All Chapters of The Crimson Letter: Chapter 21 - Chapter 29

Sloane stared down at the sketch in her lap again.Lenore.Not quite child. Not quite ghost. This time, she’d drawn the girl reaching toward a door that hadn’t existed yesterday. At least not in any way that could be explained by architecture or memory. The lines were smudged, but deliberate. As if her hand had known where to go even before her thoughts had caught up.The page felt heavy. Like it carried more than graphite and shadow.Theo had fallen quiet beside her, legs stretched out in front of the fire, head tilted back against the sofa. His bare feet were tucked under the edge of the quilt they laid upon earlier, one arm draped across his stomach, the other resting against his thigh. His coffee mug sat beside him on the floor, abandoned and cooling.He looked peaceful like this. Not unburdened, not truly. But softer around the edges, as if the night had lifted something from his shoulders.She closed her sketchbook gently and stood, drawing throw tighter around her bare skin. Th

The walk back to the house was slower than the one that brought her out. The garden behind her felt like a wound the earth hadn’t decided whether to close or keep open. Sloane moved in silence, boots sinking into soft moss, the air thick with the scent of wet bark and rust. Branches scraped across her sleeves as she passed beneath them, and somewhere in the trees, something followed, not seen, not heard, just felt. When she reached the broken path that led up to the mansion, she paused once, looking back. The greenhouse was gone. Or hidden again. Either way, it didn’t surprise her. She didn’t need to see it to know it would remember her.The air shifted the moment she stepped back into the house.Not colder, not louder. Just… closer. As if the walls had leaned in, listening now with more intent.She moved slowly, brushing dried leaves from her coat as she passed through the side corridor. The door she’d entered through, half-wrapped in rotted vines and ruin just moments ago, was gone.

Neither of them moved for a long time after the photo was set down. The quiet between them held, not awkward, but fragile. Like stepping onto a frozen lake, not sure where the cracks would form. The kind of stillness that follows not comfort, but recognition.Sloane’s fingers rested lightly on the edge of the table. She felt it there. The steady pulse of something old waking up inside her. Not memory exactly. Something older.Theo finally spoke, voice quiet but firm. “There’s an old storage corridor just off the east wing. My father used to keep things there he didn’t want catalogued.”Sloane’s gaze lifted. “What kind of things?”He stood, brushing dust from his palms. “Things he couldn’t explain. Or didn’t want to.”They moved together through the corridor, their footsteps muffled against worn runners and ancient wood. The lights along the walls had long gone dim, casting the hallway in a hushed amber glow. The portraits seemed to lean in slightly, watching with the stillness of thos

The night still pressed against the windows, but inside the drawing room, the air had turned warmer, softer, crackling faintly from the fire Theo had reignited, more for comfort than heat.Sloane sat curled in one of the high-backed chairs, her robe wrapped tightly around her, hair falling loose over one shoulder. She hadn’t spoken much since the handprint. Her eyes kept drifting back to the glass door, though Theo had long since drawn the curtains.He poured a small glass of brandy and brought it to her. Not with a flourish, but with a quiet familiarity that said he didn’t expect thanks. Just that she drink.She took it, fingers brushing his. They lingered for half a breath too long.“You’re shaking,” he said.“I know.” Her voice was hoarse. “It’s passing.”He pulled the other chair closer, not beside her but angled, as if unwilling to crowd her, even though everything in his posture screamed protectiveness. It was a restraint she hadn’t noticed before, or maybe just hadn’t wanted to