Chapter 91: Hunting For Answers

I should’ve shouted my sass, “What?” like usual, but my voice was caught in my throat.

*The fuck is wrong with me?? FUCK! Get your shit together!*

Right as my lips parted to speak, the voice on the other side of the door beat me to it.

“Honey?” came the kind voice of my mother. My shoulders sagged and my head flopped down on my pillow in sweet relief.

*Thank fuck.*

“Yeah, Mom, what’s up?”

“Have you seen your brother? I had a novel I wanted to read with him, but he just poofed.” my mother’s tone had that disappointment in it like a child. She must’ve really been having fun finally having a reading buddy since I always hated books.

I flinched when she called Julian my brother. “Uh, no? Why do you think I’d know where he’s at?”

“Because you two are always together.”

*Why does she sound happy when she says that?!*

“No, Mom, I don’t know where he’s at.” I couldn’t hide the annoyance in my voice, unfortunately, and regretted it. I hope my mom didn’t find it suspicious since we apparently looked happy each time she saw us together.

“Hm… well, ok. Let me know if you see him, alright?”

“Yup,” I grumbled into the pillow. For any other person, I’d be like, ‘Ha, right, do it yourself,’ but… this was Mom. And I didn’t have the heart to say no to her.

“Thanks, honey!” the disappointment in her voice turned into enthusiasm before I heard her footsteps fade.

This isn’t how I wanted to spend my morning but… I looked down at my phone and stared at Liam’s name a few seconds longer before finally texting him back: “ttyl”

I checked in the mirror to make sure I was presentable once again before leaving my room. *Alright. Time to hunt down the man I’ve been trying to avoid. Yaaay… Should I ask Gabriel? Nah, I’m sure Mom already did. I don’t know any of Julian’s friends either. Meanwhile, he knows all of mine… that’s just perfect.* I quickly let out a huff and then stopped when I saw the familiar face of Julian’s twin walk by. She stopped too when she saw me and immediately glared at that blue fire that matched her brothers, but this time it was more intense than usual.

“What do you think you’re looking at, mutt?” she practically spat her venom, reverting to the snake I first met.

I felt a vein in my neck twitch with anger. “A fucking hoe. How’s your toy? She ditch you yet?”

Grace’s hands balled up into tight fists, her shaking knuckles paled from the tension. By the look in her eyes, I can accurately guess that everything went to shit and spectacularly hit the fat. “Mark my words, Arlee, you’ll get what’s coming for you. And your ruffian ass will be powerless against it.” the snake’s venomous words slid from a smile of calculating malice. “Trust me, that time is coming up fast.”

*What the fuck?*

I scoffed and walked past her while roughly bumping my shoulder against hers, almost making Grace lose her footing in her high heels. I heard her amused chuckle as I snapped back at her over my shoulder. “Get your head out of the clouds, skank, I’m not ‘fraid of nothing!” but even as I marched off her words still echoed in my head.

*The fuck was that about? Weirdo just as freaky as her brother… fucking hell.* I brushed off the incident like annoying dust, telling myself that she was still salty over ruining the party she invited me to. I mean, what did she expect? For me to be *a good girl?*

I stopped being a good girl the day I left home and never looked back, the moment I left my mother behind to suffer alone in her depression.

As I burned away my dark thoughts, a reminder clicked, and I turned around to face Grace before she disappeared completely. “Hey! Where the fuck is your stupid brother?”

When she turned to face me, her mocking smile returned. “You mean *our* brother?”

“For fuck’s sake, will you just tell me?!”

“Stop barking.” Grace returned a challenging sass while crossing her arms. “I don’t know. I just saw him drive off, like, an hour ago. I thought he took you somewhere and finally finished you off.”

This time, my eye twitched as I pointed my finger at her. “I’m gonna put rats in your pillowcase tonight, fucker.”

I saw the brief look of being startled on her face before I marched off again. If Julian really left without telling anybody anything, then it’s a waste of my time to go search for him. I don’t know why, but it hurt seeing that he knew all of my hangout areas and all of my friends. Meanwhile, I know nothing about his…

*Why does this even bother me in the first place? It shouldn’t. It doesn’t! I don’t care one bit.*

I’m a liar. I’ll always be a liar. Even to myself. What’s the point of denying anything?

I heard the laughter of my mother and spotted her sitting in the living room with Gabriel, watching something on TV. It must’ve been something comedy-related because they had the biggest smiles and bowls of popcorn. Gabriel’s arm was wrapped around Mom’s shoulder as she leaned into him. A soft smile unknowingly crossed my lips. It made me miss Dad more than anything, but my mom wasn’t sad anymore. Gabriel was genuine. That’s all that mattered in the end… right?

And yet, I still couldn’t let go of my superhero.

I shouldn’t bother them. I went the other way before they could see me and decided to divert my attention elsewhere that’ll keep my mother smiling; the mystery behind Elena’s death. If Julian really did have a hand to play in it, then I needed to know. Depending on what I find out, it’ll be the game changer. All I need to make my final decision.

I’ll take my mother, and we’re leaving here. Gabriel is a good man, but I don’t trust him to be able to protect Mom from somebody he loves just as much. Besides, would he even believe me if I warned him? It’s his son! Either way, my life living under this roof will end here if the worst-case scenario is uncovered.

*But do I really want that…? Do I really want to part ways with Julian? …Fuck. I don’t know. I don’t want to be “romantically involved” anymore. I know that fucking much. But to kick him out of my life for good?* I was aware I had said and am always saying some pretty harsh stuff to him. Always putting up my walls and bearing my fangs. But I can never forget how he was always there when I needed comfort the most. *Every fucking time…* I couldn’t turn my back on that, no matter how much I wanted to.

My trip up and down and all around this stupid mansion was beginning to piss me off as my search for the maids I was trying to hunt down was starting to become a big pain in my ass. About to give up, I finally overhear one of the familiar voices of the women.

*Oh, will you look at that. Gossiping away again. Is that all women fucking do nowadays?*

When I came into the laundry room, all three women jolted the moment they saw my face and a couple let out terrified squeaks.

“Shut up.” my annoyed snap made the maids jump again. “Tell me everything you know about that Elena chick’s death. You called it a murder, right?” my question turned into sarcasm when an infuriating memory burned my gut. “Oh yeah. That’s right, apparently, *I’m* the killer, right? So do you fuckers have any idea on how or why I did it?”

The maids looked at each other nervously. One of them looked too frightened to even speak. *I’m probably just wasting my fucking time if they really think I killed their friend.* One of the maids had enough common sense to realize I’m only human; let alone Isabella’s daughter and Gabriel’s stepdaughter. A demon wasn’t going to crawl out of my mouth and slaughter the lot.

“Elena…” her voice was barely a whisper. I could still see she was still mourning. “The day before she died… she looked nervous about something and wouldn’t come to work. She said she wasn’t feeling good.”

I rubbed my temples as I felt a headache coming on. Of course, she wasn’t feeling good. If I were here, I’d be vomiting out my guts too. “Did she have any enemies? Grudges? Vendettas?”

The hesitant maid shook her head. “Elena? No! Never. She was the sweetest. Everybody loved her.”

*Pfft. Everyone.*

“Even Master Julian was disappointed when he asked if she was coming to work.”

“Wait, what?”