Chapter 193

The servants called it a “guest chamber,” but it was bigger than the house I grew up in. Thick carpets. Drapes heavy enough to smother a storm. A bed like a cloud stitched to a frame of carved gold. The kind of room that made grief feel impolite.

I shut the door and leaned my forehead to the wood until the world stopped wobbling.

Breathe. Then break.

I made it as far as the washbasin.

The first so