Page 28 of The Silence of Monsters

Winnie was screaming into the phone. She sounded like she was about to hyperventilate. “Take a deep breath, Winnie. I can barely understand you. What do you mean you saw a monster? At school? Is someone giving you a hard time? Are you getting picked on?”

She was such a reactive young woman. When she said ‘monster,’ it could mean a million different things.

“I stayed home from school today. I don’t feel good. Grandma wanted to call the doctor, but it’s just a stomach bug. I told her I would feel better if I got some sleep.” She took a giant, sucking breath and sniffed loudly into my ear. “I slept most of the morning. I think I have a fever. I woke up and was all sweaty and gross.” Her voice was shaky, and I could clearly picture her pale face, even though I couldn’t see her. “There was a monster in my room. Something was standing over me when I woke up.”

Winnie continued to sob as I frowned. “What do you mean, something was in your room? Like one of the staff? You were surprised to see them, so they scared you?” I was having a hard time putting her rushed words in context.

“It wasn’t the staff. It wasn’t Grandma. It was a scary monster. I know what I saw!” She sobbed so loudly I was worried she might pass out.

“Maybe your fever is too high, and it’s making your mind play tricks on you. If you’re sick to your stomach, you probably haven’t eaten enough and are dehydrated. I’ll head back to the Cove as soon as I can to take care of you. Okay?”

“It’s not that. Grandma said the same thing. Only now she says she wants to have me committed. She told me I have tainted blood, and that I was always going to go crazy. Just like my mother. She didn’t believe me.”

“Fuck that.” I couldn’t hold back the harsh words. I leaned against the bathroom counter and tried to get Winnie to calm down. “Let’s just say you really saw a monster. What did it look like? Let’s think about what else it could be. Don’t worry about your grandmother. Your uncle won’t let her do anything to you without his permission.”

Winnie sucked in a breath through her teeth. “It looked like a man. A man with a melted face.”

“Melted?” I couldn’t picture what she was describing.

“I’m being serious. It looked like a normal man, but his face was… melted. I can’t think of how else to explain it.”

“What was this monster doing?” I didn’t want to feed into her overly active imagination, but her breathing evened out and she seemed to calm down the more questions I asked her.

“Nothing. It was just standing in my room. Watching me. I screamed my head off once I realized I wasn’t alone. The monster ran away when it noticed I was awake. Uncle Win’s security guys came running right away, but they said they didn’t see anyone in the hallway. Grandma made them check the security cameras from the other parts of the house that have surveillance. There was nothing. She really thinks there’s something wrong with me. Am I going to end up hurting my family like my mom did?”

Now I wanted to cry. “No. Absolutely not. You have me and your uncle. We won’t let anything happen to you or your loved ones. We both regret that we couldn’t do more to help your parents. We can’t let them down. We’ll always do our best to protect you. Win and I can take care of ourselves.” I added another thing to the list of things I was mad at Win about. Leaving Winnie alone with his mother. She was the least effective caregiver I’d ever come across. “I don’t care what Chester says, I’m getting cameras. If we catch your monster on tape, no one will question either of us anymore.”

“I’m still scared.”

I had no clue what the teenager saw, but her fear was palpable. “I’ll call your uncle’s housekeeper and have her come sit with you. Go sleep in your uncle’s room. I’m heading your way as soon as possible. It’ll take a couple hours because I’m in the city.”

I was going to call Win and tell him to have his security team go over the manor with a fine-toothed comb. I didn’t believe in imaginary monsters; but there was no denying the human variety were all too real. Colette Halliday was a prime example. I had no clue what Winnie saw, but I didn’t doubt there was something lurking in her room while she was asleep. Just like I never questioned that Colette did her damnedest to drive Willow to the point of madness.

Winnie stopped crying. She sounded exhausted when she offhandedly asked, “Can’t you just take the helicopter and come home?”

