Chapter 23 - The Husband I Buried

Now

I noticed the envelope resting on the console table as soon as I walked inside. It was placed deliberately, not slipped through the mail slot.

I frowned.

I hadn’t seen it there earlier. I hadn’t collected today’s mail, but most of my mail was digital so I didn’t check every day. Someone must have hand-delivered it while I was out. How did they get inside?

I thought of the noise I’d heard inside the house two nights ago. The broken window latch. The feeling of a presence looming over me.

I went to the door and looked outside, like I might catch someone slinking off down the street. I couldn’t see anyone.

I went back inside and examined the envelope. It was black, unlike a regular postage envelope. Thicker than regular mail. No stamp. No return address. Just my name on the front, embossed in gold.

Mackenzie Rae Morgan

I slid the piece of black card carefully out of its pocket while Tess nudged at my hand, tail wagging.

A familiar scent jumped out at me. The same scent I’d mentioned to the police a few nights ago.

Luis’s cologne.

Tess moved closer. I scratched behind her ears and shifted back to the envelope. The card inside was stiff, like an oversized business card. Seeing my name felt like a dare to read on.

I took a breath. ‘It’s an invitation,’ I said to Tess, reading the tiny gold lettering.

Mackenzie Rae Morgan,

We would like to extend an invitation for a private introduction.

No commitment is required.

Your discretion is appreciated.

I read on.

If you are ready for a conversation,

Please confirm your interest using the enclosed method.

Further details will be shared at the appropriate time.

Enclosed was a smaller card, blank except for a symbol printed faintly in the center. A spiral, looping in on itself over and over.

We will retrieve your response via the card provided.

Failure to respond will be treated as a declined invitation. No further invites will be extended.

Below that was a lightly embossed signature line, almost indiscernible against the card.

The Coterie Institute

Alignment. Renewal. Becoming.

Retrieve. Not receive.

The wording sent a shiver up my spine. They weren’t asking me to come to them. They were telling me they’d come back for my answer.

I slid the invitation back into the envelope and tucked it into a drawer, my movements careful, deliberate. Tess padded back into the room, tired from exploring, and sat at my feet, looking up at me like she expected reassurance.

‘It’s nothing,’ I said aloud. Whether to Tess or myself, I wasn’t sure.

Could I go to the police with this? It looked like a shopping offer.

A noise from outside startled me. Just a passing car, but someone leaving a note addressed to me inside my house had me unsettled.

After the incident with the casement window, they’d probably assume I was rattled, nervous even. They might think I’d brought in the mail and forgotten about it.

Fuck.

I had been at work all day, so they could’ve come by any time.

A thought crept into my head. Unwelcome but pressing. It was in my nature to search for answers. I had to consider all the possibilities. Even if I didn’t believe them.

Carl.

He had been here alone before I arrived home. He knew where I kept the house key. He could have gone inside and left the note.

But that didn’t make sense. I had asked him to pick Tess up at the last minute, so he wouldn’t have had time to plan it, unless he already had the card prepared, waiting for an opportunity.

But I trusted Carl. He had no reason to mess with me like that. No, it couldn’t be him. He wouldn’t.

The thought wasn’t as reassuring as it should have been.

If not Carl, then someone else had left it, and that was even scarier. I had no idea who it was, or why they had chosen me.

Why now?

I rested the card against the tip of my nose and inhaled. The scent felt like Luis’s arms, wrapped around me.

I thought of the man on the train – Luis – and wondered again if maybe I had seen exactly what I thought I had.

Maybe this was the only way my supposedly dead husband could find to speak to me.