Adrian puts an arm around my waist. “Hey, it’s okay. You’re safe now. We’re going to figure this out.”
Caroline shoves past me, storming into the den, and we all follow. She draws in her breath sharply, staring at the walls in disbelief.
“Where’s Teddy?”
“In his room. He’s fine.”
Caroline looks to her husband. He hurries upstairs.
I try to walk Caroline through the afternoon. “He went into his bedroom at one o’clock. For Quiet Time. I let him take the iPad, just like you said. He didn’t come downstairs until ten minutes ago. Right when you got home.”
“Four hours?” she asks.
I show Adrian my right hand, all covered with graphite and charcoal and blisters. “I’m left-handed, just like Teddy. I couldn’t have done this on my own. These are just like the pictures in my cottage.”
“Yes, exactly! The style is identical!” He takes out his smartphone and walks around the room, capturing photographs of the various scenes. “The first thing we should do is compare them to the other pictures. See how they fit in the sequence.”
“No,” Caroline says. “The first thing we’re doing is a tox screen. Right now. Or I’m calling the police.”
Adrian stares at her. “Tox screen?”
“I can’t believe I left you alone with our son. I can’t believe I trusted you! What the hell was I thinking?”
“I’m not using,” I tell her. I try to speak softly, as if it’s somehow possible to have the conversation in a sidebar. As if Adrian wasn’t standing right there listening. “I swear to you, Caroline, I’m clean.”
“Then you’ll have no problem with the test. When you started working here, you agreed to random testing every week. You volunteered. On days of our choosing.” She takes my wrist and studies my arm for marks. “I guess we should have started a lot sooner.”
Ted returns from the second floor, and with a single look he assures Caroline that Teddy is fine. Meanwhile Adrian is trying to persuade Caroline that she’s got the situation all wrong.
“Mrs. Maxwell, I don’t know what you’re talking about, but Mallory’s not on drugs. Do you really think she’d have an athletic scholarship if she was doing heroin? Penn State would kick her off the team in a heartbeat.”
An awkward silence settles into the room, and I realize Caroline is giving me a chance to explain myself. I can feel my tears welling up because this isn’t how it was supposed to happen. “Okay, wait,” I tell him. “Because, the thing is, I haven’t been completely honest with you.”
Adrian still has his arms around me, but his grip goes loose. “What does that mean?”
“I was going to tell you the truth tonight.”
“What are you talking about?”
And I still can’t do it.
I still have no idea where to begin.
“Mallory doesn’t go to Penn State,” Ted explains. “She’s spent the last eighteen months in rehab. In a halfway house. She was abusing prescription painkillers and heroin.”
“Plus other drugs she doesn’t even remember,” Caroline adds. “The brain needs time to heal, Mallory.”
Now Adrian isn’t holding me at all. Now I’m just hanging on to his body like a big sad pathetic monster, like a parasite. He shakes me off so he can see my face.
“Is this for real?” he asks.
“I’m not using,” I tell him. “I swear to you, Adrian, I am twenty months sober next Tuesday.”
And he takes a step back like I’ve struck him. Caroline rests a gentle hand on his shoulder. “This must be hard for you to hear. We just assumed Mallory had been honest with you about her history. We thought she told you the truth.”
“No, not at all.”
“Adrian, I work with a lot of addicts at the VA hospital. They’re good people, and our main goal is moving them back into society. But sometimes the timing isn’t right. Sometimes, we launch people before they’re ready.”
I look up at Caroline, furious. “That is NOT what’s happening here! I am not on drugs. And I am not a fucking illustrator! I swear to you, Caroline. Something is wrong with this house. The ghost of Annie Barrett is haunting your son, and now she’s haunting me, and this is her message.” I point all around the room, at all of the walls. “This is her story!”
And I know I must look crazy and sound crazy because Adrian studies me in a kind of bewilderment. He looks like he’s seeing me for the first time.