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“I’ll keep that in mind. Now, did you want something?”
Raylene’s smile is rueful. “Actually, yes. I’ve taken a week off work to come here, but there’s a conference I’m attending in a month and I may need to confirm my accommodations. Do you think I could have access to my cell to do that?”
I stifle a grin. This isn’t the first time a workaholic has used a flimsy excuse to gain access to a screen.
Schooling my face into an impassive mask, I shake my head. “I’m sorry, Raylene. That’s against the rules. You’ll get your cell back when you check out.”
She frowns. “I can’t believe I agreed to this.”
I want to quote the benefits of a week off from screen time, but she won’t appreciate it. Or worse, I’ll alienate a guest on the first day. So I settle for a placating smile and she shrugs and walks away.
That would’ve been the end of it, if I hadn’t glanced at Ava’s portrait on my right. I’d had it painted by a local artist two years after her death, from a photo we’d taken on the beach, and not a day goes by that I don’t stare at it with heaviness in my heart.
In the photo, we’d been standing so close our heads are touching and I remember Harlan saying we could be twins at the time. With only eighteen years separating us, we could’ve passed for sisters, and with Raylene’s talk of my lookalike, I stare closer at the portrait, unable to subdue the faintest doubt.
Is Ava still alive?
It’s something I’ve pondered over the years. A hope that perhaps my clever daughter faked her death in order to escape Arcania. I’d even hired a private investigator nine months after she vanished in that swamp, but he’d come up with nothing.
It’s lunacy to even ponder the librarian that Raylene mentioned could be my Ava, but I know myself. I’ll obsess over this. I’ll create fanciful scenarios in my head or a fictional reunion. I’ll ruminate at length when I should be focusing on Arcania.
Nothing will appease my curiosity.
Except a trip to that Manhattan library.
Chapter33
Lucy
After my hellish night, I’m relieved to find the breakfast room empty. I help myself to a croissant and orange juice, wanting to eat quickly so I can ask Cora about the early check-out policy. I’m assuming I’ll lose the rest of my pre-payment and won’t get a refund but I don’t care. Searching for answers here has proved fruitless and I can’t spend another night being spooked.
Nothing happened after I returned to my room in the wee small hours. But that’s because I switched on every light and didn’t sleep, which proves the darkness brings this house to life and I don’t want to tempt fate again.
I finish my juice when Jase and Cindy stroll into the dining room. They’re wearing matching gray sweatpants and white T-shirts, their arms locked around each other’s waists, and her head is resting on his shoulder. Second honeymoon indeed.
“Hey.” I raise my hand in greeting and they smile at me in unison.
“Good morning,” Jase says, echoed by Cindy. “Jeez, this place is quiet.”
“Yeah,” Cindy says, disengaging from her husband to select a bowl of oatmeal and a blueberry muffin from the sideboard. “It’s just the three of us now.”
The glass I’m holding almost slips from my hand and I carefully place it on the table in front of me. “What happened to Craig and Demi?”
“Checked out early,” Jase says, before cramming an apricot into his mouth.
“We saw them leave at dawn,” Cindy adds, her nose crinkling. “So weird, to cut the week short and head out so early.”
“Probably couldn’t stand being offline for seven days, especially if they’re influencers.” Jase rolls his eyes. “Though I don’t know why you’d come here, knowing it’s to digitally detox, and then quit early because you have no willpower.”
Cindy lays a hand on his forearm. “They could’ve left for any reason, honey.”
Yeah, like escaping a madwoman who almost broke down their door in the middle of the night.
Jase gently bumps Cindy with his shoulder. “Don’t you think it’s weird, Lucy? Rushing off like that?”
“It does seem odd,” I say, knowing I won’t be far behind.
With Craig and Demi gone, my room at the end of the long corridor is the only one occupied and I can’t face another night like the one I just had with no one nearby.
