Never Tell Secrets (18+)

Ch 3 - In My Dreams

ATTENTION RADISH READERS! Please don't leave any spoilers in here or you'll be getting a spanking from Alfie. Or Elliot. Or Keira. Whoever you'd prefer. 😘

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As soon as we passed the sign for my home town, I knew where we were going, and when he stopped in front of the imposing iron gates of Harrington House I knew I'd been right.

I couldn't fight the onslaught of memories this place held. We'd met here, we'd fought here, we'd fucked here ... I'd left him here.

It had been over two years since I'd been here and I knew it wouldn't look anything like it had. The work would have been completed by now, the house fully restored and full of guests. Our Evergarden, the one I'd designed for him, would have bloomed over the spring and would now be slowly sinking into its winter slumber. I'd thought many times about coming to see it, if only for the pride of seeing my own work in a place like this. But I couldn't. I just hadn't had the strength, and now here I was.

The night drew dark around us and I shivered.

"Why are you bringing me here?"

Riley slid off his glasses and cleaned them with the corner of his shirt. "I need you to see." The lights from the dash reflected off his face. I looked out the window, wondering what was taking the automatic gates so long. Something caught my eyes and I peered through the darkness, trying to make it out.

"What's that?" Wrapped around the gates was a thick iron link chain, a big red "Closed" sign securing it. I looked at Riley. What the hell was going on? He got out of the car and I watched as he pulled a key out of his pocket and dismantled the chain. He threw it to the side and unlocked the gates. They let out an eerie creak as he pushed them open, the hinges complaining at being disturbed.

Riley slid back in beside me, and as we started up the path I had to fight the urge to jump out and run away. Whatever he wanted to show me, I didn't want to see it. I knew that without question. 

We got closer and closer and my confusion grew. I'd seen Riley's designs for this place and the acreage leading up to the House should have been finished by now. But there were no garden beds, no topiaries. The trees lining the path edge were overgrown.

When I'd first come here, the first thing I'd seen had been two men installing a great emperor fountain, but as we passed it, instead of water shooting out in a great spray, I saw wires running out of its base like unending snakes. Its centerpiece remained unattached and sat off to the side, gathering moss.

We drove for a minute more and I knew before it came into view what I would see. Harrington House, which should be a beautiful landmark, packed with guests, instead stood still and silent, looking almost exactly as I had left it. The scaffolding was still in place, earth was still compacted and broken. 

"Riley...what happened?"

"I don't know exactly. The Sunday morning you and Alfie were supposed to leave for Milan, Angie called me, sickeningly gleeful. Alfie had ordered all work to be ceased on Harrington. No one was to set foot on the property. Even the workmen were banned from returning to collect their tools." I followed his gaze to a dormant cement mixer. "Alfie just had them compensated. I tried to call him but he wouldn't discuss it. I went to his hotel room but he was on his way to Milan already. Without you. So, I put two and two together." 

He sat quietly beside me for a moment, staring at the ghostly structure. I risked a glance at him and wished I hadn't. His face was stricken with pain and worry.