Chapter 20

Three of the four walls in the room were completely covered with photos of Caroline from floor to ceiling. They were pictures of her ponytail, her school uniform, the curve of her cheek as she read a book with her head lowered, the blurry outline of her back at a gathering with friends… It wasn't just the photos. Against one wall stood a glass display cabinet, and what sat inside it made her scalp prickle. It was her missing strawberry-colored hair tie, a pen she had once used, her lost school blazer and umbrella, and the confession letter that had been torn in half and discarded. Every little thing she had once thought was lost to time was perfectly displayed before her, like relics in a private museum curated just for her, polished and preserved. The horror of being stripped bare, scrutinized, and exposed crept in her chest. Caroline hadn't just been watched for four years. She had been stalked from the very beginning. It seemed that this snake had been coiled around her life