Victoria is asleep. I saw her nod off myself. All I need to do is slip into her room, open up the trunk, and take back the gun. Very easy.
I take off my boots and creep over to Victoria’s bedroom in my stockinged feet. I had left the door open, and she’s still dozing when I peek inside the room. The trunk is about two feet away from her. Is it possible to get over there, open it up, and take out the gun without her knowing it?
And even if I do wake her up, does it matter? Half her body is paralyzed. She won’t be able to stop me.
I tiptoe over to the trunk and kneel beside it. I turn the numbers to the combination Victoria said. Nine. Five. Six.
The lock doesn’t open. “Sylvie?”
I jerked my head up at the sound of Victoria’s voice. She’s staring down at me while I fumble with the lock. I straighten up and plaster a smile on my face. “I just wanted to…” I clear my throat. “I thought maybe my room would be a safer hiding place for the gun.”
She shakes her head. “Safe. There safe.”
“Right.” I scratch at my head. “Also, did you say the combination was nine, five, six? Because that doesn’t seem to work.”
She narrows her good eye at me. I’m not fooling her. Even with a brain injury, Victoria is not a stupid woman. She knows exactly what I’m trying to do.
“Sorry,” is all she says.
“Do you think the trunk might be safer in my room?” Her eyes are stony. “No.”
I realize now who I’m looking at. I’m looking at a murderess. I’m looking at a woman who killed another woman because she believed that woman was having an affair with her husband. I’m looking at a woman who wrote down the world as she believed it to be in her diary, but it was all lies
—and she got me to believe those lies to get what she wanted. I’m looking at a woman with a history of crazy paranoid behavior, who has not been getting her medications thanks to me.
And also, she knows I slept with her husband.
I look out the window. The sun has already fallen in the sky, but the snow is still coming down. I’m never getting out of here.
Victoria isn’t dangerous anymore though. Not like this. The gun gives her a little bit more power, but I don’t see how she could even get it out of that trunk with her shaky left hand. Although she did so much better with breakfast this morning…
“Anyway,” I say brightly. “I’m going to start on your dinner.” She looks at me for a moment. “No baby food.”
I don’t know what I could feed her besides baby food since we have no power. But it doesn’t matter. Because I’m not going to start on her dinner.
I’m going to find Adam. I’ve got to tell him what I’ve done.
