I touch my watch and shake my head, which fills with a thousand scenarios.

Layla is right about the part where Jonathan is reacting. He didn’t like that I somehow coerced him to share the same bed with me, and his knee-jerk reaction was to punish and slam me back in the place he thinks I belong to. I could either back down or push further — which will cost me his wrath.

Unlucky for him, I don’t lie down and take people’s anger. Especially the unwarranted kind.

My phone vibrates. Unknown Number.

Is this perhaps Ethan? I need to apologise about not being able to take him up on his offer. Though it’d be a nice ‘fuck you’ to Jonathan if I did.

“Aurora Harper speaking.”

“Miss Harper. This is Stephan Wayne.”

My muscles tighten and my hand shakes, causing droplets of my iced coffee to spill on the sofa.

Air comes in and out of my lungs, but it’s like I don’t breathe. Or, rather, I can’t.

Will I always react this way whenever Dad’s presence is brought up?

It’s been eleven years, damn it. Eleven fucking years, so how come it always feels as if it happened only yesterday?

Why do I feel trapped in that forest, pedalling down a dirt path but finding no way out?

“I told you not to contact me anymore.” I’m about to end the call.

“Miss, please. There’s crucial information that I think you should be aware of.”

My knuckles tighten around the phone. “What?”

“Are you certain about not being able to participate in the parole hearing? It will be in a few weeks.”

“No. If you have nothing else to say —”

“Very well. I understand your choice, Miss Harper. I would like to relay a message from my client. Mr Griffin says that if you don’t help him out this time, it’ll be like traps and hunting all over again. That will be all. Have a nice day.”

My phone clatters from my hand and hits the carpet at my feet.

It’ll be like traps and hunting all over again.

A long time ago, when Dad and I went hunting, he used to set traps for the small animals. I asked him why he did so, considering they’re put in so much pain for a long time.

Then Dad made me watch him skin a live rabbit and he told me that’s what so much pain could actually feel like.

After that, I never questioned Dad about anything he did.

After that, I kind of knew in the deepest recesses of my brain that my father wasn’t normal.

His message is clear. If I don’t bend to his will, he’ll do something worse to make me stop questioning him.

Not that he can do anything from prison.

Right?

That night, I go home late.

It’s not actually on purpose since we had a meeting with the factory manager about the production deadline for the newest launch.

If we have a good one, maybe I can buy Jonathan out. Or, at least, the majority of his stocks. I doubt he’d agree considering H&H is merely a drop in the sea compared to his other companies. However, I won’t give up on that option.

He called me twice, but I sent him straight to the generic message of ‘call me later. I’m in a meeting.’

By the time I get home, the house is quiet. I cross paths with Margot and she merely nods, then continues on her way.

“Margot,” I call after her.

She stops and spins around, her expression blank. “May I help you, Miss?”

“Is Jonathan in the dining room?”

“He retreated to his office. Dinner was served an hour ago.” She pauses. “I can bring supper to your room, if you like.”

“I already ate. There’s no need.” I sigh. “Am I only imagining it or do you actually hate me, Margot?”

“I do not hate you, Miss.” I expect her to turn around and leave, but she adds, “Might I speak freely?”

“Of course.”

“You look so much like Alicia, and it feels like having her ghost in the house. But since you don’t roam the halls in the middle of the night like she used to, it’s a bit confusing, I must admit.”

“A-Alicia used to roam the halls in the middle of the night?”

“Yes, she had severe insomnia and it drove her insane with each passing day.” Nostalgia covers her features. “I had to protect Levi and Aiden so they didn’t see her in that state.”

“What state?”

“The talking to herself state. The scribbling on books and every surface state. The crying without a reason state. You name it.”

No.

That…that doesn’t seem like the Alicia I knew. It sounds like a completely different person altogether. Sure, she suffered from depression, but she had it under control. Margot must be confused, because my sister never talked to herself or scribbled on books or —

The books in her room. She did have those red circles.

“I’m sorry if I overstepped any boundaries,” Margot says. “I know she was your sister.”

“Did Aiden know about the state she was in?”

“He probably did, but he was too young and has chosen to remember the good parts.”

“How about…Jonathan?”

“Of course he did. Who do you think protected the children from her?”

I still don’t think my sister was that bad, but I say, “Thank you, Margot.”

She smiles a little, and I feel like maybe I managed to break the ice between us.

As soon as she disappears down the hall, I quicken my pace to the third floor and go straight to Alicia’s room.

I don’t care how disturbing those books are. If they hold any evidence about why my sister kept this facet of her life hidden from me, I need to know what it is.

It’s like she lived a double life. One was the soft, sweet Alicia who came to find me and buy me things. And then there was the mentally unwell Alicia whom Margot hated so much, that she ended up automatically hating me just because we look the same.

My hand turns clammy as I sit cross-legged on the floor, my back to the bed, and read from the book.

Six Minutes.

It takes me a while to get past the first chapter, even though it isn’t long. Every paragraph, I have to pause, take a deep breath, and stop myself from getting flashbacks of the victims’ faces or the members of the public that came to find me, before I continue reading.