Page 36 of A Smile Full of Lies
I typed in the password from memory —StonewoodManor1989— and hit connect. It worked.
A small bubble of relief rose in my throat, quickly followed by panic. Even with the Wi-Fi, there wasn’t much I could do. My laptop was on its last breath. My phone was a dead brick. I couldn’t apply for jobs. Couldn’t make calls. Couldn’t transfer funds. I had eighteen dollars to my name and no more food in the house.
I leaned forward, forehead resting against my arm, breathing shallow. I didn’t know what the fuck I was going to do.
The laptop finally gave out with a dull click, plunging the room into deeper silence. I sat frozen in the dark, every muscle aching from tension, every thought circling the same truth: I was completely out of options.
Then came the knock on my front door. Sharp. Furious. Nowhere near polite.
My breath hitched as I stood, legs stiff, feet tingling and half asleep from the position I’d been sitting in. I didn’t need to look through the peephole. Iknewin my bones that it wasKnox. I opened the door.
He was already on the edge of storming in, shoulders tense, mouth pressed in a hard, disapproving line. The street light behind him cast his face in hard shadows. His jaw was clenched like maybe he was grinding his teeth, blue eyes burning a hole through me.
“What thefuck, Ros?”
I flinched. “Knox?—”
“Your power’s off. You’ve got no AC, no heat, no way to manage the wild swings in the weather at this time of year, no internet, no backup. Your phone says your number has been disconnected, too. You’relivingin this house like it’s not falling down around you.”
“I’m handling it,” I whispered, even though we both knew that was a fucking lie.
“No. You’re not.” His voice was low and dangerous. “You didn’t tell me. You let shit get this bad, and you didn’tfucking tell me.”
“I didn’t want to bother you with my problems?—”
“You’re staying with me.”
The words landed like a physical blow. My stomach dropped.
“I… what? Knox, no. I’m not?—”
He took a step forward, crowding me back against the hall wall. His eyes were sharp as a knife, voice razor-edged.
“I wasn’tfucking asking, Rosalind.”
My breath caught and a shiver shot down my spine. “But?—”
“But nothing. Get your shit and move your ass. You’re not staying here with no power, no food, and no way to do your goddamn job.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but nothing came out. How the hell was I supposed to argue with a fucking force of nature?
Chapter
Ten
KNOX
The secondshe opened the door, I stepped inside.
The air hit me like a slap — warm, stale, wrong. No fridge hum. No overhead light. Just the beam of my flashlight cutting through the dark, catching on shadows and the glint of thawing ice leaking from her freezer. I took one look around and saw everything I needed to see.
Time to bring her home with me… finally.
“You’ve been living like this?” I asked, voice low and tight.
She flinched, just slightly. She opened her mouth like she might lie, so I didn’t give her the chance.
“Where’s your bag?”
