Twisted Proposal (36 page)

              “Fine.” Within minutes Kevin was on his phone. Just to be safe, I locked the doors to all the bedrooms and to Stuart's office. 

Two hours later the house was packed with people I didn’t know. They were loud and obnoxious, but Kevin kept feeding me drinks. Somebody had broken into the private bar and was mixing bottles of booze together in a huge punch bowl. At one point, I thought I spotted Jackson, but when I tried to follow him, Kevin told me I was hallucinating and refilled my glass.

“No I don’t want anymore,” I said and put the cup down. The loud music combined with so much alcohol made me feel sick. Ditching Kevin, I retreated to the atrium where I collapsed on a couch. A cool breeze washed over me from the ceiling fans and lulled me to sleep.

I woke the next day to a horrendous mess and silence. Kevin was nowhere to be found. None of the maids had shown up for work. It was like everyone ran out at the last minute. And they had piled their trash in planters, the kitchen sink, behind the couch, everywhere there was a hidden nook to stuff the garbage. It took me the entire day to gather it all up and cart it out to the bins. I was exhausted by the time Jackson waltzed into the house at 5:00 p.m.

“Have fun last night?” he asked as he stretched out on my bed. I was lying next to him, my eyes closed, but something in the tone of his voice put me on edge.

I stared over at him. He seemed different, taller, thinner maybe, or had he been working out? “Like you care.”

“I don’t, but Stuart will. Breaking rules seems to be all you're good at these days.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” My head throbbing, I sat up.

“Just that.”

Frowning, I asked, “What do you want, Jackson? My head hurts and I’m not in the mood to play guessing games.”

“Get dressed,” he said and left my room.

Instead of arguing, I took a quick shower and threw on a dress and met him downstairs in the foyer.

“I changed my mind. I’m going out. Have a good night.” He left me standing there. Something didn’t seem right at all.

Chapter Thirty Six

Back in my room, I plowed through my closet until I found Elizabeth’s and Eve’s things. I knew from Elizabeth’s stories that they threw lavish parties as teenagers at their house and usually wound up ditching them and going out to clubs. Was I anything like my mother or my aunt? It was as if I had tucked them back into the corner of this closet and totally forgotten about them. I spread their stuff out on my bed. There had to be something I was missing. Something important, but after examining everything again and finding nothing, I gave up.

Lexus barged into my room. “You’re in so much trouble.”

              “What now? Can't you see I’m busy?”

              “You had that skanky boy over here, and Dad knows you had a party, too.”

I didn’t even bother looking up. “So, like I care.”

              “You should. He’s ticked.”

              Closing Eve’s journal, I turned toward Lexus. “Is there a reason you’re wasting my time?”

              She smirked at me and then strolled back into her room. Not that I blamed the maids for telling, but at least I cleaned my mess up, which is more than I can say for Lexus or Zach.

Stuart ignored me more than usual at dinner, and Petra kept asking me what I did over the weekend, but I kept it short. Afterward, I wandered into the kitchen where Stuart was drinking a glass of whiskey and glaring at the refrigerator like it had killed his best friend or something.

              “Can I go to a party at Carli’s?” I asked cautiously.

              “I don’t know, Addison, do you think you deserve to go to a party?”

              “I got my SAT scores back, so based on that, yeah.”

              “You disrespected my house, my family, and my rules. No, I don’t think you deserve to go to a party.”

              “Okay. Sheesh. Just asking.”

He started yelling then, so I retreated downstairs. I couldn’t wait to go to college and get out of this house. I needed a break.

              However, instead of playing video games, I decided to hit the treadmill and work out my stress. When I returned to my room forty minutes later, I found Stuart snooping through my keepsakes. “What are you doing?”

              “Now I understand why you’re acting out. You blame me for what happened to your mom.”

                            “Hardly,” I said as I reached for Eve's box.
Talk about invasion of privacy.
“These are my things. You can’t just go through them whenever you feel like it.”

Stuart lurched across the bed, snatched Eve's keepsake box away from me and tossed it into a cardboard box. “This is my house," he said as he threw more of their stuff into the box, "and I have the right to say what I want in it and what I don’t.”

              I scrambled to stop him, but he pushed me away. “Fine. I’ll keep it in the garage. Just give it back.”

