Chapter 114

• VALERIE
• The longer I stayed with Ava, the more obvious it became that she wasn’t the same as she used to be. Every time we spoke, she was becoming more of a stranger. Less of Ava.
• She seemed to have forgotten most of the time we’d spent together in the shop. Vague things came back to her now and then—the day her master purchased her. The view of the market district from the pane glass windows. But not much else. And though she remembered who I was, she didn’t remember Aunt Louise and Aunt Rita. She couldn’t name a single girl from the shop, and she didn’t seem to recall the talks we used to have, either.