Page 84 of The Narrow

She wipes tears from her eyes, not looking at me, and clears her throat before continuing.

“I’ve tried to find ways to extricate Grace without harming Delphine, but there aren’t rules for this kind of thing,” Madelyn says, her helplessness making her voice raw. “All I can do is keep her safe. I thought it was working, until...”

“Until Maeve found her,” I say. “Why now?”

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Madelyn says with false humor.

“She’s almost the same age as Grace when she died,” I say. “Maybe that’s why. Until now, she’s been different enough that Maeve couldn’t find her or recognize her.”

For the first time, it hits me that this means that Grace is truly dead. There is no secret happy ending, no family and future lived in secret. She died. She drowned, just like Maeve.

“She was in the water,” I say, staring at the wall behind Madelyn.

“What’s that?”

“Grace. She was in the water,” I say, pulling the threads together. “The night before Del first got sick, I saw her down by the Narrow. I sneaked out to do the leap, and she followed me. I sawher jump. She fell in. I thought she was dead. But when I ran to get help, she was back at the dorm. She was fine. I didn’t tell anyone. I didn’t think anyone would believe me.”

It wasn’t just that, though. It had been the shame and the fear and the guilt. Knowing she was down there because of us. Because we went, and because I pushed her away all day, was cold to a girl desperate for a friend.

“You...” Madelyn’s voice chokes off into silence. Fury flashes in her eyes for a moment, and I stiffen, ready for whatever she says to me. I deserve it. But instead her shoulders sag. “That explains it, then. That must be why—how—Grace found her.”

“She saved Delphine’s life,” I say. “But for whatever reason, she didn’t leave. Maybe she couldn’t. And now Maeve is looking for her.”

“She can’t have her,” Madelyn snaps.

“You need to tell Delphine,” I say.

“It could kill her. She can’t know,” Madelyn says, gripping the arm of the couch. “You cannot tell her, Eden. She can’t think about what happened. We just need to keep her safe and keep Maeve away from her.”

“She loves her.”

“There is a fine and fragile line between love and possession. Believe me. I’ve crashed through it often enough,” Madelyn says. “She may love Grace, but I love Delphine—and she can’t have Grace without taking my daughter. So I won’t let her.”

She looks at me, aching desperation in her eyes. We’re all just drowning. Pulled by a current we can’t see and can’t escape.

And I am no exception.

—

I wander the campus in a haze. Delphine is Grace; Grace is Delphine. It wasn’t one girl who emerged miraculously from those waters but two, and she doesn’t know.

She can’t know.

She has to know.

I can’t keep this from her. But what if Madelyn is right and learning the truth kills her?

Maeve will never give up trying to reach Grace now that she’s found her. And I wonder about Delphine. How long can a body survive with death inside it, a soul where it doesn’t belong?

It doesn’t matter what Del should or shouldn’t know, though, if I can’t reach her. The school is watching everything we do. I’m sure Del’s messages aren’t private. But maybe that’s the solution as much as the problem. I pull out my phone.

Hope you’re doing well. Just wanted to say hey. Veronica’s talking to her friend Jane and will NOT shut up and I’m going a little crazy. Like, some of this stuff should definitely go in a private journal, not blasted full volume in a shared dorm, right?

Anyway. I miss you.

I send the messages, hoping that to anyone else they’ll read like I’m trying to make small talk to get my ex to talk to me again. And hoping Del knows the real meaning.

I rush back to Westmore. Veronica is on the couch, making out with Remi. I yelp and shield my eyes. “Sorry!”

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