Page 286 of Taken Away

"I don't know who I am right now."

“I know.”

“I keep thinking I should feel one thing, but there are too many things.” Her voice cracked. “I hate her. I love her. I want her to explain it. I never want to hear her voice again.”

Bennett took her hand.

“You don’t have to know what to do tonight.”

Aubrey looked down at their joined hands.

Her thumb stilled.

She saw it.

The bare place on his finger.

Bennett did not explain.

Not yet.

Her eyes lifted to his.

Something passed between them.

Soft.

Fragile.

Too sacred to touch with too many words.

Bennett squeezed her hand.

“If you feel like riding down to Blackwood,” he said, “there’s something I want to show you.”

Aubrey’s breath caught.

“What?”

“Something Harold left.”

Her face changed at his name.

Not fear.

Not quite hope.

Something more painful than both.

After a moment, she nodded.

“Okay.”

They drove to Blackwood as evening settled over the hills.

Neither of them spoke much.

The Victorian rose ahead of them, its windows glowing faintly in the dusk. For weeks, the house had looked to Aubrey like a test she had not studied for. A legacy she had not asked for. A beautiful burden wrapped in Mabel’s will.