Page 52 of The Escape Plan

“Would Estelle, or maybe Margot, know what happened?” Becks ventures, and Sissy gives him a smile.

“You’ve really done your research, young man. But unfortunately, Noeleen told us nothing, never even a hint of a whiff of what might have happened between them. And then, one day, she told me she was going home to Ireland.”

I’m instantly empathetic, seeing a mental picture of a young Noeleen heartbroken and wanting to escape having to see her ex all the time. Did she, like me, climb out onto the fire escape after her breakup, unable to sleep as she gazed up at the stars and wondered what on earth to do next with her life?

“Next thing I knew, she was packing up her things and getting on a plane,” Sissy goes on with a sniff. “She never came back. A while after that, your grandfather met and wed your grandmother, Keeley. And the romance between Noeleen and Douglas was never mentioned again.”

“Did my Gramps break Noeleen’s heart?” My question comes out way more loud and demanding than I mean it to, and I lower my voice before adding, “Sorry.”

Sissy apparently doesn’t even notice that I’ve practically yelled in her library—something that she’s usually unbelievably precious about.

“Yes, I think he did.” She swallows. “And when she left, I believe she broke his, too.”

Chapter Twenty

Keeley

I can’t sleep again.

But this time, it has nothing to do with the footsteps upstairs, which are loud as ever. I can’t bring myself to care about Andrew and Lisa in the slightest right now.

I also can’t blame my AC for my insomnia—it’s miraculously working, even though I still haven’t gotten Craig to come look at it. Or, as Steve the building manager haughtily informed me, “There was nothing wrong to begin with.”

Which is false, but he wasn’t accepting that for a moment.

No… tonight, I’m tossing and turning in my (blessedly cool) bed as I think about Gramps and Noeleen.

On the way home from the library earlier, Becks told me his Gran often talked about a boy she once loved—a love story that, in the end, wasn’t written in the stars. He thought it was a fairy tale when he was growing up, a story she made up to entertain him and his siblings.

Now, he thinks that boy in the story might have been my Gramps.

I think he might be right.

I wish we could have gone to visit him right after we left the library. It would be so helpful to have a firsthand account of what actually happened between him and Noeleen.

But I’m not sure what I’d say, exactly. Not sure how much he’d even be able to tell me.

The last thing I want to do is upset him or confuse him further.

I’m surprised Sissy didn’t know why they broke up when she and Noeleen were so close. And, apparently, Estelle and Margot won’t be much help either—Estelle passed away a few years ago, and Margot now lives in Australia.

So for now, Beckett and I are going to gather up all the crumbs we can find and see what we can piece together.

Because now that we know that Noeleen and Gramps were once in love, all I want to know is more. Why did they break up? Why did sheleave?

I shift in bed a few more times, maneuvering my pillows around.

But I eventually give up, climb out of bed, and head for the living room.

Ever since the Korean-face-masked-banshee-incident I’ve been playing my late-night fire escape trips super safe.

For one, I keep my button-down pjs on.

For two, when I open my window, I grab two books from my desk—one, a notebook I slide under my arm to work in while I’m outside, and the second a thick novel to carefully position on the ledge so the window can’t close and lock me out here again.

Never let it be said that I don’t learn from my mistakes.

Once I’m on the fire escape, I take a seat and loll my head back against the cool brick wall behind me. It’s cloudy tonight, and the stars in the sky aren’t visible. You can’t even see the moon.

---