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fifteen

AUGUST 2024

DAY 4 IN THE HOUSE

MADELINEwoke up early in the morning so that she could go downstairs before Ma. She pulled a sweater over her head and gritted her teeth when it brushed the long gash on her left arm. The dull pain was persistent. There were smaller cuts. Her bruises around the cuts were purpling. It still looked ugly.

She made her way downstairs and pulled open the library doors. Miraculously, her mother wasn’t there. She crept toward the desk, which was piled high with stacks of papers. She picked through them gingerly. An old, stiff magazine was tossed to the side. Then she spotted the manila folder.

Everyone in this house knew something about her grandmother that she didn’t. Even Nora, who had apparently been trying to siphon information from her family all this time.And yet she saved you. Of all the things she could not figure out about Nora, this was what puzzled her the most: that after days of total silence, Nora pulled her free from the garden. Then scolded her and disappeared again, then told her they couldn’t speak to each other. The confusion had compounded over days into a kind of maddening frustration; she wanted to know everything that was going on in Nora’s head, but she knew Nora would never divulge anything to her. Her stoic expression revealed nothing.

Madeline plucked the manila folder up and set it on top of the other papers. There was the preliminary autopsy report; Madeline flipped through it. And then something stopped her. Finally, she sawthe full-page printout of what looked like security camera footage. In the center of the page was a car that looked familiar to Madeline. A car that was parked outside right now.

She was looking at Elaine Deng’s car. And sure enough, the date and time marked at the bottom matched up with what Nora had told her: July 20.

Elainehadcome to the house after all.

And from what Nora had said, Wài Pó had wanted her there.

But why? Maybe Nora was lying. Or maybe—

“What are you doing?”

Madeline spun around and faced her mother.

Ma’s eyes widened. She shut the door behind her and marched across the room to grab the manila folder.

“Why did Elaine come here in July?”

Ma set the folder on the desk. “Why do you think?”

Madeline was afraid to even say this part out loud. “You think that she came up here to…?”

Her mother nodded. “And now we know for sure.”

“Well, we know she came up here. We don’t know what for.”

“The autopsy places Wài Pó’s death around the weekend of July 20. The timing, Madeline. This, the tox report—it all adds up.”

“ButWài Pócalled the lawyer to change the will. Not Elaine.”

“This shows Elaine here at one-thirty p.m. The will was changed at six. You don’t think Elaine could have broken in and forced her to change the will? Held her at gunpoint? Poisoned her to a state of delirium? You don’t understand that family. I do. They’re leeches. They’ll do anything to get this house.”

“What do you mean? What were they like?”

Ma drew herself up. “Elaine was always jealous of what we had. Everyone could see it. Even though Ma gave her family everything. She even paid for part of Elaine’s college degree.” She scoffed. “But it was never enough for her. Some people just can’t be grateful for what they’re given until they take everything you have.”

Madeline frowned. “But what if Wài Pó gave it to her? Didn’t she ask Elaine to come?”

“What do you mean? She asked Elaine to come?”

“I—” Now Madeline realized that she knew something Ma didn’t. An instinct she’d likely inherited from her mother told her to hold on to that for a bit. To feel things out first. At least until she knew what she believed. “I don’t know. I just assume it’s hard to break into a house.”

Ma looked around as though surveilling for an enemy. “Never assume. The nurse could have left the door unlocked, for all we know.” Suddenly she focused her sharp gaze on Madeline. “What’s wrong with your arm?”

“Oh.” Madeline looked at her arm, which she realized she had been holding horizontally against her stomach. She peeled her sleeve up a little, to where the scrapes showed. “That’s the other thing I wanted to talk to you about. I was just walking behind the house, and—”

“Were you in the garden?” Ma’s voice rose. “Madeline, Itoldyou to stay inside.”