로그인Melanie The east wing was old. Not old like my apartment before renovations, but like rich history kind of old. After the morning drama with Leonardo and his wife, I decided to explore the entire wing, just to see what my options were. So I walked. From one floor to another, maybe there might be a service door somewhere that was unmonitored.On the stairway, I trailed my fingers along the bannister; it was mahogany and cold, with carved lions at the base with their mouths open. They looked as if they were judging my presence then. I entered the rooms, no longer in a frenzy like before but this time deliberate and intentional about each room, and that's when I noticed minor features about the rooms; every room had a clock. But none of them matched. So every room had a ticking sound, one that I had never noticed before. Like the house couldn’t agree what time it was. The rugs. Persian. Threadbare paths where feet had walked before still looked good. The air smelled of lem
Leonardo After playing games with Olivia, I went straight to the dog kennel to see O. Stanley was in the kennel as usual at this time of the morning. O sat. Heel. Perfect. I hadn't seen him in a while and I had a job for him. “Stanley.” I called out. Stanley stood and rubbed his hands on a piece of clothe. “Boss.” “O needs retraining, I have a job that I want him to do for me.” I said looking at the dog. He looked better than he did before. His unkept look that he was rocking before was less visible. Stanley stood and waited. “I need him to do some tricks.” I said. “Make it stupid. Make it cute.” Stanley’s face was blank. “You want him to follow new commands?” he asked. "O, charm." I said but the words didn't register on O, his head tilted but he made no visible movements as yet." “Exactly." I said in answer to Stanley's question about O following new commands. "I want us to also change his name to Mel, if you can make him respond to that, that woul
Leonardo She left. Melanie, not Olivia. Olivia had left first. Quieter. Melanie left with book throwing and stomping of feet, and I could hear her door slam all the way from the old library. I deserved that, but that was the whole point of her. To serve a purpose and she had served it well. The walk to Olivia’s room had been long, and although no one saw what happened, I felt that the walls of the mansion had eyes that followed me everywhere simply to judge me. In a perfect world there was no point in running after either of them, but Olivia had earned her time in the sun, and that explained why I was standing outside her door like a lost puppy. Melanie was probably in her room with the door locked and, well...throwing things around. The entire house had known about Melanie. Everyone but Olivia. Until now. I stood outside her door and waited for her to open it. Then after a few words, the lock clicked. It was not a turn but a decision. And she made a good one.
Olivia I didn’t run. I walked. Through the east wing, past the rooms that smelled like dust and old money, out into the morning air that was too crisp for how sick I felt. I made it to the main house before my legs gave out. Not dramatically. I just sat down on the bottom step of the staircase and put my head between my knees. Breathe. In. Out. It didn’t help. I’d been prepared for a lot of things. For him to be gone. For him to be with Cici, murmuring about “security protocols.” For him to use his boardroom voice and tell me to stop asking about Cassie. I wasn’t prepared for ...him with another woman. and not one that young. I wasn't prepared for the way she looked at me. Not guilty, not smug, just knowing. She knew who I was. She had to have known. The way her eyes went from me to him. That wasn’t confusion. That was calculation. That look spoke volumes...it said, "so you’re Olivia." God. How long? How long had she been here, in the part of the house I never went to,
Melanie We both watched the now-empty doorway where his wife had stood not so long ago. The door was wide open, of course it was. Why would it be closed? Privacy was for people who got to leave the house. I didn’t move. Couldn’t. Leo’s jacket still clung to my chest, and it smelled like him. Like last night. Like a mistake. Leo was awake now. Sitting up. Hand dragging through his hair, eyes on the door as if he stared hard enough he could undo the last 30 seconds of his life. We’d never said her name in this room. That was the rule. I knew he was married. Married, not separated, not “it’s complicated.” It was the reason I went to Paris.And after I came to the mansion, and he didn’t even deny it. He just looked at me with those stupid, wrecked eyes and I thought, Well, at least he’s honest about who he was. Even after being imprisoned and told to stay in this wing, I got accustomed to my new life and stayed. Because he looked at me like I was a person, not a problem. Be
Olivia I woke up warm. That was the first surprise. The second was the blanket. Tucked. Corners tight, as if someone had taken time. Like I was something worth keeping from the cold. My mouth tasted like the bottom of a vineyard, and my head was staging a revolt, but I wasn’t in my heels. Wasn’t on the bathroom tile. Wasn’t alone in the back of the car and, most importantly, I was not at the camp. Last night had been a wild ride. Leonardo's mom was a no-show, and it was Leonardo who had joined me for dinner. After dinner, he carried me. He covered me and even brushed the hair out of my face, and guess what, I was too drunk to tell him not to. God. When was the last time he had touched me like that? Just once since things took a turn for the worse . I sat up too fast. The room spun and my stomach lodged a complaint. Great. My pride told me to forget all about Leonardo's sweetness last night, continue on my pursuit in searching for Cassie, and just pretend that
Melanie A woman about forty something with striking ginger hair and the bluest eyes I had ever seen stood on my door step. She was as thin as the models I usually saw on runaway. She cleared her throat and I remembered my manners. I tried to sound casual, "Bonjour." I said trying to look
Leonardo The car stopped outside of Melanie's apartment in the evening. When I stepped outside the car, I noticed that the building looked the same but there was something eerie about it at the same time. I'd visited the place many times before and my instinct told me that something was not rig
Leonardo Cici led us to the throne room, but I stopped him by the door, “What is Olivia doing here?” I asked. He had taken me by surprise with Nikolai and after that everything had moved too fast for my liking. “She's not supposed to be in there.” I said, one hand on my waist and another b
Olivia The room where I stayed was cold, I was cold from lack of warm food and warm clothes. We were in the dead of winter and only had rags to wear. The day I left the mansion, Stanley didn’t take me anywhere I wanted, as I thought he would but he had brought me to this place in the middle of n







