The next two days were tense and quiet. Mark was gone a lot of the time, supposedly patroling the grounds in search of his would-be assailants and setting up his plan to deal with them alongside Jake.
He spent a lot more time at the mansion, too, but he kept to himself, and Jennifer just tried not to think about what was going on.
Of course, Arabelle wanted to know why they couldn't leave the house, and Jennifer and Dr. Variety tried to pass it off as it just being for the best for her health.
Arabelle wasn't having any of that, though, and Jennifer had to spend a lot of time just trying to make sure Arabelle didn't go outside on her own.
It would have been a lot easier to convince her had Jennifer been able to explain what was going on, but she didn't want to try explaining that her new husband's family had been killed by assassins who were after his fortune and now they wanted him, too.
She didn't even want to think what Arabelle's reaction to that would have been.
Regardless, they spent several hours in the sunroom, which had large windows and fresh air, to make up for not going outside. They read what books Mark had lying around, and played chess, but Arabelle didn't seem too pleased regardless.
"I read online that there is a river in the area," Arabelle said. "It would be nice to go on a walk and see it."
"We can't right now, mom. Maybe in a few days," Jennifer said, moving her knight across the chessboard.
"Why not?"
Jennifer just shook her head, tired of trying to come up with different ways to say the same thing. She couldn't blame Arabelle for being restless; she was, too.
In response, Arabelle completely disregarded the rules and captured Jennifer's knight.
On the afternoon of day two, Arabelle went for a nap, and Jennifer went out to the kitchen in search of lunch. Jake was in there making a sandwich. With one half stuffed in his mouth, he said, "want one?"
"Sure, that would be nice," she said and leaned against the counter. The kitchen was large, the kind that should have been equipped with a whole staff, but Mark only ever had two staff members besides Jake at a time.
Now that she knew what was going on with the assassins, it made more sense why this whole place was as hidden as possible, including very few people knowing about it. Mark didn't want to put anyone else in danger for his sake.
"If I have to hear my mom complain about chess rules one more time, I'm going to go crazy," Jennifer said.
Jake gave her a sympathetic look while he prepared another sandwich. "It should only be for a few more days. We're going to put an end to this."
He spread mayo on the sandwich, and placed cheese and ham on top of it, and Jennifer watched in silence. When he finished and handed it to her, he said, "how much do you know?"
"Enough." She took the plate. "Thanks."
"I'll see if I can find something to better keep Mrs. Wright occupied. I'm sorry that you have to deal with all this, and that you can't tell her, but it's for the best."
"I know." She bit into the sandwich, chewed, swallowed. "So what's your stake in all this?"
He shrugged. "Mark is a good friend; he's helped me out when I really needed it. Zoe and I are together because of him. I couldn't leave him to deal with this all alone."
"Can you two really handle these ... assassins that are coming after him?"
"They're not as refined as you're thinking, just dangerous. They won't be slipping through the windows in the middle of night. At least, not without getting detected by our security systems. Don't worry, everything is under control."
From the way Mark and Jake both talked about what was going on, Jennifer was starting to form the impression that they were keeping something important from her.
At least, besides any of their plans for dealing with the attackers.
The fact that they were being attacked at all was such a strange concept to her—that wasn't the sort of thing that happened to normal people.
But she was going to trust that in a few days, this would all be over, and she could go back to her dreamlike life with Mark at her side, her mom in recovery, looking forward to a bright future.
"Anyway," she said, pushing off the counter, "I better go back to watch my mom. Don't want her running off."
Jennifer finished her sandwich on the way down the hall to the room that was now Arabelle's.
She planned on just sitting on the window seat on the opposite side of her mom's bed and playing a game on her phone until her mom woke up again.
But when she pushed the door open, there was no sleeping figure beneath the blankets.
They were thrown across the bed in disarray, as if they'd been thrown off in a hurry. Jennifer's pulse spiked. "Mom?" she cried out, but there was no response.
The ensuite bathroom door was open and the bathroom behind it empty. Jennifer rushed down the hall, throwing open doors in search of Arabelle, but there was no sign of her anywhere.
