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Thea is sleeping on her bed. I gaze up at her every few seconds as I scrub the blood from her carpet. Even though she looks like the same sweet Thea, seeing her wrists and ankles tied to the metal bedframe turns my stomach more than Jared’s blood ever could.
The mess on the walls and wardrobe wiped off pretty easily, but the carpet stain is deep, so I’ve had to use every cleaning product I could find in the house. Some of it is coming up, but not enough to hide the evidence if someone came snooping. And I can’t exactly say that the stain is just red wine—the area is just too big. You’d need a crate of it to make that excuse convincing.
After more than two hours spent on my hands and knees, I finally stand up and inspect the job. The carpet is ruined, so I drag Thea’s white, fluffy ru
