CHAPTER 16: The House Without Portraits
The first thing Adrian removed from the mansion was Celeste’s wedding portrait.
The second was his mother’s portrait from the east stairwell.
Naomi did not ask him to do it. She did not need revenge painted over with interior design. But when she returned to the house weeks later to collect the few belongings she had kept in the staff quarters, the walls looked different.
Cleaner.
Not happier yet, but less haunted.
Adrian walked with her, keeping distance unless she invited him closer. Mrs. Delaney waited near the staff hallway, eyes red.
Naomi opened the small room where she had slept.
The bed was narrow. The dresser had one broken drawer. A folded baby blanket sat on the pillow. She had bought it at a discount store and hidden it from Celeste, afraid even softness would be taken from her.
Adrian saw it and went still.
“You lived here,” he said.
Naomi touched the blanket.
“Yes.”
“In my house.”
“In her house,” Naomi corrected. “That’s how it felt.”
He nodded slowly.
Then he said, “It will never feel like that again.”
Naomi looked at him, not sure whether to believe promises anymore.
Adrian did not ask her to move back. He did not ask her to forgive him. Instead, he handed her a keycard.
“There’s a townhouse near the hospital. It’s in your name. No conditions. No cameras. No staff unless you choose them.”
Naomi stared at the card.
“I don’t want to be bought.”
“It isn’t a purchase,” he said. “It’s a door you control.”
For a long moment, she said nothing.
Then she took the card.
May you like
Not because she trusted him completely.
Because she trusted herself to leave if she needed to.