"Mom? This isn't funny, where did you go?" she called out.
She wanted to believe her mom was just playing a prank on her, but the immediate fear that leaped on her chest like a rabid wildcat was that the assassins after Mark did make it into the house, and they took Arabelle instead of him.
"Mom!"
Footsteps sounded nearby, and she whirled in their direction, only to find Jake turning around the corner. "What's wrong?" he said.
"My mom is missing, I can't find her anywhere."
"Shit." He glanced around, and he had to be thinking the same thing as her: the house was so damn big that if she was hiding somewhere inside, it would take forever to find her. "It'll be fine. Stay calm. You take a look through the house, I'll go outside."
But what if she hurt herself?
What if she was taken?
What if it was neither, and she'd tricked them and ran outside on her own?
"She has to have gone outside," Jennifer said, trying to convince herself of the most likely scenario. "Let me come help you."
She followed him to the threshold, but he stopped her. "No, you have to stay inside, Mark's orders. I'll find Mrs. Wright, don't worry, okay? Everything is going to be fine."
"She's my mom, I have to help you. It'll be faster with the both of us."
"And Mark will kill us both if you go outside in the middle of this mess. The chances of anything happening are low, but for everyone's peace of mind, just wait here, check all of the rooms. Upstairs, too, just in case. I'll find her and be back in a few minutes."
Tears stung Jennifer's eyes. She didn't want to make Mark and Jake worry more by going outside when there was potential danger there.
So she bit her lip and shoved down as much of her concern as she could, willing herself to sit on the sidelines for now if that was what it took to make sure her mom was safe.
"Be fast," she said. "If you're not back by the time I look through every room, I'm coming out to search, too."
Jake nodded his assent, and then he was gone, shutting the door behind him.
Jennifer took a minute to collect herself, steady her breathing, and wipe the tears blurring her eyes.
"Mom, are you in here somewhere?" she called out. "Please, you're making us all worried."
She searched behind curtains, in closets, under tables.
Jennifer would much rather find that her mom was just trying to trick her than her being taken or hurt.
She wanted Arabelle to jump out of a hiding spot and spook her, but as Jennifer ran through all the rooms on the first floor, the less and less it grew likely that that was going to happen.
There was no reason for Arabelle to go hiding in the house in the first place . .. it didn't make any sense.
Jennifer played back the moments after she left Arabelle's bedroom in her head over again.
Arabelle had tucked herself into bed, and Jennifer hadn't noticed anything abnormal besides her mom's grumpiness, but Dr. Variety said that was because of the medication; she was starting to get her energy and mobility back, only to get locked inside the house.
After leaving the bedroom, Jennifer never heard the front door open, but she had gone to the kitchen and was chatting with Jake. She'd only been gone for a few minutes, that was plenty of time for her mother to sneak out of the house if she had really wanted to.
Or enough for someone quick to come in and snatch her away.
Jennifer shook her head, placing her index fingers to her temples. No, that didn't happen, Mark and Jake both assured her it wouldn't.
Arabelle broke the rules and went outside.
But Jennifer was still overreacting. Her nerves were on edge because of Mark and Jake's warnings, and because of tales about assassins and Mark's family.
They both said that being in the house was safe.
So long as Arabelle didn't wander too far, she had to be fine wherever she was outside, too. That was what Jennifer believed.
But just the chance that something would go wrong had her pacing between the rooms, trying to think of where she hadn't checked.
Jake would find her outside. It wasn't like Arabelle was the most mobile right now, either. She couldn't have gone far.
As the minutes passed into ten, and then twenty, Jennifer became less convinced of her own beliefs—the truth she tried to convince herself of. Jake was supposed to be back by now.
The only reason that would happen was if something went wrong.
Jennifer couldn't wait inside anymore. It had been a mistake to let him go alone, to let him convince her to stay in the house while he looked for Arabelle.
She cracked open the front door, peeking into the landscape of green outside. The trees shifted in the warm, midday wind, and there wasn't anything amiss. It looked like a regular summer day, not one clouded by the threat of assassins coming for her husband.
Where was he ? He'd been gone for much longer than usual, too.