Page 27 of Wish For Me

“No. I knew she wasn’t right away. Enzo too. We just knew.”

I can tell he’s waiting for me to laugh, even though I promised I wouldn’t. I don’t know what I believe, but I know he believes it. I also know he’s a scientist, someone who wouldn’t believe anything he sees.

When I don’t, he clears his throat. “She stared at us a minute with this…look on her face. I can’t explain it—it was almost a wistful kind of expression. That sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it?”

I find myself saying no and shaking my head. I can picture it. My skin tingles. “What happened after that?”

“She walked away from the window and kind of disappeared into the darkness of the room.”

“Wow.”

A beat passes. “But that’s not even the weirdest part.”

“What was?”

“The window left with her.”

“What?”

Leif gives a dry laugh. “I know it sounds insane. And I didn’t realize it until she was gone, but the window we’d seen her in was tall and skinny and had this intricate glasswork at the top. But after she left, I realized the windows on the hotel looked nothing like that. They were big and square. Including the one she would have been standing next to.”

That tingling spreads down my spine. “Holy shit.”

“I thought I’d somehow made it up, except Enzo saw her too. We both looked at each other after, completely confused. We’ve never talked about it since, and I didn’t mention it to anyone at the time. I knew they’d think we made it up.”

I sit back again. “So how do you know it was Eleanor?”

“Besides the rumors we all grew up with, I finally told my mom a few years ago when she brought up the story. She went pale, then said we had to call my Aunt Nora, since she and my Uncle Jude were the ones who’d been most invested in Eleanor’s story. They flew to Switzerland after they found out Eleanor and her lover had traveled there with Eleanor’s husband. Made a documentary movie about it and everything.”

My head spins. “A movie? But also, wait, she was married?”

“Yeah, to a total scumbag. Mom said he was a philanderer and a low-level criminal who was eventually arrested for…I think white-collar crimes and abusing his workers maybe…I’m not sure exactly. But Mom said ‘he had a woman in every port’ and that it was harder to divorce those days.”

I’m rapt now, leaning forward again in my chair. “So what happened in Switzerland?”

“I don’t really remember the details except that Nora and Jude discovered Eleanor and her lover—her husband’s driver—had a child together that they dropped off in a convent in Switzerland, since she was still under her philandering husband’s thumb then. It was Mom who found out that Eleanor’s lover—John? No, James—stayed in Quince Valley after her murder. Or moved back here, maybe. He lived under an assumed name. But he left journals indicating there was someone in town he looked after from a distance. A girl Mom and Aunt Nora think was his daughter.”

“But how did she made it back here?”

He looks sheepish. “I don’t really know all the details. But you can find the articles online from when it all went down, before I was born. I can send them to you if you want?”

My stomach flips. “I can look them up.”

A flash of something passes over Leif’s face. Disappointment? Rejection?

“Was this all a ruse to get my email address?” I joke.

But Leif’s not laughing.

“Leif,” I say softly. “We could exchange emails and phone numbers, but I think it’s better this way, don’t you? This way we get to surprise each other with ghost stories.”

He laughs, but the smile doesn’t meet his eyes. “I guess you’re right.”

L’Aubergine,the fine dining restaurant off the lobby, is just as magical as the rest of the hotel. Soft holiday jazz greets us, along with garland and twinkling lights on every surface. Candles nestled in holly flicker on the tables, making the space feel cozy despite the fact that the restaurant is enormous, with a whole wall made of plate glass just like the lobby.

We’re seated at a table next to the giant window, and a few minutes later, we’ve just gotten our drinks when an impeccably dressed woman in her sixties cuts across the restaurant toward us, beaming.

“A little bird told me you were going to be here tonight,” the woman says.

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