“I said I don’t want him!” She jumps up, pure rage emanating from her small body. “I want you to stay, Dexter.”
“I can’t stay,” I try to explain. “I have to give a statement at the station, baby. There’s no way around it. I’m sorry, but I’ll be back tonight, and we can watch a move or something. I’ll bring you your favorite cupcakes from that bakery in town, how about that?”
“I don’t want fucking cupcakes!”
She looks so full of anger, like she’s about to fucking explode. I get up, approaching her to calm her down, but she picks up a lamp from the nightstand table and throws it in my direction.
The lamp narrowly misses my head, shattering against the wall while Lily Anna screams in frustration.
“Are you fucking crazy?” I snarl. “You could have hurt me!”
“Good!” she cries out. “I should have! You’re leaving me! You weren’t supposed to leave me!”
“Lily Anna, I have to – to protect you,” I remind her, attempting to grab her, but she slips out of my reach. “Please, just… talk to Anders. I’ll be back soon.”
I walk backwards out of the room while her screams continue. Anders is already waiting outside the room, his face creased with worry. I don’t need to say a word – I’m pretty sure he saw what she did with that lamp.
He walks into the room, talking to her in soft, calming tones, but it’s of no use. She’s losing it, screaming and tearing at her own hair and I haven’t even left the Manor yet. But I know I have to. It’ll look suspicious as hell if I don’t show up at the station, and I can’t let people get suspicious about my absence.
Regretting everything, I turn on my heel and leave. The sound of her screams follows me out of the room.
* * *
“What happened?”
Anders presses the ice pack against his swollen eye.
“She attacked me. I’ve never seen her like that, Master Booth. She was out of control, like a wild animal.”
I peek around the open door at her sleeping form in the custom-made bed I had carved out for her. She looks so peaceful now that we’ve forced her to drink some tea with a sleeping pill mixed in. I can barely believe this is the same person – the girl I love, the girl who fucking lost it when I announced I had to leave for a few hours.
“Did you get to the bottom of it? Find out what set her off?” I inquire, but Anders shakes his head.
“She was… she wanted to hurt me, I think,” he blurts out, and I narrow my eyes at him. “To teach you a lesson. She went crazy.”
“I’m sure she’s just nervous about this.”
“I don’t know,” Anders mutters, shaking his head with worry.
“You can’t tell her about this yet,” I mutter. “But I found out something that could potentially be a problem.”
“What is it?”
“Emilian Oakes has sent Pandora to a boarding school,” I manage to get out, swallowing thickly. “He thinks she’s not prepared for Eden Falls yet. She was sent to St Cecile’s three years ago, and has a year left there.”
“But that means…”
“I know what it means,” I snap. “But you can’t tell her yet. Not when she freaked out this much about a mere couple of hours away from me.”
“She won’t take this well,” Anders warns me.
“I know,” I get out through gritted teeth. “Just… let me figure it out.”
He gives me a curt nod, and I walk into Lily Anna’s bedroom, closing the door gently behind me. I sit next to her on the bed, my fingers wandering over her skin.
I make a mental promise to myself to take care of her no matter what. She’s the love of my life, and despite today’s little outburst, there’s nothing she could do to make me stop loving her.
At least I think there isn’t.