Chapter 7: Her Room Was a Dressing Room

Hattie asked for her rabbit on the third morning.

It was a gray rabbit with one ear chewed flat, and it lived on her bed in Slenale.

"I'll get it," I said.

"I'm coming with you," Cillian said.

"That's not in the terms."

"The terms say you aren't alone in front of Neil." He picked up his keys. "I'll wait in the car."

The drive took five hours, and I spent most of it looking out the window at fields.

The Garner house sat on a quiet street with white shutters and a lawn I'd paid a gardener to keep.

Two of Cillian's security men followed in a second car.

Cillian stayed in the driveway, as promised.

I went up the front steps alone, and the door was unlocked.

I smelled coffee in the kitchen.

Kirsten Lowe stood at my counter in a silk robe I had never seen.

She was buttering toast with my knife.

She looked at me without any surprise.

"Penelope," she said. "I wondered when you'd come."

"Why are you in my house?"

"Neil asked me to stay. He doesn't want to be alone right now."

"Take off the robe."

"It's mine."

"It's in my kitchen."

She smiled and bit into the toast.

I walked past her to the stairs.

Hattie's room was at the end of the hall.

I opened the door and stopped.

The bed was gone.

In its place stood a rolling rack of dresses, a vanity covered with makeup, and a long mirror in a gold frame.

Hattie's toys were stacked in a box by the closet door, and her books were in a garbage bag.

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