The Widow's Husband's Secret Lie

When Alice opens the book and begins reading, the diary turns out to be a writer’s notebook where Grant has been composing a fantasy story of very low quality. It is from the perspective of a fae character who vows to tame and ride a magnificent purple dragon. She is confronted by someone named Zelvix Mistmael, a member of a rival family, who scoffs at the main character’s ambition to ride a dragon.

Alice decides that the notebook is of no value to her and stops reading. Frustrated by the lack of answers provided by her trip into the attic, she takes all eight of the casseroles from her refrigerator and puts them in the trunk of her car, intending to take them to Marnie’s house. She hears a rustling in a hedge and sees that someone is clearly hiding inside it. She pops her trunk back open and takes out her shovel. She crosses to the hedge and demands that whomever is inside come out and show themselves. The man who has been following her emerges. He looks identical to Grant. He claims, however, to be “Brant,” Grant’s identical twin.