Chapter 6
Mother remembered Lucian again that afternoon.
I did not interrogate her.
That mattered.
Memory is not a machine you can threaten into working.
I sat beside her.
Nella brought tea.
Mother looked at my face.
Then called me Aldric.
It hurt.
I let it pass.
A minute later she corrected herself.
“Torin.”
“Yes.”
She touched my hand.
“You have his angry eyebrows.”
Apparently inheritance.
Then she saw Davina’s engagement ring on the side table.
I had removed it from the study after our conversation.
Mother stared.
“Lucian’s girl.”
My breathing slowed.
“Yes.”
Her eyes sharpened.
“She cried.”
“When?”
“That night.”
“What happened?”
Mother looked toward the window.
“Your father was cruel.”
Not about Davina.
About Lucian.
“He said saving strangers doesn’t make betrayal noble.”
Exactly the kind of sentence Father would have used.
Mother continued:
“Lucian said, ‘Then say whose order locked them inside.’”
Bellmoor.
Hector was right.
Then Mother whispered:
“Aldric looked old.”
Not sick.
Old.
“He said he would tell you.”
My throat tightened.
“Then?”
Mother frowned.
“She brought water.”
Davina.
“And pills?”
Mother nodded.
“Wrong ones.”
“How did you know?”
She looked irritated.
“I gave him the right ones every morning for three years.”
Fair.
Memory lapse did not erase knowledge.
That distinction felt obvious now.
Then Mother looked at me.
“She looked scared.”
“Davina?”
“Yes.”
“Before Father died?”
“Yes.”
Important.
“She came back.”
My body went still.
“What?”
Mother remembered something Davina had omitted.
After leaving with Lucian, Davina returned alone.
Not through the front gate.
Through the kitchen entrance.
Mother found her near Father’s bedroom.
“What was she doing?”
Mother’s concentration wavered.
“Nella?”
She looked around.
Nella came closer.
“I’m here.”
Mother smiled.
Memory gone again.
I did not push.
Later I confronted Davina.
“You came back.”
Her face emptied.
For the first time, I saw terror.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
She sat slowly.
“To put the real pills back.”
That changed the story.
She had understood the danger.
She returned to correct it.
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Your father was asleep.”
“Then leave them.”
“I tried.”
She began crying.
“The bottle was gone.”
May you like
Someone else had moved it.
The mystery had one more person inside it.
