a's

e top of the grand staircase like I was

he help,"

s," I

st sound I had ever heard com

had her father's gray eyes and none of his patience. She wore a school blazer with

hands. He was staring up at the chandelier, at the marble floor, at the

our kid?"

is M

ned and walked away down the upstairs hall without another word, and

e," Milo s

. I squeezed his

cery sacks. Luca had taken the signed license from me that morning without a word, read it once and slid it into his jac

m about t

went very still, the way a dog goes st

sure,"

at shelf every nig

d a minute later I heard him on the phone in the hallway, his v

en them. Some

, with soft cheeks and reading glasses on a beaded chain around her neck. For two years she had been the

d. To him. I nearly dropped th

sudden,"

hing flickered behind her glasses. "You left in such a hu

t ti

olo," she said. "And you n

light. Her e

Milo. "And who's this handsome man? Are you h

ard the kitchen, and I stood alone in the hall w

hat happened in this house. I

s that looked out over the gardens. It was bigger than our whole apartment. There was a four poster bed with

n the far wall, made of dark w

Dean said from the hall.

her that made me f

ars. There was a desk, a lamp and a shelf of brand new books still in their plastic. Milo walked in, set Cap

Like

roat

nd I ate pasta at one end of a table built for twenty, under a painting of a woman in

I told myself I was learning the h

ences. Don't go into the east wing. Don't go into the cellar. Don't let Milo leave

en one of them bef

nging open. I went to shut it, out of habit, and saw a stack o

have looke

t, her head thrown back, the sun on her face. A little girl sat in h

And her

Kessler Bridge four years ago on a night of freezing rain. The river was too fast. They never f

ack and saw something written on th

happens, loo

w, and I shoved the frame back, closed the closet and

n't know yet. A clock chiming somewhere far away. Wind in the chimney. Once, fo

was Luca. I alm

t, my door c

her phone clutched against her chest with both hands. In the dim light fro

Are yo

at the dark hallway. When she

ead," she said. "Don't trust anyo

he was

somewhere below us, in a house where everyone was s