My Best Friend Claimed I Was Imagining Hearing Porcelain Footsteps In My Bedroom—Then An 1884 Doll Revealed His $850,000 Secret
👉 [Previous Decision]: You have returned to your apartment to find it freezing, your front door unlocked, and the Jumeau doll facing the entrance with Marcus’s signet ring.
The cold in my apartment felt like a physical presence, a lingering echo of Marcus’s violation. He had been here, confirming his access and his knowledge. But the doll, facing the door with his ring, felt like a perverse, personal message, imbued with something beyond human manipulation. The true chill wasn’t from the air, but from the realization that something else was at play.
My phone vibrated in my hand. A text from Marcus.
“Julian. We need to talk. Urgent. Just us. Meet me at the Dock Street workshop. Midnight. I’ll explain everything. Just you.”
A late-night reconciliation meeting. At our isolated restoration workshop. My gut clenched. Evelyn’s words echoed: *He needs capital. Badly.* He wanted the letter. He wanted to destroy the doll.
Before I could reply, my phone buzzed again. A call from Evelyn.
“Julian, don’t go,” she said, her voice frantic. “I overheard him talking on the phone. He’s planning to trap you. He’s got a heavy iron lever. He intends to destroy the doll and the letter once and for all. He wants to ‘finish this’.”
My heart pounded against my ribs. A trap. He wanted to eliminate the evidence, and perhaps me with it. He was cornered, exposed, and dangerous.
The image of the doll, its head turned 180 degrees, Marcus’s ring on its finger, flashed in my mind. Was this Marcus’s final, desperate act, or was the doll truly warning me?
My mind raced through the options. Confrontation was inevitable, but where, and how? I held the power of Drake’s confession and the original letter. But Marcus had violence and desperation on his side.
Choose your next action
Go to the Dock Street workshop alone, carrying a hidden pocket recorder — Read Chapter 10 to continue
Demand Marcus meet him at the old Elm Street foster house instead — Read Chapter 11 to continue
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