Page 148 of Wicked Little Secret
“Professor, don’t… Professor!”
He escorts me back toward the bed, where he connects the other end of the chain to one of the iron bars. The chain’s so short that I can’t even fully stand up from the bed without being pulled back down.
“There. That should be fine.” He leans in and kisses me softly on the lips like he’s a husband bidding his wife goodbye before leaving for work. “I promise I’ll be back soon. And I’ll show you the truth. I’ll prove to you everything I’ve said is true.”
“I believe you!” I cry out. I start tugging on the chain to free myself. “Please, Professor… please just… come back! I BELIEVE YOU!”
My voice goes out from the sheer desperation tearing from my throat.
Professor Adler carefully slides the glass wall back into place and then presses a hand to the transparent surface as if he’s missing me already. As if this situation and why I’m trapped behind here isn’t his own doing.
Dread pits in my stomach watching him go.
The door snaps shut and silence commences around the hidden room. I’m left all alone between thick walls of limestone, stuck inside some kind of glass cage.
“Great…” I mutter under my breath.
Apparently, I’m not as good of an actress as I hoped I was. Professor Adler hadn’t bought my ploy for a second. I’ve managed to fool everyone else in Castlebury, taking on the persona I have and befriending people like Heather Driscoll, but he knows me too well to fall for any pretending.
That’s what happens when you open up too much to a person.
I lay down on the bed with no other option at the moment. I have to trust that Theron will keep his word and he’ll return sometime soon. What could he possibly retrieve that could make me change my mind?
I’m pondering that thought when I nod off.
Sleep comes suddenly, dragging me into a dreamless void where minutes or even hours go by, and I’m none the wiser.
The snick of the door wakes me. I flinch from where I’m lying on the bed, my right wrist tethered closely to the iron frame.
It takes me a few bleary-eyed blinks to realize the person who’s walked through isn’t Theron. I blink several more times, sitting up, disoriented and foggy-brained.
My heart stutters inside my ribcage. I’m so thrown by what I’m seeing, I’m vaguely wondering if I’m still dreaming…
Theron’s ex, Veronica Fairchild, has shown up. The chocolatey-haired brunette smiles at the sight of me. She’s wearing a ruby-red lipstick that clashes horribly with her pale complexion, though something tells me she’s put it on for one person only.
“Miss Oliver,” she says brightly. “I thought I’d find you here.”
I temper my reaction, peering at her with suspicion. “What are you doing?”
“Theron left, didn’t he? I figured we could, I don’t know, have a little chat. Just us girls.” She waltzes over like she’s come across me in the park and not a glass cage. Stopping in front of the transparent wall, her smile widens. “I see he’s still putting people in here.”
“He’s… put people in here before?”
“I’ve known Theron for most of my life. You wouldn’t understand.” She pulls up a chair from the other side of the room and sits down, crossing her legs in poised, ladylike fashion. “Has he told you about how we got engaged?”
“What does that have to do with me? Are you going to open the door?”
“Iproposed,” she simpers. “My father didn’t appreciate that very much, but what else was I supposed to do? I’ve been waiting for him fordecades. I wasn’t going to stand by and let him wallow in some stupid grief over a woman who had been dead for years. I’m a Fairchild, and my biological clock was ticking.”
“You might want to take that up with Theron. He says it’s been over.”
“Professorto you.” A quick glower comes to her face before it passes, and then she lets out another little giggly laugh as if playing off her irritation. “But I suppose that’s just it, isn’t it? You’ve been crossing lines for a while now. The both of you have been very, very inappropriate. I should’ve known he’d leave me for someone like you.”
I arch a brow, still tethered to the bed frame as I sit by and watch her bitterness unfold. “Theron didn’t leave me for you. You were already broken up.”
“We’ve been on and off for years. Ever since our college days. He always comes back. I always find a way to make him. Thenyoucame along. You were an unplanned inconvenience.”
“I’m sure Theron would view that differently too.”