I wasn’t concerned about people hearing her if they stopped by the house while we were away, either. Nobody ever did, but I’d put the rug over the trapdoor and added some boxes of supplies to muffle any of her nonsense. All she could do was scream and shout, and she’d soon tire. Give up when she realized nobody would come.

Standing on the porch now, I couldn’t resist going back for another look to see if Lily had woken up, tell her she had to keep quiet if she wanted me to let her out, but I needn’t have bothered. All was still. Maybe she was dead after all. It would make things easier for her if she was. I went into the new storage room Ash had built for me, stared at the driftwood pieces I’d carefully laid out on the shelves, thinking that once we got back from Brookmount, it would just be the two of us again. Without all these distractions I’d finish the website Lily had so kindly started to put together for me. I’d work on my art. I’d help Ash find a job locally and do whatever it took to make him see our life was perfect, that we belonged together. We could at last be that happy family we so deserved.

Satisfied everything would finally work out the way I wanted it to, I walked over to the door, ready to lock up, was three feet away when it crashed open and Ash rushed in, his face gray. I peered past him at my car parked askew, realized with the double insulation in the room I hadn’t heard him arrive.

“What’s wrong?” I moved closer, ready to grab him in case he passed out, but he backed off, standing in the open doorway without uttering another word. He held out his hand, turned it around and opened his fingers one by one. My breath stalled as I saw what he was holding. A butterfly necklace.

“It’s Celine’s,” he said, his voice so low and strained, I barely heard him.

“I’ve never seen—”

“Don’t lie to me,” he said, eyes narrowing, jaw clenched. “I bought it for her. Fiona showed me a picture. Celine never took it off. Never.” He thrust the necklace closer to my face. “You knew I hurt her, didn’t you?” When I couldn’t answer he grabbed my shoulders. “Didn’t you?”

“Let’s go to the house.”