              When Stuart finished packing the cardboard box, he shoved past me toward the door. As a parting gesture, he even took the framed pictures I had placed on my desk. “Wait. Where are you going? Those are my mother’s things.” That tiny collection was all I had left of my mother. I ran after him.

              I attacked him in the hall, pulling so hard on his shirt that it ripped. The box flew out of his hands as he batted me away, and I rushed to pick everything up.

              Stuart kicked my hand. "Leave it alone." Then he refilled the box and hurried down the stairs.             

              “Give those back” I yelled, storming after him.

“This junk is clouding your head,” he said.

“No, it’s not.”

He headed out the front door and to the garage. I jumped on his back again, knocking the box out of his hands. Grabbing the box from the floor, I took off running but didn’t get far because he tackled me in the grass. The air whooshed from my lungs. I couldn’t move for a full minute. By then, Stuart had disappeared into the garage.

I hated him with a passion. Inside the garage, I watched in horror as he dumped my mother’s and aunt’s belongings into a tall metal trash can and poured lighter fluid on them, then lit a match.

“No!” I ran toward the flaming trash can, but strong arms held me back and a sweaty hand smothered my hysterical screams. Smoke rose from the trash can and filled the garage quickly. I struggled to free myself from Stuart's firm grip. Mom and Elizabeth needed me. He was killing them, really taking them away. I imagined the pictures curling and turning brown, then black, everything gone. 

              Stuart dragged me out of the garage where I collapsed to the ground, coughing and crying. I tried to crawl toward the trash can, but he held me back.

“She’s gone. Let her go.”

“No, she’s not!” Staggering to my feet, I whirled and punched him in the chest, forcing him to step back.

Stuart hesitated, a bright red flush burning his cheeks, then he smacked my face. As I fell sideways, he pulled me up and tried to hit me again, but I ducked and yanked loose from his grip. When I kicked at him, he caught my foot and pulled me down. My head hit the brick driveway, and everything faded to black.

I woke up in Stuart’s office with a horrible throbbing at the back of my skull. Waves of nausea rolled up my raw throat.
What was going on?
Stuart stepped in front of me and smacked me across the face twice before I could catch my breath. When I looked up he was sitting in a chair across from me.

              “I know you never had any had consequences from your mother for your bad behavior. But you live with me now in my house and with my rules.”

I narrowed my eyes at him, smelling smoke and remembering what he did. “Number one rule: no parties at my house when I’m not here.  Number two; you don’t take anything from anyone else, unless you have their permission, including my alcohol. Petra told me about your little binge. No more. Also, no one is allowed in the house I don’t approve of. Now, do we have an understanding?”

I refused to speak to him and he grabbed my chin softly and made me look at him. .

              “You will learn to obey the rules.”

“I hate you! You’re just as crazy as Jackson.” I growled and he released me.

“No I’m not and you can thank him for your current situation. Now if you manage to keep you nose clean and do whatever Petra or I need you to do without a fight, you can go to this party of Carli’s.”

Like I cared about the party now
. “I want my mother’s and aunt’s things back.” Tears welled up in my eyes.

“I burned them Addison you saw me. They’re ash now.”

The bad dream from the plane ride when I first came out here ransacked my brain. Somehow Elizabeth knew this would happen
. How did she know?

Stuart touched my arm and I lurched away from him.

“Please know that I did this for you. It’s going to help you in moving forward.” He said and left the room.

Instead of rushing to my room I stayed on the couch. Curling up in a ball I cried myself to sleep.

“Hey,” Stuart said softly tapping me on the shoulder. I opened my eyes and realized I was still in his office. It was morning, bright light came through the windows. Getting up, I made it to my room and climbed into the shower. The hot water turned cold and then I felt nothing, which was what I wanted. Back home when things got to be too much I would stand under the shower for hours on end trying to drown out the world. Numb, that’s what I wanted. I dried off and changed into a pair of pajama pants and a long-sleeve shirt. Lexus and Zach were both waiting for me when I walked into my bedroom.

              “He shouldn’t have done that to you. Those were your mother’s things,” Lexus cried and wrapped her arms around me. “Oh my gosh, you’re so cold.” She led me to my couch and put a blanket around my shoulders.

“Dad’s crazy,” Zach leaned up against me. It was weird having them around.
Did they really care?

