The Villa(76)
So, it feels better, letting herself wield the weapon.
Cleaner.
Truer.
But now, she sits in the fading sunlight and wonders what on earth to do with these pages.
It’s an exorcism of sorts, the lancing of a wound. Nothing she’d ever want to publish, but also not something she wants to tuck away in her flat back in Edinburgh.
They belong here, she finally decides. Hidden away, but here nonetheless, an alternate version of the story the house already holds. The house that changed the course of her life, all of their lives, forever.
But she won’t hide all of the pages together.
Together, they tell a complete story, most of it real, some of it not, but nothing about that summer has ever seemed so neat to her.
So whole.
It’s always been a series of fragments, beautiful and horrible, shifting like the light on the water just beyond the villa, hurting her eyes if she looks too close. It feels right, then, to break this story up into fragments. Read the first, and it’s sad, but there are moments of light, of joy, even if the reader senses the clouds rolling in.
Read the second, and now, the story twists. Heroine is villain, villain is victim, and that colors everything that comes before in a new light.
And yet that first bit still stands on its own, another kind of story, another universe of might-have-beens.
That’s good, Mari thinks. That’s how stories should work.
The first chunk of it, she hides in an easy spot, under the window seat where the M Johnnie Dorchester carved in the glass still occasionally catches the light.
The second, the parts detailing her very real fight with Pierce and her very fictional murder of him, those she tucks away somewhere more secret.
Only someone who has read Lilith Rising very closely would even think to look there, and it makes her smile as she pushes the papers into their hidey-hole.
If these are ever found, it will be by a true fan, and what will they do with them?
Mari doesn’t know or care. She’ll be dead by then, after all. She’s hidden them too well for them to be discovered before her inevitable and swiftly approaching end.
Maybe they’ll believe they’ve found the real ending to her story. Maybe they’ll think it’s some deluded piece of fiction. Maybe they’ll toss them in the fire, and be done with all of it.
It doesn’t matter to Mari. She’s done what she can, reclaimed the narrative for herself in a way that makes sense to her, and if it means the world one day believes she murdered Pierce, at least it ensures no one will ever separate them again.
The car comes for her early the next morning, and Mari’s last look at Villa Rosato—Villa Aestas—is of the house shining in the morning light, a perfect jewel waiting for some other story to unfold in its walls.
Mari presses her fingers against the back window, imagining she can still feel the warm stone under her palm.
She’ll be gone soon, but the villa will stand for much longer, she knows, and that means she’s never really gone. Neither is Pierce, or Lara, or Noel, or even Johnnie. They still walk those halls, and soon so will she.
So will others who come after her.
Houses remember.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Obviously the first thing I want to address in these acknowledgments is this: To all my friends, I assure you, not a single one of you is Chess. Pinkie promise. I am so lucky to be surrounded by such empowering, supportive friendships in real life, and I think having that is why I was able to take such a dark look into the Frenemy dynamic. I love y’all even though you’ve never paid for me to go to Italy for the summer, a real failing on all your parts, quite frankly.
I remain staggered by the lucky break that was landing Holly Root as my agent waaaay back in 2008, and am equally staggered at how well she has supported and encouraged me as my career has taken more twists than any of my novels. Emily may say that good agents aren’t necessarily good people, but Holly is the best of the best in both regards.
Sarah Cantin, dream editor, Virgo queen, I hope I get to send you a thousand more completely bonkers ideas that you help craft into the books they were always meant to be. It is such a privilege to get to work with someone who is as good at their job as you are.
Sallie Lotz, I’ll miss your notes on my stuff, but am so thankful we got to work on this one together, and am so excited for you and your authors as you move toward editorial superstardom!
I’m also so appreciative to Drue VanDuker. You blew me away from the jump with how smart you are and how quickly and instinctively you “got” this book.
Thank you so much to the entire team at St. Martin’s Press, and especially Sarah Bonamino, Marissa Sangiacomo, and Jessica Zimmerman. Thank you for all you do for me, and how patient you all are when I email you back in my head, as opposed to, you know, in an actual email.
Danielle Christopher, a huge part of why people pick up my books is, in my opinion, their gorgeous covers. Thank you so much for the thought, care, and artistry you put into each one.
Emilio, our tour guide in Orvieto in 2016, I am sorry that I did not listen as well as I should have when you were going over ecclesiastical art, but to be fair, there was a lot of it, and also it turns out my brain was busy plotting a murder book set there. I’m sure you understand. Special thanks for taking us to the well that plays such a big part in this story!