37
But what puzzled Annabel was why Cordelia had not yet come down the stairs at all this morning.
As she watched the two men rattle off in Chad’s truck, with Paulie promising to be back before noon, Annabel supposed that Cordelia might have gotten up earlier this morning and then gone back to her room. She did that sometimes. And Annabel had slept a little later this morning anyway, given her bad dreams all night long.
Everyone, in fact, was sleeping late this morning. Annabel tiptoed up the stairs and opened the door to her room. Jack was still sound asleep, flat on his back, still dressed in his clothes. Pausing outside the door of their English guests, Annabel could hear snoring from inside. Neville and Priscilla were apparently still sleeping off their drunks as well. They had a plane to catch later this afternoon, and the airport was at least an hour away. If they weren’t awake soon, Annabel would have to wake them.
She headed back down the stairs.
Had something happened between Jack and Priscilla last night?
Settling down at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee, Annabel tried to make sense of what had happened last night. Jack had definitely been flirting with Priscilla. He’d been drinking too much. He hadn’t had so much to drink in a long time, and apparently he’d lost his ability to handle his liquor. But had anything happened other than flirting?
Had Annabel caught them kissing? Fucking?
Why couldn’t she remember?
It was all just an hallucination, she told herself, rubbing her temples with her fingers. And that, in some ways, was even more distressing than the idea of Jack fooling around with another woman.
She’d had hallucinations during the worst of her addiction. At rehab, sometimes they’d been overpowering. Sometimes they had been so strong that Annabel couldn’t distinguish between illusion and reality.
“You’re safe,” Dr. Adler, her favorite therapist, had insisted to her, but Annabel hadn’t bought it.
“I’m not safe!” she had screamed, as visions of demons walked through the walls. “I’m completely unsafe! ”
How terrible those days had been.
Annabel prayed her hallucinations weren’t coming back.
But ever since she’d come to this house, she’d had signs they were returning. She’d seen Tommy Tricky her first day here. And last night, after becoming upset with Jack, she’d thought the whole house was spinning. She’d thought she was a little girl again, put in the closet by Daddy Ron. Tommy Tricky had been in the closet with her. He had come at her. He had tried to eat her!
“Stop,” she told herself.
She stood and looked out the window. Where was Zeke? She was furious with him. How dare he try to bribe the contractors? When Annabel found him, she’d let him have it. And when Jack woke up, she’d tell him exactly what his grandmother had tried to do. They wouldn’t put up with such nonsense anymore. They needed to lay down the law. They were in charge now.
Annabel had to feel that she was in charge. Otherwise, she thought she might crumble into a million pieces and her hallucinations would take over again. Down into a black hole she’d tumble, and she’d never be safe again.