IRIS
I stood at the kitchen sink, putting the last of the breakfast dishes into the drying rack. Eli wasn't at the table this morning. He wasn't there for dinner last night either. In fact, it had been five whole days since that encounter in his study. Not that I was counting the days. Nobody talked about him. Why would they? The family knew exactly where he had gone, but a part of me wished they would at least mention his name when I was in the room.
“Iris, stop it,” I scolded myself, scrubbing a plate harder than necessary. “Why do you keep thinking about that man? Don't go there. He is completely off-limits.”
I forced the thought out of my head and focused on the reality of my life. I had been at the Hawthorne mansion for a full week now. Yesterday was Sunday. I had naively thought I
