Chapter 139

CLAUDIA. The last lines of the letter seem to have manifested in front of us, moving like a gigantic red flag that none of us could ignore. I could almost swear that the words themselves peeled away from the paper and flashed before our eyes like the glare of a lighthouse calling us home. For a whole moment, none of us speaks. I don’t think any of us are able to speak after that revelation. Achilles, Carlos, and I sit back down on the couch, staring into the distance while Aristea slinks back against her chair like she wants it to swallow her whole. The silence creeps all around us. How long we stay there unmoving and completely silent, I don’t know. But by the time I decide to move, it feels like my joints are no longer cooperating. Perhaps it’s still just the shock lingering in my bones. Because how can you even recover from something like that? But then again, it all makes sense. Now that that piece of information is out there, I finally understand so many things. “Tristan is h