Chapter 11
With her head tilted back, Celina swiveled, awestruck at the starry kaleidoscope on the soaring ceiling above her in the vacant shop. Moved by the hand-painted stars, she imagined how much her mother would have liked this place. Stella. How she wished she could see it. Dust motes danced around her in tempered rhythm to an enthralling adagio drifting from the café next door.
“What was this place?”
“Most recently, a shop for baby clothes,” Adele said, gingerly bypassing an intricate spider’s web laced from a chandelier to a display rack. “The last tenants, a young couple, were successful here. They outgrew the space and moved into a larger shop.” She pushed open curtains, allowing sunshine to wash over abandoned glass cases.
“Why has it been closed up so long?”
“The landlord
