Page 54 of Let the Game Begin

14

Selene

After the movie was over, we talked for about an hour until sleep started to overtake us. After telling my boyfriend goodnight, I walked down the massive upstairs hallway, staring down at the luxurious marble floor as though all my sins were engraved upon it. I couldn’t tell Jared the truth. I just couldn’t, not with the state of mind he was in.

But this realization brought me no peace. The weight I felt was growing by the minute, and I had discovered that I was actually quite good at lying, which was a skill that I’d never thought I had before.

Lost in my thoughts, I didn’t realize that I’d stopped in front of one of the many rooms in the house, one that usually remained locked. That night, however, the door was slightly ajar. I stepped up to, fully intending to close it, but a sudden instinctive urge stopped me. Instead, I peered into the crack and saw that no one was inside. So I put one hand on the cool surface of the wood and pushed it open.

It felt like I was infiltrating a sacred temple, a forbidden place. I had noticed this room during my first few days in the house. It was at the end of the hall across from Matt’s office and cloaked in an inexplicable aura of mystery. It had been Anna herself who told me that no one was allowed to go inside. A prohibition that I was currently ignoring.

I groped for a light switch on the wall, and when I found it, a basic room appeared before me, not much different from a home office. There was a leather divan in ivory underneath a large window. A large mahogany desk presided majestically over the center of the room, clean save for an empty pen holder on top.

What was odd, however, were the numerous boxes left haphazardly all over the floor.

I coughed at the thick dust floating in the air and knelt down in front of a random box and rubbed the tip of my nose. I opened the box easily—the flaps weren’t even sealed. Then, I pulled what appeared to be a photo album out of it. I ran my hand over the rough surface of the cover before leafing through it, seeing numerous old Miller family photos.

I smiled when I got to one of Logan and Neil as children in a garden. The former was chasing the latter, pretending to be an airplane or maybe an eagle, I couldn’t tell. In the background, Mia smiled as she displayed her round belly. She must have been pregnant with Chloe.

I kept browsing and found another photo that featured a tall man with raven-colored hair and deep blue eyes smiling into the camera lens. He was wearing a lightweight shirt that showed off his slim, toned physique, and I assumed this had to be William Miller. His right arm was around young Logan’s narrow shoulders and his left hand was buried in the pocket of his slacks.

On his left side, young Neil stood with his head down, staring at the garden. He looked as though he might be feeling left out and wasn’t enthusiastic about being photographed. He was wearing a blue tank top withOklahoma Citywritten on it and matching shorts that didn’t hide his dirty, scraped-up knees. His golden eyes were fixed on the bright green lawn. His father appeared oblivious to his son’s mournful expression.

I touched the photo with my index finger, touched his gleaming eyes. In that child, I recognized the person I had seen rocking in a corner of his room after fighting with Logan. My chest grew tight with hurt. I knew almost nothing about Neil, but I felt so close to him, so connected with him that it seemed that I could feel his heartrending pain inside myself.

Before I could put the album back in the box, though, something elsecaught my eye. Something much more interesting than family photos. A stack of newspapers covered the bottom of the box. I grabbed one and read the front page headline: “The Children of the Dark Side.” I scowled, and with the speed of a thief who is about to be caught red-handed, I rifled through the papers to read the headlines underneath.

“Who Is the Shadow Man?”

“Scandal in New York”.

“Children of Darkness.”

I pressed my hand over my lips to stifle any noise of shock. I wanted to read through these articles and learn more but a sound from the hallway had me hastily closing up the box and getting to my feet.

I ran to the light switch and flicked it off, holding my breath. I leaned closer to the crack in the door until I could peer out into the hallway. Anna was doing a walkthrough of the house, probably checking that she’d finished all her assigned tasks. She hadn’t yet realized that the mystery room was unlocked, but it obviously wasn’t safe for me to stay there.

So, after making sure she wasn’t looking in my direction, I scurried down the hallway and took refuge in my own room, shutting the door behind me.

What were those newspaper headlines about? Could it be related to Neil’s strange behavior? It was obvious that something had happened to him and his family, but I still didn’t know exactly what that was. It was difficult to guess from the few ambiguous pieces I’d seen.

Nevertheless, I was positive that I would solve this mystery. I just needed more time. I was even more determined now, but truthfully, since the moment I met those shining, shadowed eyes I had known perfectly well that Neil was hiding a history that I needed to uncover.

I sighed and toed off my shoes. Then I reached behind my back and tried to unzip my dress as I walked over to the vanity. I was disturbed and pensive in a way I’d never been before in my life. It felt like fate had a design for me and that my meeting with Neil had been meticulously planned by some sort of trickster god.

“I’ve been waiting for you for a good ten minutes, Babygirl.”

I let out a shriek of terror when I spotted Neil in the mirror behind me. He was standing motionless beside my bed.

He smiled at me, and I lost the ability to speak. I swallowed thickly and waited for him to make his move. I knew for certain that I wasn’t capable of taking even one step toward that tantalizing body.

Neil, however, had nothing but time. He appraised me lazily before approaching me at a languid, feline pace with all his usual dominance and certainty. Little by little, his smell of amber and tobacco surrounded me. My eyes remained locked on his the entire time, lustful, yes, but above all else dangerous.

“Turn around,” he demanded, and I obeyed like a puppet on a string. I feared him. I didn’t want to challenge him, but at the same time, I was enthralled by him.

On the one hand, having my back to him helped me maintain a clear head, albeit with some difficulty.

On the other hand, I had no idea what he intended to do back there, and that sense of unknown expectation only intensified the feelings I had until it seemed like I could drown in them.