Page 161 of Dream On, Liar

I repeated my actions until her breathing gradually loosened.

The room went quiet except for the rain against the windows.

I looked towards the doorway. Beyond it sat the album my mother had left me. A life I’d spent years avoiding. A past I’d convinced myself I didn’t need to understand.

And now, somehow, both of us were sitting inside the pieces of it.

Maeve breathed softly against my shoulder.

I looked down at her.

Then closed my eyes, and repeated my words again.

You’re safe.

And somewhere, they’d become for me, just as much as they had for her.

27

Maeve

I WOKE SLOWLY.

Not all at once, but in pieces. First the weightlessness of sleep slipping away. Then the unfamiliar softness beneath my cheek. Then the faint ache in my shoulder from having slept in one position too long.

I opened my eyes.

The room was empty.

For one horrible second, I didn’t know where I was and my heart lurched.

The cabin.

Right.

Rain whispered against the windows, so soft it sounded almost like static. The room was dim, the only light coming from the thin grey morning pressing through the curtains.

I pushed myself upright.

“Rihaan?”

Nothing.

The silence that followed was so complete that it made my pulse kick harder.

I listened.

No television.

No footsteps.

No voice downstairs.

Nothing except the rain and the quiet mechanical hum of the heating.

I pulled the duvet around myself and stood.

My feet met the wooden floor.