She felt blindsided by the child’s presence in this room. She wasn’t even supposed to be home; she’d gone to school early. Had she somehow sleepwalked here, or else had she hidden herself away?
The door hadn’t been locked, nor even fully closed, so she wasn’t trapped. She could have pulled it open at any time and left. What on earth was going on?
“Come on out,” she said, taking a step into the room.
It was claustrophobically small, and smelled damp and musty. The bare concrete floor was cold. Nina would get sick, sitting on this chilly surface. But why wasn’t she moving?
“Come on, Nina, you need to have a hot drink and get into proper clothes. Why aren’t you at school? What about your spelling test?”
Cassie didn’t want to spend another moment in this creepy place. The sooner they could get back into the warmth and light of the main house, the better. But when she took the girl’s arm to help her up, Nina tugged away from her.
“I will stay in here,” she said, and Cassie was taken aback by the firmness in her voice.
“But you can’t! It’s a school day. Have you even had breakfast?”
Since the young girl didn’t seem willing to move at all, Cassie got down on the floor beside her.
“Come on, aren’t you ready to get up now? You must be hungry.”
She took the girl’s hand and realized it felt cold. With a shock, Cassie noticed that her feet were bare, too.
Her mind was boggling at the weirdness of the situation. It felt as if reality had warped around her. Why was she having to entice the child into leaving this small, dark, uncomfortable room?
Cassie suddenly thought of a disturbing possibility. Nina might be suffering from severe psychological issues, which were causing her to behave in this abnormal fashion.
“I am not hungry. I need to stay here,” Nina insisted.
“Does your mother know you didn’t go to school?” Cassie asked.
The girl didn’t answer, just looked down at the floor.
Cassie leaned forward, hoping that Nina would look at her so she could make eye contact, which might allow for more honest communication, but the girl kept her gaze fixed on the floor.
“Why did you come in here?” Cassie asked softly.
There was no reply. She saw that Nina’s lips were pressed together, as if she wasn’t letting herself speak at all.
“Did you ask anybody if you could stay home from school?” Cassie tried again, but silence was her only response.
Cassie shook her head. How could Ms. Rossi not have known about this? After all, she was the one who hired the driver who took the children to and from school. If Nina hadn’t been there when the driver came to fetch her, Cassie was sure her mother would have been instantly informed.
Cassie felt a flare of anger over the glib explanation she’d been given, that Nina had gone to school early. It had seemed so plausible, she hadn’t questioned it. Now she was wondering why she had been told a lie.
Was Ms. Rossi in denial about her daughter being mentally unstable? If she knew, why hadn’t she done something about it? In such a wealthy family, Nina could have access to the best therapists money could buy. She didn’t have to be stuck on her own in this dark room, talking to herself in that weird, singsong way.
Yet here she was, refusing to move.
Cassie couldn’t make her leave the room, short of dragging her out, and she had a feeling that would cause Nina more harm than staying would do.
“Nina, you can sit here if you like, but I am going to bring you a cushion and a blanket. Sitting on the cold floor like that will make you sick and I am forbidding you to do it. Do you understand me?”
For a moment, she thought Nina wouldn’t reply, but then she gave a tiny nod.
Relieved that she’d managed to negotiate a small victory, Cassie rushed upstairs and took one of the big Continental pillows off Nina’s bed. She grabbed her dressing gown and slippers from the cupboard, and found a spare fleece blanket in there, too.
She’d abandoned all thoughts of making the trip to find out about Jacqui. There was no way she could leave the house now.
Cassie rushed back downstairs, detouring to the kitchen to make a cup of hot chocolate.
Then, carrying the bedding under her arm and the drink in her hand, she returned to the hidden room.
It didn’t look as if Nina had moved a muscle in the time she’d been away.
“Here you go.” Cassie pushed the door wider to let in some light.
“Now, I’m not willing to compromise on this. Slippers on. Dressing gown on. Sit on the cushion. Then you must drink the cocoa right away, so I can take the empty cup out with me.”
To her relief, Nina complied. Cassie realized that she was shivering with cold.
She got her settled on the cushion and stood over her, watching anxiously until she’d drained the last drop of the warm drink.
Then she took the cup from her and wrapped her up in the blanket.
“When you’re hungry, come and call me. I’ll make you some hot food, and run you a bath.”
She stepped out of the dark, chilly room, leaving the door ajar, and took the cup back to the kitchen.
She realized that she didn’t have Ms. Rossi’s work number, as she’d deleted the photo of the au pair ad from her phone. She was sure that she could find the number somehow, but if the businesswoman already knew this was happening, it wouldn’t help to call her and tell her so.
Cassie sighed. That only left one option and she was already dreading it.
When Ms. Rossi arrived home, she was going to have to ask her for a meeting, and discuss the sensitive topic of her elder child’s odd behavior.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Cassie spent the rest of the day fretting over what she should say, and
