Chapter Twenty

Sonya wakes euphoric from Trey’s love confession and shares the details with Cleo, who supports postponing marriage until the curse is broken. As August wanes, Sonya works on a new book cover while savoring happiness and domestic rhythms with Cleo.

Trey calls from the birthing center: Anna is in labor. Sonya and Cleo mark the vigil with candles, wine, and movies while Owen relays updates. Near dawn, Trey calls: Fiona Kate Miller is born healthy. Sonya and Cleo rejoice over photos and plan a visit.

Between updates, Sonya takes the pets outside and sees a spectral scene: a young Owen Poole formally proposes to Agatha on the lawn. Agatha addresses Sonya, affirming she and Owen were a fine, dutiful match without love and charging Sonya to restore the rings.

Later, after putting Yoda out, Sonya finds the music room alive with malevolent energy. The brides’ portraits transform to show their brutal deaths, rings gone, as a dirge pounds and a voice—Dobbs—claims credit and promises Sonya a bitter end. Vile matter streams from the paintings toward Sonya, but when the clock strikes three, the house stills; the portraits revert and Astrid’s nightly song plays, signaling the manor’s counterforce.

Shaken but defiant, Sonya vows to take Dobbs’s rings and end the curse, furious that Dobbs desecrated her father’s and Collin’s art. In the morning, Sonya tells Cleo, who concludes Dobbs aimed to isolate and emotionally wound her. They hypothesize the manor can override Dobbs at three and that Dobbs cannot kill Sonya, who stands outside the curse—though they agree caution is vital.

They refuse to let the night’s cruelty mar the joy of Fiona’s birth. Together they plan a baby gift from the gift room and a collaborative pastel of Fiona, affirming their commitment to finish the work, break the curse, and defend the house’s light against Dobbs.