I blinked at my reflection and tried to put her outlandish question together in a way that made sense. “Helicopter? You want me to fly to the Cove instead of taking the train?” It was a short train ride. Why would anyone need to fly such a short distance?

My niece sounded genuinely puzzled when she responded, “Yeah. Uncle Win has a helicopter he uses for work. Sometimes he has to get to and from the city in a hurry for business. I bet he would lend it to you so you can come home faster.”

I rubbed my forehead and pushed down the instant irritation that arose at her indifference to the obvious excess. “I’m not taking a helicopter home. Or anywhere. You need to stop thinking that the things that apply to your Uncle Win’s life apply to anyone else. He’s always had the opportunity to jump on a helicopter when it’s convenient. That’s not true for most people you’ll come across in your lifetime.” I refused to get used to privileges that would vanish once Win and I were no longer fake married. I looked at my crumpled dress, resigned to putting it back on and making the trip to the Cove looking a mess. I needed to catch Salome before she left, so I didn’t send her running to save me for no reason. Getting to Winnie was my top priority. “Go rest. By the time you wake up, I’ll be home. I’ll make you some soup and crackers. You’ll feel much better after some old-fashioned TLC.” Nothing could replace the classics.

Chicken noodle soup would do more for her in her lifetime than a private helicopter. I sent up a wordless prayer that Winnie would realize the difference before my time playing Win’s wife was up.

Win

“Stop trying to alienate Winnie by threatening to send her away.” I watched my mother from across the antique desk in her expansive library. I felt like I was having a meeting with a business competitor, not sitting down for a heart-to-heart chat with my only remaining parent. “I’m serious about taking her to the city with me if you can’t figure out how to be kind to her. You need to start treating her like she’s your granddaughter, not like she’s a replacement for me once I step down as CEO. If the only thing you can concern yourself with is making sure Winnie is a proper heir to Halliday Inc., I have no problem intervening on her behalf.”

I refused to let Winnie experience the same neglect and harsh training I barely survived. The teen had been ill for several days and my mother couldn’t be bothered to show a hint of concern. She was too intent on pushing the agenda that Channing’s presence was pushing Winnie toward another mental episode.

My mother gave me an icy look. “Sending Winnie away is undoubtedly the right call. Anything that removes her from questionable influences and excessive coddling will be an improvement. I’m trying to save her, not hurt her. I know what’s best, Winchester. You never used to question that.”

I felt my frustration rise to a dangerous level. I was used to her speaking to me as if I were one of her subordinates. I was immune to it. Hearing her speak about Winnie in the same detached and unfeeling way pushed me beyond the rigid control I kept when dealing with her.

“Is it your opinion that it’s best to isolate a girl who lost her parents from her only remaining family? You don’t think it will be detrimental to send a child who is terrified there might be something wrong with her to a place full of individuals who are actually dealing with severe mental illness? Do you honestly believe telling Winnie that she’s crazy, just like her mother, is helping her?” I shook my head. I deeply regretted letting her coerce me to bring Winnie to live at the manor.

I should have been smart enough to see that my mother wasn’t honestly considering suicide. She wanted to use guilt to trap me into staying by her side. She used the fact that I felt immense remorse for not being there when both Archie and my dad died. Even if I was absent because I was running the company just like she wanted. I found it hard to find an excuse for letting my mother bear the brunt of the fall of our family all alone. The woman was a better manipulator than anyone I’d come across.

“She’s claiming to see monsters, Win. That woman’s mother is institutionalized because she has schizophrenia. You must acknowledge that Winnie is hallucinating and getting progressively more unstable. She needs more help than you can provide. Being kind to her isn’t going to fix whatever’s going on in that messed-up mind she inherited from that other family.” My mother sniffed in indignation. “Things have just gotten worse since you dragged that despicable woman back to the Cove. I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s the reason Winnie’s behavior has regressed to what it was like when she was a child. She should toughen up. She’s a Halliday, after all.”

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