Chapter 9

9

After Marnie is gone, I lean against the door, my entire body shaking. Poppy, who made herself scarce during my conversation with Marnie, joins me in the foyer, her astonished expression mirroring the way I'm feeling. Her mouth is open so wide it looks like her jaw might unhinge.

"You're not actually thinking about going to that lunatic's house, are you?" Poppy asks.

"The photos looked real…"

"So what?" she retorts. "Alice, they can fake anything these days. Videos, voices… You can't trust a couple of photographs."

"Right. That's why I need to go there and see for myself."

"Please don't go, Alice. Just sit down for a minute and think this over. I'll make you another cup of tea."

"I don't need to think it over."

"I have a really bad feeling about this." She shivers, even though the temperature in this room is a perfect seventy-four degrees. We have the ability to make every room in this house a specific different temperature, using only an app on my phone. "I'm scared that woman could be dangerous. And you keep telling me you're being followed…"

"But not by a woman."

"It's still very creepy."

She's right. If somebody is following me, their reasons for doing so must be unsavory. Whoever has been following me around wants to hurt me.

But at the same time, now that Marnie has dropped this bombshell on me, I can't think of anything else. I need to know if Grant really was leading a secret life with another family.

"I'm sorry, Poppy," I say to her. "I have to go to her house. I have to know if what she was telling me is true."