Chapter 18 - The Cover-Up
Martha crumpled to the tiled floor without a sound, blood pooling beneath her silver hair in a dark, spreading stain.
Holland screamed, dropping to his knees beside the cook, shaking her frail shoulder with desperate, frantic hands.
“Martha! Wake up! Please wake up!” Holland sobbed, looking up at Celeste with eyes wide with pure terror.
Celeste grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, hauling him to his feet with unnatural strength and dragging him out of the pantry.
“If you ever want to see your father alive again, you are going to wipe your tears, go to your bedroom, and pretend none of this ever happened,” Celeste hissed, her fingernails digging deep into his arm.
“Do you understand me?”
May you like
Holland nodded mutely, too paralyzed by grief and horror to form a single word.
She pushed him toward the back stairs, locking the pantry door behind them as if nothing more than a minor housekeeping inconvenience had occurred.
