Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 41 - Chapitre 50

Isla POVThe notebook was Mabel's, originally. Green cover, a cartoon fox on the front, half the pages still blank from a phase when she wanted to be a detective. I took it out of the junk drawer on a Wednesday morning, tore out the three pages of her suspect drawings, and wrote the date at the top of the first clean one.Priya had been clear about this. "Boring is your friend," she said on the phone. "Boring is what a judge believes."So I wrote something boring. ‘Wed. Up 6:40. Eggs, toast. Packed lunch. School drop-off 8:05. Spelling test Friday: necessary, ordinary, island, enough.’ Then pickup time, snack, how long homework took, what time her light went off. It looked like the dullest diary in the world, and I felt ridiculous writing ‘bath 7:15, wash my own hair’ as if somebody would read it back to me out loud someday.Somebody might. That was the point.By Friday I had a system. The notebook lived under the takeout menus. I wrote in it while the kettle boiled or Mabel brushed h

Isla POVDorian's email came at 9:14 on Monday morning, one word. ‘Sent.’ I read it standing at the sink with a dish towel on my shoulder, put my phone face-down on the counter, and dried a plate that was already dry.Ten business days. That night I counted them on the fridge calendar with a pen cap between my teeth, angled so Mabel couldn't see what I was doing with a marker.Camille knocked on Tuesday. She'd been knocking since the coffee shop, even with the key in her pocket, and every time it made me feel better and worse in about equal amounts. She came in with a pizza box balanced on one palm and her bag sliding off her shoulder."I bring carbs and a plan.""Which one's more useful?""Depends how hungry you are." She flipped the lid open. Mushroom, which only Mabel and I ate. She remembered. "Okay. Julian asked me again about the gala. He wants the family to say something. A toast, with a microphone, in front of the whole b

Isla POVCamille called at ten past six. I was at the stove with a wooden spoon in my hand, and I set it on the counter, then moved it to the sink for no reason I could name."I'm in the car," she said. "I've been in the car for five hours. I drove to the lake. I don't even like the lake.""Are you okay?""I got caught." She laughed, and it was a bad one. "You told me not to and I did it anyway. Can I tell you what happened without you saying anything till I'm done?"I turned off the burner. Mabel sat at the table drawing a hamster in a sock. "Go."She told it fast and out of order, with a detour about a golf ball. The folder, the drawer, the photos, twelve pages, maybe thirteen. Renata in the doorway with her coffee. A story about a lobster so absurd I had to press my hand over my mouth. Then the elevator."She texted him. 'We need to talk tonight. It's about your sister.' I read it in the mirror doors.""In the mirror.""Julian used to leave me notes backwards. Long story."Mabel wa

Isla POVThe envelope was under the geranium on my back step when I got home from drop-off. A brass key slid into my palm, tied to a loop of curling ribbon left over from some old birthday present, with a tag in Camille's round handwriting: ‘6B’. A sticky note was stuck to the flap. ‘Take the elevator. The stairs smell worse than the soup.’I texted Priya before I could talk myself out of it. ‘1120 Halloran, 6B. Julian's. I have a key. Going in.’She answered in under a minute, which for Priya was practically a scream. ‘Photograph, don't take. Don't move anything you can't put back exactly. Left to right, door to window. If anyone asks, you're checking on your husband's property. Text me when you're out.’It was a brick building in a part of downtown where the sidewalks are wide and nobody looks up. A man with a dog the size of a loaf of bread came out as I got there, and he held the door with his foot without so much as glancing at me. The lobby had a wall of mailboxes and a brass pl

Isla POV"Dad says you're getting married again," Mabel said over a spoonful of cereal. "Do I get a dress?"I was at the sink with my back to her, trimming the stems on Julian's peonies. "When did he say that?""In the car yesterday. It's supposed to be a surprise, but he told me anyway because he said I'd figure it out." She crunched. "He also told Jaylen's dad. And the crossing guard.""The crossing guard.""She said congratulations. I said thank you." She studied the bowl. "Is it a poofy dress or a normal one?""I'll find out."By ten the peonies had sat through three more phone calls.Marcus texted first. ‘Heard the news!! Ten years. You two make the rest of us look bad.’ A heart. Then, a minute later: ‘Don't tell him I told you he told me.’Julian's mother rang while I was rinsing the bowl. Lorraine always started a half step higher than a voice should."He told me about the vows, honey. I