Chapter 5 - THE HOUSE WITH TOO MANY ROOMS
By morning, Anna was stable enough to make one decision clear.
Lucy could stay with Rosa at Charles’s house while Anna recovered.
“Only if Rosa stays,” she told him.
“Of course.”
“And Vivian doesn’t make decisions for her.”
“She won’t.”
Anna watched him for a moment.
“You used to say things like that.”
Charles accepted the blow.
“I know.”
The house sat behind iron gates above the river, a sprawling brick place with more guest rooms than Lucy had ever seen.
She stopped inside the front door.
“Do people live in all of it?”
“Just me,” Charles said.
“Then why do you need it?”
He almost gave her an answer about history and family.
Instead, he said, “I’m starting to wonder.”
Mrs. Ellis, who had managed the house for thirty years, came down the hall carrying fresh towels.
She saw Lucy.
The towels slipped from her arms.
“Oh.”
Lucy looked at Charles.
“Did I do something?”
“No,” Mrs. Ellis said quickly. “You just look very much like someone I love.”
She made grilled cheese in the kitchen because Lucy didn’t want the salmon a chef had prepared.
Charles ate grilled cheese too.
After lunch, Lucy found an old pencil mark on a pantry doorway.
ANNA, AGE 8.
She stood beneath it.
“Can you see if I’m the same?”
Mrs. Ellis fetched a ruler. Lucy was half an inch taller.
Charles smiled.
Then he had to leave the room.
In his study, Elaine was waiting with information he hadn’t asked for.
“Your gala seating plan was changed yesterday.”
“What?”
“A staff member gave Rosa permission to bring Lucy into the lobby when childcare fell through. Rosa asked the event coordinator whether Anna’s letter could be delivered to you.”
“And?”
“The request was forwarded to Vivian.”
Charles went still.
“She knew?”
“She knew a child named Lucy Bennett was bringing a letter from Anna.”
He thought of Vivian looking at the envelope.
Of the instant contempt.
Not surprise.
He opened his laptop.
Several staff emails had been marked read, then archived.
He had never seen them.
Only three people had access to his executive inbox.
One was Vivian.
From upstairs came a sharp voice.
“What are you doing in that room?”
Charles reached the hallway in time to see Vivian standing over Lucy outside Anna’s old bedroom.
Lucy held a small music box.
“I was just looking.”
Vivian grabbed it.
“That belonged to this family.”
Charles climbed the stairs.
“So does she.”
Vivian turned.
For the first time in his life, he saw his older daughter calculate how much he knew.
Then his phone buzzed.
May you like
A message from an unknown number.
This is Frank. Meet me alone. Don’t tell Vivian.
