Page 40 of Paper Ghosts

Tasha took the mirror from her and set it by the front door so Bailey could do something with it when she got home. “Hurry, before anyone sees us.”

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

It took nearly forty minutes for Bailey to find her keys. All she wanted now was to get to the safety of the Wester House and pretend this night never happened. Clutch didn’t attack her. She didn’t hit him with her car. Makeup to cover her bruises and a story about her car getting sideswiped in the parking lot, and everything would be okay. No one but Tasha would ever know, and she was leaving for college. Bailey wouldn’t have to see any of her classmates again. She was even missing her ceremony to go on a cruise her dad was giving her as a graduation gift. So she could recover while she was away. And when she came back, she would happily become Mim. This would be her life now, because she had her life.

There were some things worse than loneliness.

She finally reached the house and parked, then walked heavily up the steps. Her entire body hurt. She was nearly to the door when she caught a glimmer of something, and turned.

It was such a surreal moment, staring at Clutch Vallow.

He was standing at the corner of the house, soaking wet and hazy in the glow of the streetlights. He looked like a glimmering projection from someplace far away. At first, she was relieved because he was alive. No damage control needed. But then she began to wonder what he was doing here. And why was he just standing there, watching her?

He knew it was her.

And he wasn’t finished burning everything down around him before he left.

She ran the rest of the way up the steps. The front door was already unlocked, even cracked open a bit, so she didn’t have to use her key. She didn’t stop to think why Mim had left it that way, she simply burst inside and slammed it shut behind her.

The energy of the house was all around her, worried. She heard the click of a lock, as if the door had locked on its own.

A voice came from down the dark hallway. “I need a word with you.”

Bailey watched Mim emerge like a specter in a white nightgown and robe. She wasn’t used to seeing her without makeup. It made her face look pinched, almost as if she was in pain. Her hair wasn’t even brushed. “I’m sorry, Mim,” she said, heading to the staircase while angling her face away from her. “I didn’t mean to wake you. Good night.” She needed time to figure this out. It wasn’t as simple as not saying anything anymore. She was going to have to do something about him. She had to get the upper hand somehow. But how? What would Mim do?

Mim said, “I already know what Clutch Vallow did to you, so there’s no need to hide from me. I also know you hit him on the road to the Keller property. As I said, I need a word with you.”

“You talked to him?” The first card in the house of cards fell.

“Yes.”

“I saw him outside,” Bailey said blankly.

“I know you did.” Mim walked back down the hallway. “Come with me.”

She tried to smooth back her hair and straighten her clothes as she followed Mim into the sunroom, which was lit dimly by a single lamp. Mim closed the door behind her, and Bailey noticed she was cradling her left arm. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine. Sit down.”

Bailey took her familiar seat in one of the magpie chairs and Mim lowered herself slowly onto the settee. She was quiet for a while, her eyes closed.

The broken side-view mirror from Bailey’s car was sitting on the coffee table between them, and Bailey couldn’t stop staring at it. Clutch had obviously brought it here to Mim, and there was only one reason why he would do it. He wasn’t going to leave Hen Town now that he’d found an unending source of blackmail income.

Another card fell.

“Something I loved was taken from me when I was a young woman,” Mim finally said. Bailey looked up at her, but her eyes were still closed, trancelike. “And when that happens, the loss becomes more real to you than when you had it, because it’s all you can think about. I was glad when your father moved out to go to college, glad for him and glad for me, because it had never been just me and my loss together here, the two of us alone. I thought it would be bliss. But by the time your father called, wanting to come home with you, I was more lonely than I ever thought it was possible to feel. It’s not a natural state of being.” Mim finally opened her eyes. “Bailey, the things I’m about to tell you will be hard to hear at first. But please don’t be scared. It will make everything clear, I promise. So many things will start to make sense. You’ll finally understand.” Mim gave a ghost of a smile. “It will actually be a relief to me to talk about it. To finally tell someone about Jack.”

Jack? That had a familiar ring, and she didn’t know why.

The silence that followed revealed a soft, insistent tapping. Mim slowly turned her head toward the sunroom door.

Bailey panicked, thinking it was her dad. He deserved better than to be involved in this. Mim wasn’t good, and neither was Bailey. But he was different. If Mim had contained this, for a while at least, then there was no reason to tell him. She couldn’t bear to lose the love of them both in one fell swoop. “Please, can we keep this from Daddy?” she whispered.

“That’s not your father,” Mim said wearily. The tapping stopped.

Mim looked like she was suddenly disappearing before Bailey’s eyes, collapsing into herself with agony. She covered her face with her hands with a sob. Rigid and controlled Mim was a force to be reckoned with. But this raw, emotional Mim was more frightening than anything that had happened tonight.

“Mim? What’s wrong?” Bailey got up and went to the settee. She sat beside her and put her hand on her knee. “Did he hurt you? Is that what’s wrong with your shoulder? I’ll make this up to you, I swear. I’m sorry, Mim. I’m so sorry.”