My Boyfriend and Brother Left Me in the Escape Room novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: The Bolt

Veronica's POV

The old house stood at the end of a block of maples with a FOR SALE sign sagging in the front yard.

Orin parked across the street and killed the engine.

"I'll be right here," he said. "If you want me, text one letter."

"Which one?"

"Any. I'll come."

I kissed him once, hard, and crossed the street alone.

Toby sat on the porch steps with his elbows on his knees. He had not shaved.

"Thanks for coming."

"Make it quick."

"Inside. Please."

He unlocked the door with the key he still kept on his ring.

The rooms were bare and echoing, and the whole place smelled of dust and old radiators.

I had not been in the kitchen since I was nineteen.

The cellar door stood in the far corner, narrow and painted white, with a brass slide bolt screwed into the frame at the height of my shoulder.

I stopped dead.

"Dad put that on after you fell down the stairs," I said. "To keep you out."

"Yeah."

"It's on the outside."

"Yeah, Ronnie."

"You said the latch dropped. A latch doesn't slide itself. You have to push it."

Toby wiped his palms down his jeans.

"I was eleven," he said. "You and Lyla were eight. It was the week after her parents' funeral, and you were all over each other, like you'd never be apart."

"I remember."

"I was on the stairs with my Game Boy. Lyla said she knew where Dad hid the Christmas presents. She said they were down in the coal room, and you went down to look."

"And then?"

"She came back up alone."

My ears began to ring.

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