“Evermore Books. I drew the symbol and showed it to my boss, Maggie Henshaw, and she showed me this book. It was donated fromyourestate, by Denis Tulane.”
Jude casts another glance in Twig’s direction.
“I told him about the portrait,” I say. “And everything we found when we were researching in your library.”
His countenance goes very, very dark.
He doesn’t like that I’ve told Twig.
But what’s a girl to do? Of course I was going to tell my best friend.
“You don’t have to worry. It’s not like we’re going to do a podcast episode about it.”
“Aren’t you?”
“Of course not.”
Jude drags his hand along his bruised jawline. “I think we should drop this.”
“What?” I practically come out of my chair, garnering the attention of several people sitting at the table next to ours. I lower my voice. “Why—because I told Twig?”
“Because we don’t even know what we’re looking for.”
“The identity of Ezra’s obsession.”
“She’s his mistress.”
“You can’t honestly still think that.”
“Why not?”
“If she was simply his mistress, why is there this mysterious symbol? What’s it doing on the locket and that sketch?”
“Maybe they had an illegitimate kid together, Molly is their daughter, and the symbol is your family crest.”
“I don’t have a family crest.”
“That you know of.”
I hold up my phone with the picture of the tome. “And this? What’s the symbol doing on this?”
“What’s inside?”
“We don’t know.”
“You can’t tell from the picture,” Twig says, “but it’s locked.”
Jude’s eyes spark with interest.
I grab onto it for all I’m worth. “Pretty strange, don’t you think?”
But he only shakes his head. “I shouldn’t have shown you the portrait.”
“Of course you should have. It’s a painting ofme.”
“Someone who looks like you,” he says in a tone tight with aggravation. “Rafe is up to something, and whatever it is, he’s trying to pull you into the middle of it.”
My attention shifts to his bruise. “Is that why you want to drop this, because of Rafe?”
