The penthouse was quiet in a way Daisy’s old flat never was. No neighbors shouting through thin walls, no pipes groaning at odd hours, no buses rumbling past at dawn to rattle windows that never fully sealed.
The silence here was deliberate and paid for, and some mornings it pressed against her so completely she forgot how to breathe inside it.
A knock on the door startled Daisy. She’d been lost in another mind-numbing stare. “Yeah?”
Maggie popped her head in. “I’m going shopping. Want to come?”
“I can’t. I have my virtual appointment with Dr. Kawanja in a bit and then I have to start preparing dinner for tonight.”
“That’s right. Do you need me to pick up anything? I saw some nice cakes in the bakery window on the corner.”
Daisy smiled. “That would be nice. Thanks.”
“I won’t be long. I can’t wait to meet your friend. Call if you think of anything else.”
She and Maggie had moved in a week ago, though “moved in” was generous for two women who arrived with two suitcases and no earthly idea how to furnish a home from scratch.
Their entire lives had been secondhand, assembled from charity shops and hand-me-downs. The concept of walking into a shop and choosing something new, something that had never belonged to another person, paralyzed them both so thoroughly they were immediately overwhelmed by the process.
So the penthouse remained mostly empty. A table and four chairs occupied the kitchen, beds filled their rooms, and a sofa for sitting in the den. Together, they owned a collection of mismatched mugs, pans, and a kettle to get them settled, but they eventually planned to replace the old with brand new.
Neither of them was in any rush, and that was the beautiful thing about financial stability. Money didn’t just buy comfort. It bought time, the kind of time that allowed a person to stand in the shower without calculating the water bill, or hold a bar of soap and marvel at the absurd luxury of choosing jasmine over whatever was in the bargain bin.
Sometimes, it felt like she had too much time on her hands.
Daisy would frequently find her hand frozen on a cupboard door or her eyes fixed on milk swirling into her tea, as if her body kept moving through the motions of living while her mind drifted somewhere else entirely.
Every change she faced was because of him. His impact on her life was unignorable. Yet she couldn’t reach him.
The penthouse had floor-to-ceiling windows facing east, and every morning when the city bloomed in shades of amber and rose just before dawn she felt him most. Not in her dreams or memories, but in the stillness.
She didn’t like thinking about the attack, not that she remembered much after the gun went off. And what she could remember clearly, she didn’t like to think about.
Blood—the way it was still warm when it coated her skin. The sound of her screams. The sound of Jack beating a dead man as others rushed in and dragged her away. Still screaming. Still not fully clear on what was happening.
It happened in a blink.
Then there was a man whose name she didn’t learn. Come with me, little rabbit.
Aunt Vanessa appeared next, or maybe she was already there, because the timeline collapsed and reassembled so many times, Daisy wasn’t sure what the true order was anymore.
She led Daisy into a guest room and peeled the bloodied dress from her body.
“Close your eyes,” she’d said, when Daisy’s reflection flashed red in the bathroom mirror.
Warm water ran over her skin while her teeth chattered. Tremors rolled through her like a freight train, dislodging everything.
She helped her into a pair of grey joggers and a cotton shirt then gave her a pill.
“Trust me,” Aunt V had said, and for once Daisy did, swallowing it down.
That was the last thing she remembered.
She woke at the White Swan, not knowing how she got there or how many hours she’d lost. Another pill waited and she swallowed that one as well, sleeping for another undetermined length of time until one morning the shrill ringing of a phone that hadn’t been there before wakened her.
She knew someone was coming into her suite, but she didn’t care. She only wanted to sleep.
“Ms. Burdan, a car will be here in one hour to transport you to the airport. Please see that you’re ready when your escort arrives.”
