Chapter 55
Sadie
A police officer interrupts them to say Nina has been given the all clear by the paramedics. She’s been charged with attempted murder, and they’re taking her to the police station. The rest of them are free to leave.
Beth feels faint, and Joe guides her to a chair in the hall, where she sits, breathing deeply, her head hanging. After a minute, she glances up at Sadie and smiles weakly.
“It’s lack of sleep, that’s all. I’ll be fine, honestly.”
Sadie leaves her with Joe, and she goes to talk to Hendrik. He’s the only one who continues to look unruffled by Leonora’s revelation—reassured, even.
“Well, well,” he says. “So now we know. It all makes sense.” He beams at Sadie, and finally she feels a flicker of something like gladness in her heart. She studies him with renewed curiosity.
“So . . . you’re my great-grandfather, then?”
“It’s marvelous, isn’t it?” He grasps her hand. “To find each other, after all this time. But you’ve got a decision to make now, young lady.”
Sadie can’t help but smile; if anyone else called her young lady, she’d bite their head off, but somehow, coming from her very own, newly discovered great-grandfather . . .
“What decision?” she says.
“Do you want the house?” Hendrik glances across to Beth, then back to Sadie. “I can’t imagine your mother wants it. I was going to sell it, get rid of it once and for all. But if you want it, Sadie . . . well, Raven Hall is yours.”