“See, that didn’t take long at all.” My mother handed me my new iPhone. “I hope you have already told Edgar thank you for buying it.”
“Uh…” I looked up from my phone. “Thank you, Edgar.”
I guess it won’t hurt to be polite—it is a huge upgrade over the one I’ve been carrying around for the last several years.
“No need to thank me.” He shook his head back and forth. “We’re family now.”
“Now that you have your phone let me show you where your room is.” My mother motioned to me.
“Okay.” I nodded.
“Would you mind pouring me a glass of wine?” My mother looked towards Edgar. “This should only take a minute.”
“Of course, my dear.” Edgar nodded and smiled. “Unfortunately, the bottle I told you that I was saving for a special occasion seems to have disappeared, but I’ve got a few others that are just as good.”
I might have had something to do with that…
“Anything is fine.” My mother’s smile got a little wider.
My mother walked towards the door, and Edgar leveled his gaze on me. The smile disappeared from his face. For a split second, I wondered if he could read my mind—if he somehow knew I was partially responsible for the missing bottle of wine. It was obviously impossible, but it left me with an uneasy feeling as I followed my mother up the stairs. We walked past Damien’s old room and finally came to a stop at the end of the hallway. She pushed the door open and motioned for me to enter.
“You have your own bathroom and plenty of closet space.” She followed me into the room.
“Plenty?” I raised an eyebrow as I looked over at the closet. “Everything I own would fit in that closet…”
“We’ll go shopping for some new things in a few days.” My mother nodded. “Edgar’s company has several events that we will be required to attend, so we both need to expand our wardrobe a little bit.”
I’m sure you’re not going to miss an opportunity to spend his money.
I walked around the room and checked everything out, mainly because I was trying to be nice and make my mother believe I was somewhat happy to be there. I was going to have to keep my teeth on my tongue if I was going to stay in her good graces long enough to expose her new husband’s lies. The room was nice. Having my own bathroom was even nicer. I reminded myself that it was temporary. I had no intention of staying at Sinn Manor a single day longer than what was required to show my mother what kind of man Edgar Sinn really was.
“It’s a nice room, Mom. I’ll be sure to thank Edgar for providing me with such nice accommodations.” I turned towards my mother and forced a smile.
“I’m glad you like it.” She nodded. “I’ll let you get settled in. We’ll be downstairs if you need anything.”
“When are we going home?” I tilted my head inquisitively.
“The movers will bring everything tomorrow.” She shrugged. “As far as I’m concerned—we are home.”
“I’d like to pack my own room.” I raised an eyebrow.
“No need.” She shook her head back and forth. “The movers are being paid to handle it.”
“Well I need to get my car—I have work tomorrow.” I pulled out my new phone and slid my finger across the screen, searching for the Uber app that was on my old phone.
“We need to talk about that.” My mother folded her arms across her chest. “There’s no reason for you to have a job right now. You will be starting college soon—you can relax until then.”
“Mom, I told you…” I shook my head in confusion. “I’m already taking classes online.”
“I mean real college, Leigh.” She scoffed. “You can drop those other classes.”
“The online classes are through Carson Cove University! I can’t just drop the ones I’m taking and show up on campus next semester—my GPA will be ruined!” I exhaled sharply. “I’ll just get an Uber. Go enjoy the rest of your evening with your new husband.”
Trying to have a reasonable conversation with my mother really was like talking to a brick wall. It was not going to be easy to convince her that she was married to the devil himself, even if the evidence was flashing in front of her like a neon sign. Her view of the world was just horribly skewed in the wrong direction. Her hopes and dreams were so deeply rooted that they blinded her to everything else except the upward trajectory that realizing them was supposed to bring. That was a problem for me to tackle later—if I was going to have to move out of my house, I did want to make sure a few things made it to Sinn Manor. I couldn’t miss another day of work, so I was going to be up all night—there was just no way around it.
I thought the crazy guests I took care of at Carson City Inn were unreasonable—they have nothing on my mother.
I spent all night packing my stuff. I was dead on my feet the next day at the Pembroke Hotel. By the time I got off work, I was so tired that I drove halfway to my house before I realized that my stuff wasn’t there anymore—or was it? I really didn’t know exactly what my mother had moved out of our old house. I decided to push forward and found the place mostly gutted except for some furniture and most of the appl