FIFTY SEVEN

ELOISE

I don't think I was able to cry. The numbness overpowered all my other senses. It was like an out-of-body experience where you could see it all happening but there wasn't much you could do about it. I dreaded what was to come. I dreaded passing by the sign welcome to Ashlake and eventually getting home. By the time we arrived, I could already hear the wails of sirens and the chatters of passersby. No miracle was happening. I looked outside the car window and that was when the numb feeling exploded into something I knew like the back of my hand. Men dressed like paramedics carried a big black bag from the house as they loaded the body inside the ambulance.

"It's not real," I told myself, and how I wished that were true. What I would have done to let that be my truth.

"Miss, there is–" I didn't even let the butler finish before I opened the car door and stepped outside.

"Tell Orla that I am grateful for everything she has done for me." I managed to say while holding my tears. Tha