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The door clicked shut, and the suite went entirely quiet except for the low hum of TV.

Granny watched me from her armchair by the window, her keen brown eyes taking in the way I held my hands clenched together.

I cleared my throat and walked over to the dining table.

“Well,” I began, picking up an empty folder. “It looks like we’ll be moving tomorrow.”

Willow didn’t look up from her phone. “Moving where? To another floor?”

“To Caspian’s mansion,” I revealed.

Willow’s head snapped up so violently I thought she was going to give herself whiplash. “Girl, what?”

Granny’s hands stilled in her lap. “Lakelyn?”

“His mom and I talked,” I explained, keeping my voice as steady as possible. “We’ll be staying there until the repairs on our house are finished.”

Willow stared at me for three full seconds, her mouth falling open.

“Lakelyn, do you know how big that house is?!” She paced across the sitting area with absolute glee.

“Uh, yeah. I stayed there plenty of nights.”

“We’re moving into a whole estate! A compound! A compound with wrought-iron gates!”

I couldn’t help the laugh that slipped out. “It is temporary, Willow. Do not get too excited.”

She waved me off. “Temporary or permanent, I’m overly excited and already comfortable! I’m claiming the upstairs room with the biggest soaking tub! A real tub where my knees don’t touch my chin like I’m folded into a suitcase!”

“You are not claiming anything until Granny and Kaidence have their rooms picked out.”

Willow waved me off with an airy flick of her wrist. “That house has ten bedrooms, Lakelyn! We could host a family reunion and still not run into each other!”

Granny’s smile was gentle, but her focus remained squarely on me. “Baby... are you sure about this?”

“It makes practical sense, Granny,” I replied, walking over to sit on the arm of her chair. “Insurance is covering the rooms for now, but that doesn’t make living out of a hotel any easier. We have no idea how long the contractor is going to take with the laundry room and the other repairs. Caspian’s house is sitting there empty. It has clean air, space for Kaidence to run around, and no stairs for you.”

Granny reached up, wrapping her warm, worn fingers around mine. “I’m not asking about the practical side, Lakelyn. I’m asking about your heart. You don’t have to force yourself to walk through those doors just to accommodate us.”

The excitement in the room dimmed just enough for the truth to breathe.

Like everyone else, Granny knew every layer of what that mansion meant. She had held me while I sobbed into my pillow when Caspian didn’t show up that night and she had watched me pack away his pictures when looking at them became too heavy to bear.

“I’m ready,” I said, though my voice carried a faint tremor. “Or at least I’m ready enough to try. If it gets to be too heavy, we’ll figure something out. But right now, we need a safe place to land.”

Granny searched my face for a long moment before nodding softly. “All right then. As long as you promise to tell me if it hurts too much.”

“I promise.”

Willow walked over, throwing an arm around my shoulders and leaning her head against mine.

“Look at the bright side, sis. At least you won’t be in that big-ass house alone. You got Granny, Kaidence, and your favorite sister.”

“Willow, you’re my only sister.”

“Which makes me the favorite by default,” she retorted smoothly. “And look, if that mansion really does have a ghost walking around at two in the morning, he better understand we family. Kaidence’s daddy built that place. We got ancestral squatter's rights.”

“That is not how ghosts work, Willow.”