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104: Perplexing
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2024-10-29 19:42:56Evelyn positioned herself in the library so that as soon as the apartment door opened, she’d hear Andrew’s return. Working in bits and spurts, sprinkling the space in between with brief games and free time, she’d managed to get the children’s homework finished. Now, she waited anxiously, watching the time on the clock’s face as it barely moved with an open book in her lap from which she hadn’t read a single word.
They’d been gone an inordinately long time.
Even if the drive was nearly an hour each way, they’d left over four hours ago. Her mind had begun to play out every horrible scenario it could design, starting with the simplest, that something else terrible had happened while they were driving on the Taconic.
Calm down, she told herself. Stop leaping to the worst conclusions.
Perhaps they’d had to stop for fuel or had a flat tire.
Maybe his mother hadn’t been home and he was waiting for her to return.
Or she was home but visiting w
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The hotel’s ballroom was a gently baroque style. Its elegant space was replete with all manner of luxuries one would expect of a high-profile hotel, no matter where one might visit in the world—custom paneled with artfully etched-mirror and plaster walls, gold-leafed accents and intricate crown moldings. Above the near-magical dancefloor, which was lit from below, hung in the decorative ceiling, a ponderous crystal chandelier lit the warm wooden dancefloor beneath it. Along the periphery, undulating balconies supported by Corinthian pilasters gave an air of classicism to the space, but one not overly staid. These generous galleries provided seating for those who had only come for a meal, to watch the dancing or to listen to the orchestra. They’d dressed for a late dinner, but though the orchestra played, their music broadcast exactly as Evelyn had always dreamed of experiencing, she and Andrew hadn’t danced. In fact, they hadn’t stayed much longer than
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