Page 81 of The Villa

Mari stands there in the phone booth, her breath fogging the glass, the city lights distorted.

“I’m proud of you,” Mari tells her. “I’ve listened to the album more times than I can count. It’s breathtaking, Lara.” She laughs then, self-conscious. “Not that you need me to tell you that, given how it’s sold.”

“I bought three copies ofLilith Rising,” Lara replies. “At first, I couldn’t finish it because it was all… it was too close. But it’s wonderful, Mari. Truly.”

Mari feels her throat go tight, her eyes stinging. “Thank you.”

There’s another pause, and Mari rushes in to fill it. “I’m in New York right now for some promotional things and meetings with my publisher.” She laughs, drawing a line in thecondensation on the glass. “They’re being very polite, but I’m sure they’re all really thinking, ‘Is this bloody woman ever going to turn in her second book?’”

She will, one day, she’s sure, but it’s hard to imagine anything following the success ofLilith Rising. Readers are bound to be disappointed, but it’s more than that holding her back. It’s that ever since that awful, stormy night when she finishedLilith Rising, whatever voice was inside of her seems to have gone silent.

“You’ll get there,” Lara replies. “The follow-up toAestaswas the hardest album I’ve ever written, but it was finished, eventually.”

Mari has listened to it,Golden Light, Silver Moon,and she’d liked it, but it didn’t have the magic ofAestas, something she suspects Lara already knows.

“Maybe,” Mari offers, hesitant. “Since I’m in the States, andyou’rein the States—”

“No.”

It’s soft, but also completely unyielding, and Mari stands there in that phone booth, watching as across the street, a laughing couple walks hand in hand, their collars turned up against the cold.

“Mari, what happened that night… I’ve never forgiven myself for it. I never will. But the thing is… I think you have. I think you think it was all worth it.”

Anger spikes her blood, her fingers curling around the receiver. “Aren’t we both in a better place now? Would we have any of what we have if you’d had the baby, if Pierce had kept dragging us around, if—”

“We could’ve just left, Mari,” Lara says, her voice tired, like they’ve been having this argument for hours instead of minutes. “That night, I believed the same thing. That it wasthe only way. But I realized a few years ago that we weren’t trapped. That’s just what you told yourself to make it seem like you didn’t have a choice. But you did, Mari.Idid. We can’t take it back, but I can’t sit across a table from you, or on a sofa with you, and pretend like what we did wasn’t terrible, just to make you feel better. And that’s what you want from me.”

Mari doesn’t reply, and outside, it begins to snow again, the flakes thicker now, falling faster.

“I’ll miss you forever, Mari,” Lara says. “But I’m not giving you absolution. We don’t deserve it.”

There’s a click, and then Lara is gone, leaving Mari alone in the cold phone booth, snowflakes sticking to the glass.

She stands there for a long while with the receiver still clutched in one hand before, finally, she places it gently in the cradle.

The door of the phone booth screeches as she pushes it open, and a blast of cold air hits her as she steps out onto the snowy street and begins to walk to the corner.

Alone.

You are cordially invited to a reception at the

NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

to celebrate the authors of

The Villa,

Chess Chandler and Emily McCrae.

An instant #1New York Timesbest seller,The Villahas sold over two million copies, and been translated into more than two dozen languages. An adaptation is currently in the works at HBO, led by Emmy-winning director Elisabeth Hart.

Called “an immediate classic that marries true crime, literary mystery, and memoir” (Los Angeles Times), and a “searing but deeply personal look at art, sisterhood, and the crucible of loss” (NPR),The Villahas remained on theNew York Timeslist for more than sixty weeks, forty-three of those at the #1 spot.

The authors will be giving a short talk detailing the creation of the book, followed by cocktails and small plates.

ATTIRE: BUSINESS CASUAL

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

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