Chapter 58 — Echoes in the Walls
Lena couldn’t sleep.
The photo burned in her mind—the image of Jay and Ava smiling as if they shared some secret only they understood. And it wasn’t old. Ava had been here. Recently.
Jay lay asleep beside her, his breathing slow and even unaware of the storm unravelling beside him. Or maybe… pretending to be.
Lena slipped out of bed, her movements silent. In the hallway, the house groaned, its old bones shifting under her steps. She found herself back at the attic door, key still in her robe pocket, fingers twitching with the urge to open it again.
Instead, she turned toward Ava’s old room.
It still smelled like faded perfume and forgotten pain.
She sat on the bed, hand brushing across the old blanket when she heard it—a faint tap-tap-tap behind the
