8
For a stunned moment, Sarah could only stare at the blood trail across the floor. It couldn’t be blood. She had to be imagining things; yes, she was upset, but that upset? Just for good measure Sarah squeezed her eyes shut. All she had to do was think it through. Opening her eyes again, the trail was still there. She stepped gingerly and quietly around the desk to head for the office she had been in only hours before, her stomach in a knot. She stood outside the room, listening for any sound.
After a few minutes that felt like hours to her adrenaline-riding brain, she peeked around the corner to her office. Sarah stared in disbelief, now knowing there was no one in her office. It had been hardly more than a closet, but the door hung from the frame now, her things left in a mess. Her spare clothes for the gym were in a tattered mass, her computer shattered in eight pieces. The potted plants she’d kept were now smeared across the white desk. The desk itself was listing badly, the chair in two pieces. The coat rack was stuck into a door, but the most disturbing thing was the macabre sight of the dead rabbit on her desk.
Sarah stared in horror, her eyes wide in fear. What had caused someone to hate her this much? What had she possibly done? Her mind traveled to Elizabeth, and guilt welled up in her stomach. I should have known better, she thought. Yet the woman couldn’t possibly know already, and she had been at the party not long ago at all. She wouldn’t have had time to get here, would she?
Sarah rubbed her face, turning away from the bloody scene on her desk. The sudden realization that someone could come back, or was still in the building was what prompted the sudden appearance of the police. Garrett came in to the building to realize there was also police searching his office. His had only been minorly vandalized; furniture was dented or otherwise, and the fish tanks had been knocked over. There were no dead animals in his office, aside from the fish. He caught Sarah’s attention, seeing her over the line of police tape. For a moment he tried to go to her, but when she turned her shoulder to him he stopped. “Sarah… are you alright?”
“No, Garrett, I am not alright. I will be. Thank you for your professional concern.”
“...Sarah, please. It’s for the best.”
“You don’t get to decide that.”
The remark seemed to hurt, and he frowned at her, his brows narrowing as he leaned closer to her, his brown eyes fixed on hers with a stern expression of concern.
“...I will look after you like I have your whole life, young lady. Don’t you dare think you can get away with that attitude now. Put your hurt aside, and tell me if you are truly okay.”
Sarah’s spine straightened and a flush of arousal crept across her face. She hadn’t wanted to find him attractive, especially after that ice-cold dismissal. She gave a huffy little sigh and turned her face away. “I’m not excited, that’s for sure. Who do you think did this? We were at the holiday party,” she said, eyeing the doorway to her office. She hadn’t quite gotten the nerve to go back in there yet.
“I’m not sure. I thought of Elizabeth...but if so, why you? She’d have… I mean, I can understand who would attack me.” He gave a shrug.
“I’ll talk to the officer,” he said. “Do you want coffee? Water? A blanket? ”I’m not a child. Water would be fine. Thank you.”
Garrett nodded and headed for the chief officer, explaining his impending divorce and his wife’s views on it, detailing what she might do. He took his time, carefully reciting their fights over the last several months and her increasingly erratic behavior.
“She’s unstable. She drinks too much, need I say more? She’s terrible press and less and less like the woman I married. It isn’t too difficult to figure out why I want nothing to do with her. I don’t know why she’d attack Sarah’s office, though she may believe I’m sleeping with her. She’s my best friend’s daughter.”
The officer took notes, and told him he would be allowed to get water for the girl and coffee for himself.
As he returned with the cup, he sighed. He handed her the water, and rubbed the back of his neck. “I didn’t mean to be quite so harsh. I just… your father is my best friend, and you mean far too much to me for me to screw everything up. I’m sorry, Sarah.”
“No. Don’t you ‘I’m sorry, Sarah’ me. You knew better, and so did I. We are not going to pretend that one of us was more at fault than the other. It doesn't matter who was at fault; it matters that it happened, and I’m not going to forget what you said about wanting me. You might think it’s worth forgetting, but I wasn’t kidding when I said I loved you. It hasn’t ever changed. You don’t get to tell me it was a mistake. You don’t get to tell me anything about it. How I choose to see it is not your duty, and while we’re on the subject, you have none to me. Don’t look after me. I’m here for an internship I interviewed for, not for you to coddle me.” Sarah tossed her water in his face, jerking the stunned man out of his shock.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to do that. I’m not saying only I’m to blame, but I could have stopped. C’mon, the police don’t need us here. Let’s get cocoa at the diner, little girl. I know you’re hungry after all this excitement, and I am too.” He seemed to be trying his best to placate her, and yet, he was only hurting her more. She shook her head in disbelief, and stepped closer so only he could hear her.
“You finally make love to me after all my years fantasizing about you, and then you have the audacity to make me feel bad? Then you try to bribe me with hot chocolate? Where do you get off, pal? Because it’s not with me, clearly. You just ripped my heart out not an hour ago. Who do you think you are?”
Garrett gaped, his turn to look surprised. His jaw worked, in an apparent attempt to formulate some answers. They never came in time, because Sarah was shaking her head and turning away. “Never mind. I’m leaving,” she said flatly, no longer caring if he knew how hurt she was. She headed for the door without so much as a glance in his direction.