Midnight Silpper

Chapter 8

Adrienne

Dad died a few weeks later.

Car accident.

The sense of loss and pain was immense, along with the loneliness that seemed to stem from every direction. When the police had showed up to inform Robin, she had all but collapsed and broken down in the foyer. Elaina looked on in shock, hearing the commotion, as she popped out of her room, while Violet seemed confused.

I thought it was just a dream.

He couldn't be gone, could he?

Regret, confusion, and anger followed in the days. My heart bled so badly, my chest hurt.

I didn't even think I cried.

I couldn't remember, actually. I was in such a daze. Riley had come over to comfort me, telling Elaina to fuck off, when she tried to kick her out. Riley held me, wordlessly. She knew no words would penetrate through the fog of my mind, as a much sickening thought settled. Dad was gone. Robin would no longer feel the need to hold back.

It had been dark and raining heavily, the roads slippery. In an effort to stabilize the car under the wet conditions, dad had lost control of the car and it veered off the side of the road, before it fell down a hill. He was killed almost immediately.

Robin pretended to be the grieving widow. I say pretending because all of her grieving seemed more performative than anything else. She received condolences from everyone around her and somehow she was basking in the glory of it all. It was a good performance, if not for the abrupt change of demeanor afterwards, milking the attention for what it was worth. When my gaze landed on hers, catching her in an off-guarded moment, her gaze would grow cold, almost triumphant, and pleased.

She made me sick.

The administration at the school gave me family leave, but in the long run it was better I was at school, keeping busy. Like the last time mom got sick, I threw myself once more into my studies and basketball. I knew I garnered a few pitying glances, but I assure them I was fine, or as well as I could reasonably be under the circumstances.

It was obvious that they didn't believe my behavior to be in the slightest bit normal and tried to get me to go home and grieve. I told them I was fine and I grieved enough, but they remained unconvinced.

I also took every opportunity to avoid my stepmother. If I was at school, it was just more time away from the horrors she inflicted for disobeying her.

Zayne had comforted me by providing solid company, becoming in a way a silent strength. He even came to the funereal, standing like a solid fixture among the crowd. There were a few that recognized him because of course, he had grown into a household name in the town. While Zayne comforted me, Elaina used every opportunity to get close to him, throwing herself at him with every underhanded innuendo.

I was now truly alone in this world with no one to rely on and the stark, painful loneliness was never more amplified than when I slept at night, left to the mercy of my dark, relentless thoughts. It was the kind that sunk into the deepest depths of your soul, making it virtually impossible to extricate them from your very existence. Intellectually, I knew I had Riley and Zayne in my corner, but we were just teenagers. They weren't capable of protecting me from the true horrid of the world if they had shit of their own to deal with.

I had no means of financial income and I had no idea how I would survive my stepmother and her two daughters. With dad around, he acted, at the very least, like buffer, mitigating my stepmother's intentional cruelty. She couldn't do much when she knew it would upset Robert and create irreparable harm in their relationship, derailing whatever end goal she was trying to reach. Although, I was fairly certain, by now, she was only after his money.