The Twin They Erased novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: Student of Record

Willa's POV

The sheriff brought my aunt down from the bell tower himself.

I stood on the lawn with Tilda on my arm and every girl in the school behind me.

The door at the foot of the tower opened.

Odile came out with her hair loose and her pearls gone.

She was in handcuffs.

She walked between the sheriff and the deputy across the grass, and the girls parted to let her through.

Not one of them spoke.

Halfway to the car she stopped in front of my sister.

"Tilda," she said, in the old soft voice. "Darling. You know I did it all for the mill."

"I know, Aunt Odile."

"Then tell them. Tell them you're not well."

Tilda looked at her for a long moment.

"I am going to write you," she said. "Every Tuesday. In ink."

Odile's mouth opened, and nothing came out of it.

I stepped forward.

"I lived in that tower for three years," I said. "I walked out of it."

"You're a little girl in a uniform."

"I'm a student of record," I said. "Ask the board."

The sheriff took her by the elbow and put her in the car.

The door shut on her.

Through the glass I saw her look at the tower once, and then at her own hands.

That was the last time I saw my aunt as a free woman.

On Saturday the whole school stood in the great hall again.

The trustees sat at the oak table.

Ansel stood at the foot of it in a brown cardigan, without her bun or her keys.

She had been let out of the county jail that morning on bail.

A deputy stood at her back.

She held a stack of envelopes in her hands, and her glasses were crooked.

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