Page 61 of Shelter from the Storm

She covered her ears, wishing the hateful words would go away, but now that they’d escaped, they fell over her head like an avalanche.

When Briggs’s voice came next, she began to shake in earnest.

“I treat you like a fucking queen, and you’re too stupid to do a simple thing like wash my goddamn shirts! Do you know how fucking hard I work, how stressful my job is? Why can’t I come home and fucking relax? Why can’t you do what I say? Why do you make me hurt you like this?”

She hadn’t replied to that, hadn’t been able to, because his hands were wrapped too tightly around her throat, choking her and leaving behind the bruises Edith had seen upon her arrival.

Stupid.

Worthless.

Disappointment.

A mistake.

Her stomach clenched again, and this time, she did throw up. Coughing several times, she emptied her stomach as tears streamed down her cheeks.

When there was nothing left, she rubbed her chest, trying to ease the pain before she reached for her phone. Gretchen clicked on Theo’s name. It took her a long time to type out the short text message, her fingers shaking too violently to hit the right keys.

Migraine. Edith picked me up.

She hit send, then placed her phone on the desk, face down.

The immediate swish that followed told her Theo had replied, but she didn’t bother to read it. Instead, she closed the door to her office, turned off the lights, then sank down behind her desk.

Alone in the darkness, she curled into a ball and gave in to the panic.

Chapter Eleven

Theo frowned when his message to Gretchen went unread. While the party was still going on around him, he was no longer in a jovial mood. Gretchen was fine when she left to get her sweater, he was certain of it.

But then, she stayed away too long. He’d intended to go looking for her, but Sam dragged him to the brewery’s makeshift stage to sing “Friends in Low Places” with him. Once the song was over, he returned to the table and saw the text from Gretchen. He hated that she’d asked Edith to pick her up, but then, he had to admit that he’d had too much to drink to drive her himself.

He had texted to see if she needed anything, but half an hour had passed…and she hadn’t read the message.

Which was normal, he told himself. She had a headache. No doubt she’d gone straight to bed and to sleep.

Yet, his gut was telling him something was wrong.

So he gave up trying to reason with himself and called Edith.

“Well, this is a surprise,” she said, instead of hello. “I would have expected you and those wild brothers of yours to keep the party going ’til dawn.”

“I’m sure they’re going to give it the college try. I was calling to check on Gretchen. To make sure she’s okay.”

The pause that followed told Theo he’d been right to worry.

“Gretchen isn’t here. She texted to say she was spending the night with Nora.”

Theo glanced down the table to where Nora was laughing loudly at something Remi was saying.

“Theo,” Edith prodded, when he didn’t reply. “Isn’t she there?”

“No. She said you picked her up.”

“You need to find her,” Edith said, the alarm in her voice triggering his own.

“What’s going on?”

---