Chapter 16: The Room

Jonas's POV

I drove Annabel to the trust's apartment on East Seventy-fourth Street.

Her father's register listed it, and I had carried the keys in the leather case for six years.

I put my deputy on her door and told him nobody came up, not even a Draper with a badge.

She stood in the hall with her shoes in her hand and looked at me.

"Go," she said. "Get my sister."

I went.

It was past midnight when I reached St. Alder's side entrance.

The night nurse had stopped asking for my pass the first month I came on Sundays.

"Mr. Rhinelander," she said. "The director's been called. Mr. Draper's office sent a discharge for Miss Wyndham an hour ago."

"She's not leaving," I said.

"Then you'd better hurry," the nurse said, and she held the elevator for me.

Poppy was sitting up in bed with her knit cap on and her laptop open on the tray.

The gala was still playing on the screen with the sound off.

"Tell me it was real," she said. "Tell me I didn't just watch my sister take down a ballroom."

"It was real."

She laughed, and then she put her hand over her mouth and cried without any noise.

I stood by the bed and did not know where to put my hands.

"Marigold," she said, wiping her face on her sleeve. "Six years I've said that word to you and the nurses."

"I'm not fine tonight, Jonas. I'm scared out of my mind, and I'm so proud I could throw up."

"That's allowed," I said.

"Is she safe?"

"She's in the apartment with a man on the door."

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