I watch the three dots.
Adela:I've missed you more.
I set the phone down and walk back to the window.
The grounds below are still immaculate. The gravel still raked clean. Everything is ordered and controlled and exactly as it should appear from the outside.
Saturday.
Three days.
Enough time for her to feel safe about it. Enough time for whatever she's been doing to continue, to compound, to give memore of what I already have. Enough time for the man in the library and Beckett near Elm Hall to do whatever they're going to do next while Adela believes she's managing all of it cleanly.
She thinks she's the one who knows things.
I almost find that endearing.
I press two fingers against the bridge of my nose and breathe. In. Out. The way my father taught me when I was twelve, furious, and wanted to put my fist through something.
Emotion is a resource.
Spend it where it earns something.
I have not spent a single unit of it yet.
Saturday, I will spend all of it.
I turn from the window, walk downstairs, and eat breakfast in my father's kitchen.
I have always been good at waiting.
Chapter 38: Theo
Idon’twanttoadmit that I’m holding my breath as I round the last shelf and look towards the carrel Adela always claims.
But I hesitate when another figure is there.
Serena.
She’s standing at the table with her phone raised over the desk.
She lowers the phone, and her thumb moves fast — sending something to someone. The phone disappears into her bag in one clean motion.
Then she looks up, and she sees me.
One second surprise, maybe guilt, or pure shock catches on her face. Then it closes off and rearranges into a smile. The one she deploys when she's decided offense is better than defense.
"Theo." Warm. Delighted. "What are you doing here?"
I walk toward her slowly.
I don't speak.
I watch the smile hold and then flicker as I get closer. I don't stop and don't give her anything to read in my face because there is nothing in my face right now. I've taken everything out of it.
She takes one small step back.
Good.
