“Her name’s Arielle. Notwitnessand notsuspect,” Connor growled. He had moved forward and put his hand on my shoulder. I didn’t feel comforted by his touch. I shied away, burrowing further into Colton.
“That may be, Mr Dawson, but she has blood all over her and she’s the best person to tell us what’s what. We need to know if it’s her blood too. Looks like a war zone in here and I need answers before anyone moves. God knows you’ve all contaminated enough of my crime scene already.” He turned and crouched down beside me. “Now Elle, is it?” A nod from Cole must have confirmed this – I know I hadn’t moved. “I’m Detective Richards. I understand you’ve been through a lot tonight, but I’m hoping you can you talk me through what happened here. Can you stand? We can move to the dining room if you like – I noticed the floors tiled in there so there’s no carpet to mess up.” I wasn’t sure if that was supposed to appease me or not.
I nodded. I needed away from her. From this room and all these eyes. I stood and gasped as pain shot through my feet. Colton scooped me back into his arms before anyone moved. My dad looked at the soles of my feet.
“They’re all cut up,” he said, wincing.
I didn’t remember taking my boots off when I had gone to my room, but I must have, since I had done a fair job of shredding my feet on the debris that was scattered across the kitchen floor.
Cole carried me to the dining room. I caught Connor’s frown and saw Matt hold him back when he went to take a step forward.
The officers followed us. I started to panic. “Um, just you and my dad, please?” I asked. The detective frowned, paused and nodded. He motioned to one other officer.
“I’ll just need someone else in the room to record your statement, Elle. Just in case we need it later. Ok?” I was pretty out of it, but I think even I knew I didn’t have a choice.
Colton sat me on a dining room chair before pulling a second chair out for himself and sitting beside me. My dad and the two officers looked at him. He stared straight back. I realised what was happening and I clutched for his hand. “Can he stay?”
I thought the officer would argue. I tensed, but I must have looked so pathetic because his eyes softened and he nodded. I let out a relieved sigh.
“Ok, Elle, can you tell me what happened?” Detective Richards asked.
I did. I left nothing out.
I heard my dad sob when I related the words, she had said to me about my Aunt. I heard Colton curse when I told them she knocked me over with the bottle. There was blood on my head where she’d split it open. The other officer was sent to get a paramedic to assess if I needed stitches. I did – my matted hair was acting as a bandage for the moment, but it wasn’t doing the best job, plus my feet needed to be treated. I was to be taken to the hospital when I finished my story.
I felt Cole stiffen when I told them what she had said about the two of us. I was ashamed, but I forged ahead – it all had to come out. I couldn’t have that poison in my head. I saw the speculative look in the officer’s eyes as he quickly flicked his gaze to my hand clasped tightly in Cole’s. I told them the last words I had said to her.I hope you go soon, so we can finally be free.There wasn’t a sound in the dining room. I told them I went upstairs and that I cried. I told them I must have dozed off but that I came back down. I told them I’d thought she may have choked on hew own vomit. I told them I slipped on her blood. She was already dead. I told them I called Connor. I told them I thought I’d blacked out.
“Why didn’t you call the police, Elle?” Detective Richards asked. I looked at him. I was so exhausted, but it was like I was seeing him for the first time. He was handsome. A bit weathered and maybe a tad rough around the edges, but his eyes were kind. I trusted him.
“Elle, why didn’t you call the police?” he asked again. It was like it was important. I answered honestly.
“I panicked,” I replied simply. “I called Connor.”
Not long after, I was taken to the hospital. I got 5 stitches in my head. My feet were treated, balmed and bandaged. After all my visible injuries had been tended to, the doctor told me that what I’d thought had been sleep had more than likely been a series of rapid blackouts. I was to be kept for observation in case I had a concussion. My dad seemed anxious. I didn’t protest. I didn’t want to return to the house anyway. My dad bought me pyjamas from the hospital gift shop; he wouldn’t leave me to go home. They were too big and had fluffy clouds on them. On another day it would have been funny.
