Page 64 of Paws & Order
Annoying.
Me: Pretending to.
Cassian: Good.
Me: That's all?
Three dots appear.
Disappear.
Reappear.
Cassian: Miss you too.
Heat floods my face. The absolute menace.
I stare at the message for a full minute before tossing my phone onto the couch. Gomez immediately sits on it.
Traitor.
A few minutes later, Marlena appears in the hallway outside my apartment. One look at my face and she narrows her eyes.
"What happened?"
"Nothing."
"Liar."
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
She folds her arms.
I crack in under ten seconds.
Marlena's delighted cackle follows me all the way to Town Hall.
Thankfully, the Whitmore meeting is shorter than expected.
Miss Nettles reviews the documents while I summarize everything we've found so far.
The photograph.
The engagement announcement.
Emily St. James.
The missing records.
The mystery somehow feels sadder now.
Less like a haunting. More like a wound that never healed.
"Anything new?" Miss Nettles asks.
I hesitate. Then slide the latest photograph across the table.
The room falls silent. Emily stands in a garden.
