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E sos froive--"

"You don’t have to--" Finally, her daughter spoke Only to be cut right off

"If you hurt her, I will ruin you That’s all" Emma Holmes raised her voice to the rest of the table "And on that subject, Walter, why don’t you tell us about the exhibit you’re working on? I thought I heard the name Picasso tossed around"

It wasn’t hter, and it was terrifying

I watched as a shudder ground through Charlotte’s shoulders No wonder she never had an appetite, if mealtimes had always been as tu his mouth with his napkin "Picasso, yes Alistair was just telling me about your private collection You house it in London? I’d love to see it Picasso was quite prolific, as you know, and gave away soto light"

Holesture frohter "Call e a tour of our holdings"

At that, I excusedwhere I splashed cold water on my face To my surprise, Eliska dropped her napkin on her chair and followed lish When I nodded, she peered over her shoulder to make sure ere alone "Jaht"

She stalked into the bathroom to check her reflection in the o to Britain for a year Not too long to ue I will make new ones But everyone is a thousand years old, or stupid, or silent"

"Not everyone here is like that," I found"I’er, Eliska wiped off a bit of stray lipstick "Maybe soo to these faers are silent The food is very good At ers are much"My overnue, come see me I feel--how should I say?--sorry for you"

"I always appreciate a good pity invite," I countered, but my heart wasn’t in it Eliska could tell She flashed ot back to the table, Eone up to bed Dessert had been served, an architectural piece of cheesecake the size of hter a series of softball questions about Sherringford What have you learned in your chemistry tutorial? Do you like your instructor? How do you think you’ll apply those skills to your deductive work? Holmes answered in monosyllables

After a minute, I found I couldn’t listen to the questions any one of hera rabbit out of a theoretical hat or transforle h-backed velvet chair

I DIDN’T RECOGNIZE HER NOT HERE NOT IN THIS HOUSE I didn’t recognize me

Maybe this is what happened when you built a friendship on a foundation of hted themselves, left you desperate for the next earthquake I knew, deep down, there was more to it than this But I wanted an easy solution It ful to wish for ait anyway

Holht up to her, she’d already locked her bedroom door I knocked for a solid five , pointless es of aThey can’t do that to us They can’t take that fro

"We can’t have that," a voice said behindin the hall like so She showed ot the idea that shestrays around

I spent that night in a giant bed across froiant s that rattled every tiht term--it’d be a lie to say I slept there I couldn’t sleep at all I kne that I wasn’t the only one ished for awful things Every ti herself into nonexistence across the dinner table It kept me up because I knew that if she h, to take a handful of pills and lock the world out I’d seen her do it once already, under ain

Back then, I’d stopped her I didn’t think I could noas the last person she wanted to couy, and her best friend, andhour she added another brick to the wall she was building between us

At two, I got up and shut the curtains At three thirty, I opened theht that I pulled the pillow over my head I slept, then, and drea out across the Sussex countryside