Chapter 39 - CH 39 - The Warning

The transition was jarring, a brutal shift from one reality to another. One moment, Amelia was immersed in the humid, cloistered silence of the Vale sunroom, the air thick with the scent of orchids and unspoken grief, her hand still holding the ghostly impression of Eleanor's fragile grip. The next, she was ejected back into the cacophony of the city the blare of car horns, the gritty scent of exhaust and decaying trash, the jostle of anonymous bodies on the crowded sidewalk. It was a sensory whiplash. The profound, gothic tragedy of the estate felt like a dream, but the weight of Eleanor Vale's whispered plea "He needs a way out" was a stone in her pocket, real and heavy.