Chapter 60 Gone
My heart still beats frantically as I sit in my car in the parking garage waiting for T.J.
I did something about Ben, and I feel both scared and proud of myself.
He doesn't have access to get inside my apartment, but for some reason I still feel like he could jump out of the shadow at anytime and know what I've done.
I thought I was brave, but I'm really not.
There's a knock on my window and I nearly jump out of my skin, but T.J. waves on the other side, and I exhale in relief.
I'm going certifiably mad.
I open the door to his frowning face.
"What's going on Madz?" He helps me get out of the driver's seat. "Uncle said you needed me immediately."
I wipe the sweat from my brow, and nod. "Hey. Yes, please. I had a friend who asked for help, he said he would send you over."
He looks at me with his serious grey eyes as if he can read what's going on in my head.
"Where is this friend?"
"She was sleeping in the guest room this morning, but I don't know if she maybe left." I gulp, not knowing what I should or shouldn't say about Katherine's situation. "I've been at the studio the whole day and then at Uncle's office."
T.J. nods his head at the elevator and I grab my bag and follow him.
"You know, I really don't like you living by yourself." He says once we're inside.
T.J. is the head of the family's security. His father used to be in charge until he took over. They are practically part of our family even though they're not blood-related.
"You're the one who got me this place."
Right now, I don't know if he's wrong. I'm not feeling safe, and I'm rethinking my choice of being independent.
"And who is this friend exactly?" He raises an eyebrow, knowing I don't really hang out with anyone apart from family members and occasionally Simon.
And Ben of course.
"She's not really a friend." I clear my throat. If I tell him the whole truth about what Ben has been up to, there's no turning back. "We were in the same school and I ran into her yesterday. She didn't look so good, so I invited her home with me."
T.J. looks at me as if I only have two working brain cells. "You did what! You never invite someone into your home just because you knew them from school! You know better than that Madison!"
"Well, when you say it like that..." I want to cower, but I don't.
This is not going to end well for me, he's probably packing my bags himself tonight to stay at my parents'.
I can see that he wants to say more, but he just shakes his head and walks to my door when we get off the elevator.
Unlike Ben, he does have access to my apartment, and he unlocks the door with the code and his fingerprint.
I don't know this feeling that I'm having, this feeling that something bad is about to happen, so I stay close to T.J. when he checks the kitchen and the living room.
I mean, Katherine is so skinny, she couldn't hurt a fly. And she really wanted my help, I don't believe she would have done something to put me in any kind of jeopardy.
Even T.J. looks worriedly at me like he can sense the same kind of danger.
"You said she slept in the guest bedroom?"
I nod and he makes his way over there, with me on his heels.
He opens the door, and switches on the light. The bed is still unmade, but empty. She is a rich kid, though, maybe she's never had to make her bed in the past. He goes to the ensuite bathroom and switches on the light there as well, and his whole body goes dead still.
"What's going on?" I ask behind him, his whole frame covering the doorway so I can't see anything. "Is she in there?"
He sighs deeply and steps aside so I could enter.
A blood curdling scream erupts from my throat as I see Katherine McDowell in the bathtub with her eyes open, but the skin of her face a ghostly blue, looking right at me as she's lying in water filled with blood.
"Okay, okay." T.J. grabs me by the arms and forces me out of the bedroom back into the living room, but I can't stop screaming, Katherine's dead eyes still in front of me.
"Fuck!" T.J. swears. "This is why we don't invite strangers into our homes!"
He slaps me on the cheek and I immediately stop screaming only for tears to start pouring from my eyes.
"I'm calling 911." He takes his phone from his pocket. "Please stay here, do not follow me into that bathroom."
Terror starts flowing through me.
Ben did this.
He might not have killed her with his own two hands, but he did this.
He raped her, then he blackmailed her for years after that to do his bidding.
But she asked for help just last night.
So what happened between then and today that she felt like the only way out was death?