Jeremy's POV
Reaching out my hand, I beckon for Daniel to come to me, and I call for Marcella. She’s the only staff member who stays overnight. Unofficially, she’s something closer to a chaperon, a witness, a buffer against silence. My mother does not do empty houses. She never has. There has always been someone. Husbands. Lovers. Guests who linger too long. Parties that stretch into dawn. Noise to keep the quiet from closing in on her.
Now it’s Marcella.
A middle-aged woman with gentle hands and sharp instincts, hired under the pretense of assistance but kept because my mother cannot be alone with herself. Marcella understands this without it ever being spoken. She doesn’t hover. She doesn’t pry. She exists nearby, a steady presence in a house that otherwise echoes too loudly when the
