If You Leave, I Leave novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: A Gift From Verity

The note was slipped under my door on Friday morning, written in gold ink on cream paper.

"Please come to the atelier at four. I owe you a proper apology. Nothing else. V."

Tilda read it over my shoulder and made a sharp, unhappy noise.

"Don't go."

"If I don't, she'll tell everyone I was afraid to."

"You are afraid to."

"I'm curious," I said. "It's different."

The atelier was a bright room on the ground floor, where the Crown had set up Aldenmoor House in a week.

There were racks of white gowns, a long table of glass bottles, and a pot of tea on a tray.

Verity poured it herself.

She had a small silver wolf pinned to her collar, the same one the King wore on his coat.

I assumed the Crown handed them out to everybody on the label.

"I know you don't trust me," she said, sitting down across from me. "You shouldn't, after Thursday's photograph. I wanted to look you in the eye and say I never meant to hurt you."

"You thanked my husband on a screen in front of the whole kingdom."

"I was told to. They give you a script." She laughed, a little wet. "I wanted to make something beautiful, Aveline. I never wanted to be the face of anything."

She sounded so tired that I almost believed her.

She opened a drawer and took out three bottles, each wrapped in white tissue.

"This is the house's first scent. I made it before they put my name on the label. It was meant for the Luna."

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