Page 74 of The Missing Pages

“When can we go to Lynnewood Hall?” Violet asked after they’d left Lux and gotten back into the car.

It was the first moment since that disastrous conversation with Madeline that she felt her spirits had truly lifted.

“It’s just a twenty-minute drive from my parents’ house in Philly.

” She pulled open the glove compartment and pulled out a map.

“Do you think we can go today? Tomorrow?”

Adrenaline flooded through her. “I’m going to get to the bottom of this… and I am going to get my job back, too.”

“Slow down, Vi.” He put up his hand. “I think we have to wait until winter break. My parents would kill me if I only spent Thanksgiving Day with them this break. And we have to be back at school the day after tomorrow, anyway.”

Violet slumped down in her seat. “I don’t want to have to wait that long…”

“Besides, we don’t even have that key with us,” Theo pointed out.

Her face fell. “Jeez. I forgot all about that little detail.”

“So hear me out. We have just a couple of weeks left before school is out, and then we can figure out a day to go after Christmas. It’ll be a well-needed break from having to spend all our vacation studying for finals.”

“Fine,” she huffed. Violet buckled her seatbelt. “I guess we also have to see if we can even get into the house,” she cautioned. “I think Madeline mentioned that Lynnewood Hall was taken over by a church or something.”

“Good point. I don’t want to head all the way out there just to have to turn around.”

Violet reached for the radio dial. Tracy Chapman’s “Talkin’ Bout a Revolution” filled the car and they both began to sing its lyrics.

“I’m thankful to have you doing all this with me,” Violet confessed after the song ended. It had been a far better Thanksgiving weekend than she thought it would be. Gratitude had emerged through her grief.

“Right back at you,” Theo said when they reached a red light. He gave her one of his happy grins, and she couldn’t help but smile back.