Connor and Matt stayed out in the waiting room. Colton didn’t leave my side for the simple reason that I had a Vulcan death grip on his hand. I wouldn’t let go.
The police came to tell my dad that I hadn’t killed my mother; they were ruling it as an accidental death. She had apparently taken one of the broken glasses and slit her left wrist with it. Not both. They thought perhaps she was trying to scare me and had cut too deep. They suspected that she hadn’t thought I would pass out from the blow to the head.
She hadn’t thought.
Selfish bitch to the end.
We buried my mother on a Wednesday. I had been all for cremation. I figured she was burning in hell anyway. My dad didn’t like it when I said things like that and would look at me in disappointment. We were in the Dawson’s mansion. I had refused to go home. Jake Dawson had actually offered his home for my recuperation. It was almost as if he had sympathy for my dad. His wife – Connor and Colton’s mother – had passed away from cancer when the boys were little and it seems he could relate to suddenly losing your spouse.
I snorted as he stood there in his perfect suit in my hospital room. His show of grief and sympathy felt too over-the-top. Fake. He ignored me. My dad apologised for my manners. I’d lost a parent, after all, even if she’d never actually been one. Dawson Senior’s heart hadn’t melted any towards me. He only seemed concerned for my dad. I didn’t really care what he thought of me – maybe that’s why he disliked me so much.
My dad was worried about money costs, I knew it and he knew I knew it, even if he wasn’t talking about it. I knew the fact that he would be saving money by not going to a hotel – which is where I was insisting we go – was swaying him. He was worried about the situation with Connor though, despite both mine and Colton’s assurances that Connor would behave. My dad had looked at Cole with new worry in his eyes, no doubt remembering my mother’s words to me. Jake Dawson had failed to smother a snort as he glared at me. My dad relaxed slightly when Cole glared at his father and assured my dad thatallDawson men would stay out of our way.
Now we were in the mansion. I took out my frustration by giving my dad the cold shoulder. Even the wake was to be held there. It was all very surreal. My grandparents had flown in from Scotland, destroyed at losing their only remaining child. Jake Dawson had told them they could stay at the mansion as well and I almost wished they hadn’t. However, as it turned out, everyone was in love with my grandparents and their Scottish accents. Matt was staying there too, as much for me as to help Colton, who was doing his best to keep me from saying something I might regret – about my mother, or Connor, or any of it. Matt loved my grandparents and I think the distraction of entertaining my friends helpedthemcope with the reality of needing to bury another daughter.
No one would ever tell them what a hateful woman my mother had been. They said she’d struggled with depression from a young age, ever since losing her beloved sister. I’d choked on a laugh. It was suggested that I go lie down. I heard them say I was still in shock – it had been so hard for me to find my poor dead mother; I’d hurt myself when I fell and split my head open on the kitchen floor trying to help her. I was still recovering.Yeah, I’m sorry my head knocked itself out on your bottle, you bitch, I had thought as I walked away.
The details of her death were kept to a minimum. Tragic accident. Poor woman. So sad. The rumour mill had started when it was discovered that both Colton and Connor had gone to the police station to give statements. With Connor’s erratic behaviour, people were putting 2 and 2 together and realising that things didn’t quite add up. Their father had tried to put a stop to any more of their involvement, which is when the rumours had really started multiplying. I heard the same one several times, Connor had gotten violent with me and in the aftermath of the fight, my mum was a tragic accident. She had fallen on all the stuff he had thrown and was a poor innocent victim of his rage.
They were going to have start restraining me or else I was going to start punching people.
I don’t know when I realised both Matt and Colton knew this. It could have been how I was never allowed to be alone with anyone – one of the two of them was always present. Or the whisper of “Ari” that meant I was close to destroying the facade. Twice, Cole had just removed me from the room with no explanation at all, a firm grip on my elbow, a muttered apology and I was out of the room.