Page 44 of Break Me: Smith and Belle

“Miranda said he took it back to Thornham.”

“That’s impossible. This house was empty—”

“As far as we know.” I no longer could pretend that there was a rational explanation for Thornham and its effect on people.

“Smith, there’s no such thing as ghosts,” she reminded me.

I placed a hand on the steering wheel and recalled Dr. Fellows’s slip about Miranda’s visitor. “We’re not looking for a ghost. We’re looking for her daughter.”

20

Belle

“But it’s not my birthday.” Georgia tied the rubbish bag she was preparing to haul from my bedroom.

Next to me, Edward stared at it suspiciously. “What is that?”

“It’s better if you don’t know, your highness.” Georgia heaved it over her shoulder and turned her attention back to me. “Why the fuck did you tell her that it was my birthday?”

I was on the edge of an hysterical breakdown, and I couldn’t get Georgia to play along. I pressed my fingertips to my temples and rubbed circles. “Because she wanted to go up and clean Nora’s room,” I snapped. “And I couldn’t come up with a reason why that was a bad idea.”

“And you couldn’t just tell her not to?” Georgia asked.

“Have you ever tried to give Mrs. Winters an order?” Edward asked, coming to my defense.

I gave him a grateful smile. “It doesn’t matter. You have to go along with it now.”

Georgia looked as though she seriously doubted she had to do anything I said.

“Please,” I tacked on anxiously.

“It’s done now,” Georgia informed me. “There’s nothing left in Nora’s room, so there’s no reason to pretend it’s my birthday.”

“Cake,” Edward said out of nowhere. “Cake is always a good reason.”

I stamped one foot on the floor until they were both looking at me. “We should just call the police,” I hissed. “I don’t want to hide this.”

“That’s exactly why Smith left your phone with me,” Georgia said, pushing past me to carry the bag—and the last of the evidence—out the front door.

“He what?” I patted the pocket of my jeans and realized for the first time I didn’t have my mobile. “Give it back to me.”

“No way, beautiful,” she said in a saucy voice.

“You seem to think this is funny.” I was on the edge of collapse. I wanted Smith to come home. I needed him to reassure me that everything would be okay. But even I knew that wasn’t true. Unless he found Nora, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.

“I’m just trying to keep you from doing anything stupid,” Georgia whispered. “Like calling the police or telling Mrs. Winters. We don’t know anything yet.”

“That’s just it.” I shook my head, wishing she understood me as well as she understood my husband. “We don’t know that I didn’t do it.”

“You didn’t,” Edward interjected. He’d maintained this stance since we’d watched the footage from the video monitor. In his eyes, I couldn’t have hurt her.

“Are you forgetting what happened on the ice? The sleeping pills—I wasn’t supposed to take any more. But I did, and now Nora is missing.”

“You didn’t have anything to do with that.”

“What if she did?” Georgia asked him bluntly.

“You can’t honestly think—”