Chapter 26: The House by the Lake

Victoria P.O.V

Victoria awakes with a start, body jerking upwards with quickened breaths.

Her sweaty hands roam the sheets around her, eyes flying around the room before landing on her phone. It’s placed on the corner of the wooden bedside table on the other side of the bed. She lurches across the cream sheets to grabs it.

Tuesday, November 8th. 7 pm.

She exhales deeply, body relaxing into the sheets as if all the adrenaline was sucked out through her phone. It’s only been a day. She lifts her head and twists onto her back staring at the brown wood ceiling. A multitude of little green stars stare back at her, their dull glow comforting like a smile from an old friend.

She’s in her old room inside the Gray House, one of the Amato family’s safe houses almost two hours out of the city. As kids, Antoni and she used to spend a lot of time here when they couldn’t accompany their parents on business trips to Italy.