Daughter of the Mara (The Mara Chronicles Book I)

Chapter 14

As she stepped through the front door, Jay was taken aback by the silence of the house. She knew Harvey was home but the house seemed to have a sad, empty feeling to it all the same. The only light came from a lamp in the hallway while the rest of the house was shadowed in darkness. Jay suddenly felt overcome with a sense of apprehension as she set her purse on the floor next to the front door. All she could hear was the loud tapping of her heels against the wooden floor as she headed towards the kitchen, where Harvey had been peering out the window. Taking a deep breath, she rounded the corner into the kitchen.

There he was. Her eyes were still adjusting to the darkness of the house, and all she could see at first was the shadowy figure of a man leaning against the kitchen counter opposite her. She could tell little from the vague outline of his form other than that he was slouching and his long hair was mussed. It was then that she noticed the bottle sitting on the counter next to him.

"Harvey," Jay said softly, flipping the switch on the wall and flooding the kitchen with light. A disappointing picture flashed into view. Harvey looked awful. His slumped figure, wild hair, and distraught expression tore at her heart. He looked utterly bereft and she knew exactly what he felt. She had seen this look in the mirror every day for five years.

As she took another step towards him, she realized what the bottle was. Jay wasn't overly familiar with alcohol but she knew the name Jim Beam well enough. Several of her fellow patients, who in addition to their crippling mental issues, had dealt with alcohol problems. The brown liquid only filled about a quarter of the bottle and Jay knew that wasn't a good sign.

"Harvey, have you been drinking?" she asked, already knowing the answer. She set her leftovers on the counter.

He picked up the bottle and glared at it suspiciously. "Possibly," he slurred softly. "Why'd you turn the light on?" He glanced briefly at her before looking back down at the floor.

Jay almost smiled. "Because not all of us like to wander around in the dark." She crossed her arms over her chest and stared him down.

Harvey shifted slightly. "I like the dark. It's comforting."

"Oh?" Jay replied. It was time to get to the point. "So then you weren't hiding in the dark because you were spying on Edmund and me?"

Harvey turned away from her and took another drink straight from the bottle. "I don't want to talk about it."

She sighed. "This is because of the other night, isn't it?" Harvey's mood swings were starting to make sense and she suddenly knew this conversation was not going to end well for either of them.

Harvey slammed the bottle down on the counter, jarring Jay. "I said I don't want to talk about it," he roared, spinning back around.

"Harvey please," she said, moving slowly backwards.

He approached her, crossing the kitchen in three quick steps. Jay felt her back slam into the fridge, and there was nowhere else to go. She tried not to cringe and failed as she stared up into his angry gray eyes.

"Why couldn't you just ignore him, Jay? Why couldn't you just believe what I said? He's only going to hurt you. I know him." He emphasized his last word by slamming his first against the refrigerator door.

Jay flinched, but immediately felt rage well up inside of her. Her relationship with Edmund was none of Harvey's business. She shoved Harvey back, and he stumbled backwards. Jay stepped right into his face, anger dripping off of her next words.

"Ignore him? I like Edmund, Harvey, and he likes me. I thought you wanted me to have a normal life! Well, trying to have a relationship is part of that. So what is your deal?" She punctuated her statements with sharp jabs of the finger to this chest. "Are you jealous? Or did you only bring me here so you and Vivian could use me as some sort of project and you're worried about your toy being taken away?" Jay didn't know where she was going with this as she spoke, but as the words tumbled out of her mouth, the rage and hurt coursing through her body made some kind of damaged sense.