Accidentally Pregnant with the Horror Boss novel · Chapter 23 of 32

Chapter 23: Masquerade

I sat back on my heels on the nursery floor.

"Write the last rule," I said. "What does that mean, baby? Write what?"

But Mouse had pulled the little attic shutters closed, and she wouldn't say anything else.

In the morning there was a card on the tray in round, crooked crayon.

Penny read it to the dining hall.

"Night fifty is the Ball. Every guest wears a mask. Every guest dances until twelve. Then beds."

"Is this one real?" asked the man in the tracksuit.

"It's real," said Ambrose from the head of the table. "It's the oldest night in the house. Older than Mouse."

"Is it dangerous?"

He was quiet for a second.

"Don't fall," he said.

Penny lowered the card. "That's it? Don't fall?"

"That's the rule. Whoever falls at the Ball belongs to the red room."

"What's in the red room?"

"I don't know," he said. "Nobody's ever come out to say."

At nine that night I found a dress laid out on my nanny bed.

Red silk, the color of his tie. It was cut low in the back and slit up one side to the knee.

There was a little black mask beside it on a ribbon.

"Oh, absolutely not," I said.

"Oh, absolutely yes," said Penny.

Hers was green velvet. She looked like a Christmas card with a temper.

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