“That was none of your business.”
“I said what, not who. Your phone is from the Dark Ages,” he says, laughing.
“It’s actually only a couple of years old and it works perfectly well. I’ve never understood the need to replace things that are not broken.”
“You don’t have a smartphone?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m smart. Those things listen to every word you say and I value my privacy. So-called social media will stain your brain, and I don’t have time for all that shit and shenanigans. I only need a phone to make phone calls. If I want to waste hours of my life staring at a screen I’ll buy a TV.”
He stares at me as though I might be crazy. “You don’t have a TV?”
“Thank you for the questions, and for the sex, but I have a few things to do, so…”
It takes a second for the penny to drop and when it does he looks mortified.
“You want me toleave?”
What was he expecting? Did he think we were going to go upstairs and spend the night spooning in my dead grandmother’s bed?
“Unless you want to do that again? But to be completely honest I’m exhausted,” I say. His cheeks turn red and he looks a curious mix of hurt and confused, which makes me feel bad. “That waslovelythough,” I tell him in the voice I normally reserve for young children.
I wait until Carter is gone, then get dressed and go back to the bureau in the hallway by the front door. It’s covered in post—some opened, some not—all stacked in precarious piles. I quickly sort through them, not expecting to find what I’m looking for. Not evensure if I want to find it. But sure enough, among all the clutter and chaos, there is another black envelope with gold foil and the same logo as the first. I open it and read the letter inside.
Thank you for joining the Thanatos Family.
You’ll find your date of death confirmed below.*
Olivia Bird—Friday, February 14, 2025
We all have a right to know when our last day will be,
and now you can live your best life every day until the day you die,
and make any arrangements with peace of mind.
Do be sure to contact us if you need any further information at the number below.
We wish you a Happy Deathday.
*Terms and conditions apply.
I stare at the letter that was sent two weeks before my grandmother died, correctly predicting the day that she would. I guess she took Thanatos up on their offer, and my head starts to spin with the effort of trying to make sense of it all. I have a logical mind and I know this can’t be real. I don’t understand how this company was able to predict the exact date my grandmother was going to die. But I intend to find out.
17EDEN
October 30
Someone is setting me up and I plan to find out who. Visiting Gabriella will help prove who I am. She survived the accident but was never the same again, which is why I dedicated my whole life to looking after Gabby from then on. But I couldn’t do it forever. Ten years is a long time, so I found somewhere else for her to live, a place with people who have more time than I do to take care of her. I thought it was best for all of us, but as I make my way up the winding driveway that leads to The Manor I start to have second thoughts about that.
The Manor looks like a spooky old mansion in the dark, but that is not what it is. Not since a company with a lot of money bought it, renovated it, and turned it into something else. I’m just relieved I finally found the place; it feels like I’ve been driving in circles for hours. The lights are off in almost all the windows and when I check the time I see it’s very late. Gabriella is bound to be asleep by now but this can’t wait. I park the car outside the imposing entrance, walk up to the door, and push the buzzer.
“Can I help you?” asks a weary-sounding voice.
“I need to see my daughter. Gabriella Woolf.”
