Love, Helena

Chapter 25

Walking through the doors, Amber could tell the house had been empty for a few hours now. Something about the darkness seemed very fitting with her own mood. When nobody was around, she found it easier to feel all the things without the effort to hide it. Now she felt empty inside and lost.

Amber from a couple years back would have been someplace getting wasted, never short of entertainment, careless of whatever was going on in her life... That's what people assumed- what she wanted them to assume, but she had cared. She always did.
She was aware when her dad was out with another woman cheating. She was aware when her mom spent sleepless nights tending to Ophelia alone, aware of when she locked herself away from them and cried in silence. She knew when Ales was keeping Len and their younger sister distracted from their parents' arguments sounding from the study. She cared, but didn't know how else to cope. She grew distant, reckless, dangerous. She had a knack for doing unsafe, unhealthy things... including people. She swore she'd be stronger than to let a man break her. She swore she'd toy with their hearts and break them before they could catch on. And then she met Terrance.

Climbing up the stairs in silence, she felt the drink settle in her empty stomach. She should have ate something, but she didn't. Too occupied with her thoughts and emotions, Amber almost missed the top balcony door open a few inches. She stopped in her track and looked at the strip of light crawling from outside. Around her everything was still and dim, but now it seemed eerie and unnatural.
Jess's grandparents were excellent housekeepers. They would have never left the door open, especially with no one around. And weren't they supposed to have retired to their house by now? It was close to midnight.

Amber walked towards the door, looking around. There was dust on the floor. Another unusual occurrence. She felt fear start to trickle slowly into her veins as she kept gazing back and forth, just in case somebody had broken in. She inched alongside the wall just to notice that her mother's room, hers and Ophelia's rooms all have wide open doors.

Amber immediately pulled her phone close, finger on the emergency contact as she slowly peaked inside the rooms. They were in total disarray. Completely flipped upside down. Her heart began to race and she ran back towards the balcony. More mud outside let her know that whoever made it in here had stepped out again, in a hurry. The tracks were messy and the person was sloppy. If they were trying to steal or do more damage then they were doing a shit job of it.

She started calling Xavier to let him know but his phone was busy. After awhile she could not reach neither her mom, nor Alessandro. She shifted on her feet as she jogged towards the security guards.

"Hey! I think someone had broken in. Haven't you guys seen anyone? Weren't they picked up by the security cameras?" She queried as the two guys looked at each other with big eyes and shook their heads.

"N-no. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary." One of them spoke. "We had the usual amount of passers-by, but none of them had tried anything funny."

"A break in, you said?" The second guy gulped down, turning quickly to the surveillance system screens. "We haven't picked up anything."

Amber cursed quietly and looked around. She was pretty spooked now and did not want to go back inside alone. She told the guys to either double check the entire property or call the police. She was definitely glad Ophelia wasn't in the house.

"God, Ophelia!" She gasped. They let Ophelia stay with Jessica's grandparents for the night since they could not take her to an event spanning the entire night. Amber's gut twisted as she ran down the pathway that led to Jess's grandparents' cottage. One of the security guys ran after her, and she could distantly hear the other yelling instructions through his phone.