Page 24 (1/1)

"No Peter mustn’t know You can’t tell him"

"I won’t I won’t say a word," I said, et you inside, and I’ll tell Colin to take you upstairs until you feel better"

Claire ether "I’m sorry I know I must look like a mad woman to you, but you have to listen to me If you love that child in your womb, hear me That man Emmet I know it sounds crazy, but he isn’t a man"

"What do you think he is?" I asked cautiously I had no idea what she believed hi so close to ho else I’ve known his kind before, and now I know they are full of lies I knohy he came They want Peter, and worse, I think they want little Colin"

"No," I said, trying to calm her "Emmet is harmless I don’t knohat you think he is, but I assure you that you are wrong"

"And how can you be so sure?"

"You’re going to have to trustEia dirt would push her coe

"I love you, Mercy, likemy hand "I’d trust you withI’ain, I will find a way to kill him or at least make him wish he were dead You hearto calm her I didn’t think it wise to point out to her at just thatwith us, and I couldn’t exactly send hi a bit more rationally Great--another wrinkle inthe truth about what had causeda baby, I’d have to find a way to protect Emmet froet back inside and find Colin, okay?" She nodded and walked back into the bar with me

THIRTEEN

At the end of the wake, Peter was not fit to drive, and Iris and Oliver had both disappeared For some reason, Claire’s ic as a means of transportation, so I called for a taxi and ular person When I arrived, the house felt deserted; I sent out a psychic ping to see if Iris had perhaps beaten me home, but it came back empty No one was around, not even Ee combination of loneliness and elation; I had not found myself alone in the house in forever I realized that noas e the atmosphere to see what oal would not be, as Oliver had suggested, to try to get to the bottoh Tillandsia Uncle Oliver meant well, but I really had no idea where I would even start on that I suspected I could spend a lifeti to find a few needles in a century-and-a-half’s worth of haystack No, I had one specific event I needed to witness: my own birth Once I had foundelse would fall into place I was sure of it

Even a novice such asiet I ainst any nonfa all entrances so that no one, including fa alerted It was a sad state of affairs, but I wanted to s wouldn’t discover what I was up to until I had answers

I hoped that by holding soed toin on the particular energies I needed to tap into I would use my mother’s locket That it had until recently been in her possession should be a plus Tonight had been the first tiiven it to iven the neckline of the dress I earing I didn’t want to risk one ofit I had left it in my jewelry box, mixed in with the few other pieces I had: the pearls I had received on hteenth birthday, the small diamond studs I’d received two years before that, the s I still couldn’t bring ht I pushed away the erababout touching it caused me to question my earlier optimism Could there really be any hope of a fahters truly be an explainable, leave alone pardonable, act?

I closedbreath I had to keep an open mind I couldn’t let my fears prejudice me Still, my previous exhilaration had turned to a heaviness of heart I put the necklace around my neck and snapped the lid of the jewelry box closed

Iris had taken over my mother’s roo studio She said she liked the golden late afternoon light that filtered through its s, but she’d once confessed that being in this space comforted her and made her feel closer to the dear little sister she had lost too soon I wanted to cry as I remembered how sincere she had sounded when she shared this with ood look at the space

My iven to charity, her more personal and precious items boxed up and stored in the attic for the day when Maisie and I chose how to divvy them up But Iris had not erased e, and now I knew firsthand, exquisitely accurate portrait of my mother dominated the room’s southern wall I didn’t co soe easel stood in the center of the room It held a canvas, but the canvas had been covered with a tarp I decided to respect my aunt’s privacy Noished I hadn’t so stubbornly refused taking pointers from Ellen I really didn’t kno to proceed

Emmet had used a combination of surprise and passion to surface the et in touch with a powerful es aboutaboutabout my aunts too My mind floated over my recent history with Maisie Too fresh Too painful These eies

My feet were tired I kicked off my shoes and took a seat in an aardly placed arle, away from the portrait ofit faced was a bit of blank wall A sense of familiar resentment started to rise up in me as I reflected on Ginny and her manipulations I remembered how Ginnyat nothing but a blank wall for hours I had dealt with it byup stories for my own entertainment Stories that would later serve as the backbone of my Liar’s Tour The hall and the chair I had been forced to sit in were now both gone, burned away to nothing by the saer, and then I heard voices behind me