Chapter 19
MOLLY
I’m curled up on my couch staring at Enzo’s mask hanging on my wall.
My cereal bowl is half finished. I didn’t have the energy to cook, and now I discover I don’t even have the energy to eat.
I read up more on the Aurora Knight story. I’ve been poring over old news archives, and now I understand exactly why the Knights don’t want this news to resurface. I now understand the effect all of this has had on Enzo.
I was responsible for that, but now, by a strange twist of fate, I’m connected to him through a project.
I can’t do it.
I need to get out of it because I can’t be around him anymore. He’s uncomfortable around me. I’m sure it’s because each time he looks at me he’s reminded of what I caused.
I try to write the email to Penelope again:
Dear Miss Grech,
I think there may have been a misunderstanding about what I'm supposed to contribute. I'm a kindergarten teacher. I don't know anything about property development, planning or construction. I don’t know anything about architecture and I’m not qualified to advise on this project.
Maybe Miss Turlington can nominate someone else. I’m not the right person for this.
Yours,
Molly Dean
I hit SEND, and sit back, feeling relieved that I finally did it. It’s the same email I typed out five times before, only this time I had the courage to send it.
I pick up my bowl of now-mushy cereal and lift a spoonful to my mouth. The soggy wheat biscuit looks even more unappetizing.
I set it back down on my coffee table when I see that Penelope has already replied.
Can I call you?
Penelope
I panic and scramble for a lie. I can’t handle a phone conversation with the smooth-talking and smart Penelope. I need to hide behind the safety of email.
I quickly reply:
Now is not a good time because I’m wearing a mud face mask.
She fires off a reply minutes later.
Molly,
I think you're misunderstanding your part in this.
Nobody's asking you to design a building.
We need you to advise us on things like:
What do the children need?
What would make the space useful in winter as well as summer?
What would make a five-year-old come back?
You probably haven’t seen the old depot that Enzo worked on in New York a few years ago. You should see it.
Mr. Valizar saw what Mr. Knight did with this development and that’s one reason he wanted him.
Mr. Knight took something abandoned and saw what it could become.
I'm in Boston until Wednesday. I have meetings in New York on Thursday anyway, but before you make the decision to leave the team, I invite you to come and let me show you the depot.
Don’t worry about flights or a one-night hotel stay. I will take care of it.
Please think about this and let me know.
Sincerely,
Penelope
Her email leaves me speechless. I’m not sure I read that right. So I read it again, then triple-check that Penelope actually wrote New York.
She wants me to go to New York to see the project Enzo worked on before.
My life has gone completely insane.
First Venice and now New York?
Up until a few weeks ago I’d never set foot outside of Chicago. And now I have someone else paying for my flights and a hotel stay.
A hotel stay in New York!
I must be dreaming.
I should decline this offer. I should but … it’s New York. I’ve always wanted to go. There, and to a hundred other places around the globe; places I thought were a crazy pipe dream.
I should go and see the project Enzo worked on. If it inspired Luca Valizar to select him for this project, that’s worth seeing, surely?
I could go and take a look, and it will be a chance to meet Penelope in person. Just me and her. I’ll convince her that I can’t do this. She’ll realize it after spending a few hours with me.
I’ll still tell her I think Miss T should nominate someone else.
I look up again at Enzo’s mask hanging on the wall.
I might as well return that while I’m there. He didn’t reply to my text. He started to—because I saw the typing bubbles that indicated he was—but then he stopped.