Nightfall ✓

Chapter 11

I rested my chin on my hand and started reading about the left-brained and right-brained people. I read half of it, but when I totally couldn't understand a thing, I glanced over at the images on the right.

...may become ionized to produce plasma. Depending on the substances alight, and any impurities outside, the color of the flame and the fire's intensity will be different. Fire in its most common form...

A little more than one and a half sentences. I wondered what the article was about. Fire? Flame? Fuel?

I moved on to the next image. During the 1900s, unmarried pregnancies were considered very shameful. The women were often...

I paused at that one. The words 'shameful' and 'unmarried' had pulled a string at the back of my mind. I read the line again, drumming my fingers on the table, and suddenly my eyes widened. I stood up so quickly that my chair toppled over, but instead of picking it up, I ran to my bed and picked up my phone. I called Zack.

He picked up after so much time that I almost hung up. "Who's this?" he snapped, clearly annoyed.

"It's...me." I heard the sound of water running. "Are you taking a shower? I could call later," I said, even though I didn't mean it.

"Oh. Reddie. Hi. Not just a shower, a hot, steaming, refreshing, amazing shower, to be exact. And you ruined it by making me run all the way from the cubicle to the closet, and that too naked and covered with soap all over. What do you want?"

I held back my laughter and said, "I have a test for your brilliant memory. How much of Mary's diary entry do you remember?"

"Huh. I don't remember the exact thing, but...here are a few lines. I told William my secret yesterday, and it was a mistake...I'm not even married yet...What will people think?...I am so ashamed of myself...I should never have told anyone...I'm only twenty-two. I think it went something like this. Oh, and if you're trying to figure out something about that stupid sanatorium, well, it's useless. Bye."

My heart was pounding in my chest. Before I could say anything, he hung up, probably to resume his shower, so I picked up the chair that I had upset and sat on it and called Liam, tapping my foot on the floor impatiently. "Hi, Hazelnut," he said, and I smiled.

"Liam, I think I know why Mary killed herself."

"Really? Why?"

"Because she was pregnant. I read just now that in the 1900s, it was considered shameful to be pregnant before marriage. And in her diary she wrote, I'm not even married yet and I'm so ashamed of myself. This has to be the secret she told William! And this is why she killed herself!" I was breathing fast, a little excitedly.

"You sure?"

"Totally."

"It...does make sense."

"Yeah. I don't know who got her pregnant, though."

His voice sounded dazed. "I think I do. I don't remember the diary entry, but I remember just one line: I told William my secret, our secret, and it was a mistake. See? Our secret. I think William got her pregnant."

I stopped tapping my foot. I was so shocked I could barely speak, and all my sentences sounded like they had a question mark at the end: "So William and Mary...loved each other? And she got pregnant and killed herself because she was ashamed? And four years later, William killed a nurse by pushing her from the window? Oh my God?"

"Yeah. That sounds weird, but..." I almost heard him shrugging, " — I guess that was her secret. Whew. This thing is becoming even more confusing."