I Thought Love Had to Be Earned Through Chores, They Hugged Me Chapter 05

I Thought Love Had to Be Earned Through Chores, They Hugged Me Chapter 05

“Who locked it?”

His voice sounded like it had been dragged over gravel.

I coughed twice and flattened myself to the floor. The explosion had knocked out the lights- pitch black. Water was leaking from a busted pipe overhead. Good. At least the universe remembered to add water to a fire scene.

“Colle, save the investigation for later. I’m almost off shift here.”

“Shut up!”

Chaos through the walkie. The fire trucks had arrived. Cole was breathing hard. “It’s a fire-rated steel door. Chain and padlock on the outside. They’re cutting through now.”

I touched the door. Too hot to keep my hand there. By the time they got through, I’d be cooked. Medium-well, tops-any higher and the texture would be ruined.

Then I remembered the old blueprints I’d studied last week while fixing the drain line. There was an abandoned coal chute behind the east wall. The exit was blocked by a garden rockery.

“Cole-east garden. The ugliest fake mountain.”

“Which one?”

“The one with the stone monkey.”

“There are eight stone monkeys in the Grant garden!”

Rich people. Eight decorative primates and not a single practical one. I bit down on my shirt collar, crawled to the east wall, and banged the wrench three times, The sound traveled.

“There! I’ve got her location!”

I smiled. “Cole, don’t forget my overtime.”

“I’ll pay it! All of it! Just get out!”

Rocks started crashing on the other side. But the fire had already followed the pipes down. I wedged myself into the corner, pulled my wet jacket over my head, and felt my thoughts start

to drift.

I was back on the pig farm, dumped in the snow. “She’s got a fever. Can’t work. Not worth the food.” I’d crawled back to the pigpen that night and slept against the trough. The next morning, after the fever broke, the first thing I did was shovel manure. I’d always believed-if I was just useful enough, no one would throw me away again.

But this was different. Someone outside was calling my name. Not telling me to work. Telling

me to live.

The wall burst open. Cole came through first-face gray with dust, arms shredded and bleeding from the rock. When he saw me, his eyes went red.

I used the last of my strength to remind him, “Cole, this counts as hazardous duty. You have to

pay extra.”

“Pay extra my ass!”

He hauled me onto his back, but his voice was shaking so hard it barely sounded like him. “Marnie Grant, listen to me. You don’t owe this family a single cent. You could lie around all day, eat, sleep, do nothing-and I’d still take care of you for the rest of your life.”

I felt a spike of genuine alarm. “That won’t work. I’d get hemorrhoids.”

He nearly slipped and took us both down.

Firefighters caught us.

Outside, Catherine was kneeling on the lawn in bare feet Edward stood beside her, face ashen. Annabel was pinned by two police officers. When she saw me, she started thrashing. “I didn’t lock the door! I only arranged the food poisoning! I never meant to kill her!”

One of the officers spoke flatly. “We found Frances’s fingerprints on the chain.”

Frances. The maid who’d planted the bracelet in my toolbox.

Annabel’s face went white.

I tried to ask something, but my chest seized-and I collapsed into Cole’s arms. The last thing I heard was a doctor shouting, “She’s not breathing!”