Chapter 4: Mrs. Knight

The car ride to the mansion was silent.

Claire sat as far from Adrian as she could, arms wrapped tight around herself. Adrian looked out his own window. Neither of them said a word the whole way there. Claire kept blinking hard, refusing to let herself cry in front of a stranger, though her eyes burned with the effort of holding it back.

When they arrived, a staff member opened the car door.

"Welcome home, Mrs. Knight."

Claire didn't answer. She followed Adrian inside instead, her legs unsteady.

The house was big and cold. More staff greeted them in the hall, each one calling her Mrs. Knight. By the third time, she stopped reacting to the name at all, too tired and too raw to fight it.

Once the staff left, Adrian turned to face her.

"We need to set some things straight," he said.

"Fine." Her voice came out sharper than she meant it to. "Say it."

"We will not be sharing a room. Ever."

"I never asked to."

"I need to say this plainly, so there's no confusion later." Adrian's voice stayed flat. "I did not want to get married. Not to Sophia, and not to you. I'm doing this because my father asked me to."

Something in Claire cracked. "Do you think I wanted this? I lost my sister last night. I don't even know if she's alive. And instead of looking for her myself, I'm standing in your house being told the rules of a marriage I never agreed to."

"I'm not the one who put you in this position."

"No, you're just the one making sure I feel completely unwanted in it." Her voice shook now, tears finally spilling over despite everything she'd done to hold them back. "You don't have to remind me I'm a stranger you never wanted. I already know that. I felt it the second you looked at me like I was a problem instead of a person."

"That's not" Adrian stopped, jaw tight, something flickering across his face that looked almost like regret.

"Don't," Claire said, wiping at her eyes furiously. "Don't try to take it back now. You said what you meant."

"I didn't mean to hurt you."

"Well, you did." She turned away from him, arms crossed hard against her chest, shaking now with something that was equal parts grief and anger. "My sister might be dead somewhere. I just married a man I've never met, in front of hundreds of strangers, wearing her dress, using her name. And you're standing here making sure I understand I'm not welcome, like that was somehow the thing I needed clarified tonight."

Adrian didn't answer right away. When he finally spoke, his voice had lost some of its earlier coldness.

"You're right," he said quietly. "That was unnecessary. I'm sorry."

Claire didn't look at him. She didn't trust her voice not to break completely if she tried to respond.

He left without saying anything else.

A staff member showed her to a guest room a few minutes later. The moment the door closed, Claire sat on the edge of the bed, tears already streaming down her face, and picked up the phone to call her mother, unable to wait even long enough to compose herself first.

Eleanor picked up on the first ring. "Claire? What happened? Why are you crying?"

"I want to come home, Mom." Claire's voice broke apart with every word, the tears not slowing down at all. "Please. This was supposed to be one ceremony. I did what Dad asked. I want to come home now."

"You can't," Eleanor said, her own voice thick with tears. "Not yet, sweetheart."

"Why not?"

"Because Sophia is still missing, and if you leave that house now, people will ask questions none of us are ready to answer. Please, Claire. Just until we find her. I know how much I'm asking. I know it isn't fair."

"And if you never find her?" Claire's voice cracked on the words. "What happens to me then, Mom? Am I supposed to just live her life forever?"

Eleanor didn't answer. The silence on the line said more than words could have.

"I have to go," Claire whispered, and hung up before her mother could say anything else, before either of them had to sit inside that unanswered question any longer.

She curled up on top of the covers, still in her clothes, and cried herself into an exhausted, dreamless sleep.

She woke to a small sound near the window.

Her eyes opened slowly, still thick with sleep, and then went wide.

A man stood by the window, still as a shadow, a gun held loosely in one hand.

Claire screamed.