La Gorda stands at the mirror inspecting the discoloration of her skin. When she sees my reflection over her shoulder, she immediately turns on the faucet and tries to focus on washing her hands. I can get used to this. I don’t really want to intimidate people, but I like the idea I might be left alone.

Ella skips out of one of the bathroom stalls and waits her turn at the sinks to wash up. I worry that she’s going to be scared of me because of what I did in the nave, but the moment she sees me Ella dramatically flexes her right hand over her head. I lean into her ear. “So you’re okay?”

“Thanks to you,” she says loudly.

I catch La Gorda’s eyes in the mirror. “Hey,” I whisper. “Last night is our little secret. Everything that happened last night is our secret, okay? Don’t tell anyone.”

She puts her finger to her closed lips and I feel better, but there is something about the way La Gorda looked at me that doesn’t sit well.

I’m so preoccupied by what might be in the Chest that I forego my morning internet search for news on John and Henri Smith. I don’t have the patience to wait for morning Mass to see Adelina so I walk from room to room looking for her, but she’s nowhere to be found. The first bell rings for morning Mass.

I shuffle in beside Ella in one of the last rows and wink at her. I locate Adelina in the front row. Halfway through Mass, Adelina looks over her shoulder and makes eye contact with me. When she does, I point up to the nave’s nook where she hid the Chest so many years ago. Her eyebrows raise.

“I couldn’t understand what you were saying,” Adelina says after Mass. The two of us stand under a stained glass window of Saint Joseph on the left side of the nave, and we’re bathed in a patchwork of muted yellows, browns, and reds. Her eyes match the seriousness of her posture.

“I found the Chest.”

“Where?”

I nod my head up and to the right.

“I am the one who was supposed to decide when you’re ready, and you are not ready. Not even close,” she says angrily.

I pull my shoulders back and set my jaw. “I was never going to be ready in your eyes because you stopped believing, Emmalina.”

The name catches her off guard. She opens her mouth and stops before letting loose whatever tirade is on her tongue.