Ever After Read Online Free

Two large urns filled with ferns marked the entrance to the living room.
    The whole situation was too amazing to be true. Definitely a mistake in identity.
    Behind the left urn, a pair of human eyes peered out, but the ferns arms slapped back together. Children’s giggles burst from the same direction, and my anxiety dipped. Probably the only pleasant family members in the house.
    “This is the living room.” Thomas swept his arm.
    I stepped inside.
    “Ava showcased her priceless stone sculptures and other works of art wall to wall here. To your left, you can probably walk into the tall stone fireplace.”
    It was so big a fire inside it would heat the whole downstairs. Sofas arranged in the shape of a U faced the fireplace.
    A few staff members passed us, nodding politely as they hurried to their tasks.
    “It’s something, huh? And this is just the living room.” Thomas grinned.
    “It looks like a castle.” A cool draft whisked by my feet.
    “You’ll meet the rest of the staff during your stay. They’re probably in hiding right now, trying to stay as far away from Ava’s blood family as possible. It won’t take you long to figure out why Ava left you everything instead of bestowing anything upon one of them,” Thomas said as he took me through the vestibule.
    Good. Maybe my dream guy would be in the lineup.
    Each time we passed a family member, they were unreceptive to any acts of civility, noses turned up as we passed.
    Thomas showed me each wing of the house on the first and second floors, the most important rooms that I would become familiar with if I stayed, Thomas noted.
    We rode a metal elevator with sliding cage doors coated in metal curly cues and flowers.
    He patted the lever that shut the doors. “This old thing saves my knees daily.”
    The elevator screeched and clanked to a stop on the landing of the third floor.
    Thomas gave me its short history, then started the metal box into a downward descent.
    “What about the fourth floor?” I asked.
    “Well, we can go up, but we should stay inside the elevator cage. Bad floors.” He wouldn’t look at me.
    “I’d like very much to see it, if that’s okay?”
    Thomas reluctantly stopped the elevator and reversed directions. Through the bars, he watched the fourth floor as it came into view.
    The elevator groaned and creaked to a stop.
    I started to move toward the doors, but Thomas filled the elevator doorway.
    I gave him a surprised look.
    His voice shook. “We use it for storage mostly. It’s been this way as long as I can remember. Ava started renovations on it until…” He paused. His eyes darkened, and his shoulders sagged with a memory, but he continued. “Until a terrible day in June 1978. A construction worker fell from the window. His body was found on the grounds close to the house. She stopped all renovations that day. It wasn’t the first time something bad had happened here. She grew weary of tragedies linked to the house. But I won’t bore you with a bunch of superstitious legends. Anyway, the staff members aren’t allowed up here without express permission.”
    “I would imagine renovations wouldn’t be that hard.”
    The wallpaper hung in strips down the walls.
    Thomas’s posture straightened to rigidity, and his face paled again.
    I pointed to the window where I’d seen the woman earlier. “You said no one is allowed up here? When we entered the house, I’m beyond positive there was a girl standing in that window.”
    “I have both the keys to the stairwell, and the elevator is rarely used, so seeing anyone there isn’t likely. Maybe you took a harder fall than I thought.” Thomas straightened his tie and cleared his throat. He patted my back, passing off the incident with a nervous chuckle. “Let’s get back downstairs and get you to your room. You might need to rest.”
    “Yes, that does sound good.” My eyelids were heavy.
    “A set of service stairs at the rear of the house allows access to each floor,” he