*Chapter 6: The Corner*
456 Words
1:02am.
Three soft knocks.
Adrian didn’t move at first.
His phone was still face-down on the nightstand. The text deleted.
The knock came again. Softer.
He got up. Opened the door a crack.
Lily.
She wasn’t wearing the hoodie. She was wearing Ethan’s old college sweatshirt. It hung off one shoulder. Her eyes were puffy.
“You didn’t come,” she whispered.
“I know.”
“I thought you weren’t going to answer.”
“I almost didn’t.”
She stepped in anyway. Closed the door.
They stood there in the dark, two feet apart.
“I can’t do this in the house anymore,” she said. “I’m losing my mind.”
“Then don’t.”
Lily laughed quietly. “Easy for you to say. You can leave in a week. I live here.”
Adrian rubbed his face. “What do you want me to do, Lily?”
“I don’t know.” She sat on the floor, back against the bed. “I just don’t want to be alone tonight.”
So he sat too. On the chair.
No touching. No kissing.
Just talking. In whispers.
About how Ethan was drinking more.
About how Lily hated being called “the wife.”
About how Adrian still had his mom’s voicemails saved.
At 3am, Lily stood. “I should go.”
“Yeah.”
She stopped at the door. Hand on the knob.
“Adrian, if we get caught—”
“We won’t.”
“If we do,” she cut in, “say it was me. Say I came to you.”
He frowned. “No.”
“I mean it. You’re his son. I’m just—” She didn’t finish. Just slipped out.
---
The next week was tense.
Ethan started “working from home.”
Lily started sleeping in the guest room. “Snoring,” she told Adrian at breakfast.
Dinners were silent.
Ethan asked questions. Too many.
“Where were you last night, Lil?”
“Did you hear anything, Adrian?”
Both of them said no.
Friday night Ethan went to a “work dinner.” Said he’d be late.
1am came.
No knock.
2am.
No knock.
Adrian was starting to fall asleep when he heard it.
Not a knock.
Footsteps.
Stopping right outside his door.
The knob turned.
It was locked.
A pause.
Then footsteps walking away. Down the hall. Into the guest room.
Adrian didn’t breathe for a full minute.
His phone lit up.
*Unknown: I saw you. We need to talk. Garage. 6am.*
He didn’t know if it was from Lily. Or Ethan.
At 5:55am he was already in the garage. Sitting in the dark. Waiting.
6:00am.
The side door opened.
It wasn’t Lily.
- Writer
