Diamond
Since the day I moved into this house, I’ve heard Lexie cry three times. The first was when she cried at Finn’s bedroom door, then mine at night to be let in.
The second was when she parked herself in front of Nora Richards’s office for hours, and the third…
The third is now.
Drowsiness weighing me down, I groan and pat the mattress beneath me in search of Lexie.
She’s not here.
Weird?
She always sleeps in my bed.
My eyes are screwed shut, and it takes superhuman strength for me to pry my lids apart. The room is dark, and I check my phone to see it’s 3:00 a.m. The house is quiet with the exception of Lexie wailing in the distance.
Rubbing my eyes, I sit up in bed and listen.
I’ve never heard Lexie cry like this.
There’s despair, distress, in the way she howls, and I know something is wrong when I spot the small gap in my bedroom door. She snuck out on her own.
But why?
Worried, I drag my ass out of bed, slide my feet into my slippers, and venture into the hallway. Am I supposed to believe that no one else heard that?
Theo, I can believe.
He sleeps in one of the first-floor guest bedrooms, far enough not to be woken up, but Finn should be up looking for her. Where the hell is he?
My sight still blurry, I follow the noise. I sigh in relief when I turn the corner and spot Lexie by the double wooden doors at the end of the hallway.
I know where these doors lead, and I can’t make sense of her crying in front of an empty library.
“Lexie, what’s wrong?” I say softly and approach her.
She runs to me the moment she sees me. I pet the top of her head, which she barely lets me do, and her cries grow louder as she leads me back to the door and barks again.
She’s trying to tell me something.
The question is what?
“It’s okay, baby. You’re okay,” I tell her, hoping it isn’t a lie, and reach for the doorknob.
I think I’m going to have a heart attack when I open the door…
My first instinct is to scream when I see him, but a voice in my head instructs me not to make a sound. He’s standing in the opened window with a booze bottle in his hand, looking down at the void below him in utter silence.
We’re on the highest floor.
What if he falls?
Or worse, what if he jumps?
Lexie runs to her owner to check on him. How she knew he was in trouble, I’ll never understand. He doesn’t spare Lexie a glance, ignoring her barking as he stares blankly into the night.
Dia, say something!