Page 17 of Bitter House

BRIDGET

A faint buzzing sound draws me from sleep, and I roll over, rubbing my eyes and praying it will stop.

It doesn’t.

Or rather, it does, and then it immediately starts up again.

I groan and reach for my phone, blinking sleep from my eyes as I stare at the screen, trying to decipher the words on it.

Ana

My best friend. I’ve been meaning to call her and update her on things, but the days have gotten away from me. I swipe my thumb across the screen and touch the button to put it on speaker, dropping the phone onto my stomach as I roll onto my back.

“Hello?” I rub sleep from my eyes.

“Ah-ha! She lives!” The deep voice she’s using is something between a swamp creature and Darth Vader. Returning to her normal voice, she adds, “And here I was, preparing to send a search party.”

I chuckle. “I know. I’m sorry. I planned to call you, but things have been so weird.”

“Uh-oh. Weird how? Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, it’s fine, I just…” I debate telling her about the letters, but with the sudden strange desire to protect Vera, I change my mind. Thankfully, that isn’t the only weird thing to happen lately. “Actually, since I arrived, I found out I’m not the only one the house was left to.”

“What do you mean?” Her mouth sounds full when she asks, and I can tell she’s eating breakfast—probably a cinnamon roll, which is her current obsession.

“Vera left it to me and Cole.”

“Cole?” There’s a pause, then she gasps. “Wait. Cole your, like, ex-stepbrother?”

“No. Or, well, yes, but we aren’t stepsiblings. He just lived here because his mom worked for Vera and lived at Bitter House, too.”

“I thought you two didn’t get along.”

I sit up in bed, stretching and running a hand through my messy hair. “Bingo. We don’t. Which has made this all a bit more interesting, to say the least.”

She sucks in a breath. “I don’t get it. Your grandmother left her house to both of you? Why would she do that? Do you think she’s just trying to mess with you?”

“I really don’t know. I wouldn’t put anything past Vera, but this feels especially cruel.”

She clicks her tongue, thinking. “So, what? Can you just sell the house? Or buy him out? What’s the plan?”

“I don’t have the money to buy him out, even if I wanted to. The good news is he doesn’t either, so I don’t have to worry about that, but I don’t know if I want to sell. I mean, I have no idea if I’d ever really move back here, but it’s a huge house.” I mimic Vera’s deep, matronly voice. “A manor.” She snorts at my impression. “Seriously, it’s not like I could ever afford anything like this now.”

“You could if you sell,” she points out.

“And split the profits,” I remind her.

“Oh. Right.” She sighs. “Well, what does he think about it? Do you know what he wants to do?”

“We’re kind of dancing around the subject right now, waiting for everything to get settled with the court. We talked about using the house like a vacation spot we could split.”

“I’m assuming you’d want to check in with each other though, so you don’t, like, walk in on him doing it with someone on the kitchen table.” It’s impossible, but I can practically hear her wincing. “And you should probably hire a cleaner for the same reason. Give them specific instructions to bleach everything.” She chuckles, but I barely hear it, as a hard knot has formed in my stomach at the thought of Cole and another woman in this house. She’s right—if we split it, there’s a chance that will be part of it. Eventually, he’ll get married, have kids, and so will I.

But before that, there will likely be dates and romantic getaways I might interrupt. We’d have to come up with some sort of system.

I flash back to the many girls he had over when we were in high school, and I push away the memories. It doesn’t matter to me what Cole does, as long as he doesn’t bother me or destroy the house.

“Yeah, I guess so,” I say eventually, realizing she’s still waiting for a response. “Anyway, for now, it looks like I’m going to have to stay here. At least for a little while longer than I’d originally planned to. I haven’t had a chance to talk to Jenna about it, but my goal is to ask about working from here as much as possible until things are settled.”

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