tried my best, was actually grateful for my fuzzy peripheral vision. But it didn’t matter if I didn’t look at him. I’d seen him right after the accident and the image was now seared into my memory banks.
“This will destroy his parents.” Aaron’s voice was husky as he used his upper arm to wipe off his eyes. “He is . . . was their pride and joy. Their doctor son. The embodiment of their dreams, the cherished reason for all the sacrifices they made to get to this country.”
“The rug’s there, and it’s all tumbled up,” I said softly because I couldn’t think about the Changs; I didn’t know them well, but I’d met them at the graduation party they’d thrown for Phoenix when he officially became an MD.
The two had beamed like twin small suns.
“Yeah?” He rubbed his face with his hands. “Grace was right, then. Accident.”
“But I rolled up and put that rug away, Aaron.”
Forehead furrowed, he said, “One of us must’ve decided to put it back out. I don’t want to ask who—they’ll feel bad enough when they realize what happened.”
Unlike Aaron, I wasn’t so certain it had been a stupid mistake. But what evidence did I have of anything else? “I saw tampons scattered in their bathroom.” Private information but information that needed to be known so no one would even think that Vansi’d had anything to do with Nix ending up at the bottom of the stairs.
“That’s good.” Dull voice, but tears silent and heartbreaking rolled down his cheeks. “I don’t think his parents could take it if Vansi was involved. They adore her, you know. His mother’s flat-out said that she doesn’t think Phoenix would be on the road to being a surgeon if he didn’t have a dedicated and supportive wife.”
“You know them well.”
A shrug. “Nix and I, we’ve been buds for a long time.” He looked around. “Don’t tell Vansi, okay? Don’t tell anyone. But I can’t keep it inside anymore, not now that he’s . . .”
33
My heart thundered. “What is it?” I was ready to hear about the affair Vansi had feared, take that knowledge to my grave.
“He was having second thoughts about being a surgeon.” Aaron pressed his lips together, shook his head. “All those years, all that backbreaking work, and he wanted to walk away from not just surgery, but medicine altogether. But he didn’t know how to tell Vansi or his parents. They’re so proud of him.”
Of all the things he could’ve said, that was the one I’d have least expected. “Wow.”
“Yeah, shocked me, too,” Aaron said. “I only know because we went to another friend’s stag night. Phoenix actually got drunk, if you can believe it, and spilled—the next morning, he asked me to never mention it to anyone. I haven’t even told Grace.”