Finally, we broke apart. Lexus sniffled. “Don’t do anything stupid, okay? We need you.” she said as she and Zach left. I was alone. Instead of crying I went to my computer and opened up a word file and began to write. By the time I went to sleep that night I had written over ten pages about what I knew about my family, vowing to find out more information when I could.

              Most of the following week, I spent in bed. I didn’t bother to get up for meals or to even play video games with Zach. On the day of the party, he convinced me to go with him and Lexus, but wound up falling asleep in the hammock outside.

“Addison, wake up,” whispered Frances.

              “Huh?” I asked, sitting up, slightly confused.

              “You’re late for dinner again,” she informed me. I snapped awake and went inside, walking right past Mr. Van Buren, who was on the phone in the hallway. He stopped talking and watched me intently. I glanced back at him from the stairs and thought about saying something, but changed my mind and went to my room.
He was nothing to me.

After taking a shower, I pulled on the first dress I found in the closet, which happened to be a black mini dress. I didn’t bother fixing my hair. Besides, I was late.

Dinner was being served in the formal dining room. Of course, everyone stared at me as I took my seat.

              “Glad you could finally join us,” Stuart said.

              Mr. Van Buren’s eyes met mine, but I didn’t speak.

“Addison?” Mr. Van Buren asked.

I frowned. He wasn’t going to leave me alone.

“Are you glad school’s out?” he asked.

“I guess,” I replied, studying my spinach and vinaigrette.

              Mr. Van Buren took a sip of wine and nodded. “You should be proud, Stuart. Addison was at the top of her class.”

Stuart glanced at me. “I didn’t know that. Congratulations.”

I ate my salad and stayed out of the conversation. I didn’t care what they thought about my grades, since they didn’t care about me as a person. And Stuart was the worst of them all. After I finished, Frances took my plate and replaced it with vegetable lasagna.             

“How is Jackson doing? We haven’t seen him in a while,” Petra asked Mr. Van Buren with an over-eager smile plastered to her face.
Dinner was lame.

              “He’s doing well, getting ready to start his summer semester at Stanford.”

“What’s his major?” Zach asked.

              “Business for now, then law, like me,” Mr. Van Buren answered, chuckling.

              “Sounds like he’s doing great,” Stuart said. “Addison’s planning on going there for medical school.”

              “They have a good program,” Mr. Van Buren commented. He took another drink of his wine.

“I’ve changed my mind. I’m going to John Hopkins,” I announced. I felt the mood in the room shift abruptly. Stuart squirmed uneasily in his chair, and Van Buren stared at me.

“Interesting choice. We’ll see.” Mr. Van Buren said, breaking the awkward silence.

              “No, we won’t see anything. That’s the school I choose.” I waited for someone to jump in and tell me differently, but Petra changed the subject and asked Mr. Van Buren about his wife.

              After supper, I played a few video games with Zach. He still didn’t understand how I could beat him when I had played so little. I didn’t know either. I guess I was a natural. “I have to get upstairs. Kristen will be here soon,” I said as I turned off my controller.             

Zach made a sour face. “Fine, have fun at your party!”

“Yeah, sure. Lots.” I ruffled his hair. When I walked out of the room, I nearly crashed into Mr. Van Buren. Startled, I backed away and apologized.

“Honest mistake.” He peered past me and gestured to Zach. “Ready for a challenge? Move over.” Mr. Van Buren settled into the couch as Zach handed him the controller. “I think we should start with the racing game.”

In the downstairs bathroom, I splashed cold water on my face to calm my nerves.
What was wrong with me?
No one was supposed to know about my college decision until the end of next year. A soft knock at the door disturbed my solitude. “What?” I jerked it open.

Mr. Van Buren stared at me. “I came to see if you were all right. You’ve been in here a while.”

“Five minutes isn’t cause for alarm.” I pushed past him, purposely brushing up against him. Then I went upstairs and called Kristin, who said she would be at my house in 15 minutes. Ducking into the sun room, I pulled out a bottle from my hidden stash of whiskey from behind one of the potted plants in the corner. Stuart hadn’t found everything. The liquor burned as I took a swig and watched the sunset.

The door opened behind me, and I quickly screwed the cap on. As I turned around, Mr. Van Buren approached me slowly. The calm expression on his face made me jittery.
What was he doing here? Was he spying on me?

              “I didn’t know this room was taken.” I started to walk past him, but he caught my elbow and pulled me back. He removed the bottle of whiskey from my hand.