Chapter 6
Rose House smelled exactly as I remembered.
Waxed wood.
Lavender.
Cold air.
I hated that my body recognized it before my mind did.
Rafe came with me.
Cordelia too.
Desmond did not.
He had lost access to every Huxley property the moment I removed the ring.
The caretaker, Helen Price, was seventy.
She looked at me and immediately started crying.
“You came back.”
Not comforting.
We found the ledger in a locked cabinet beneath the main stairs.
Twenty-three names.
Mine included.
ENTRY: OPHELIA HUXLEY.
AGE: FOUR.
REASON: MATERNAL LOSS / PATERNAL REMARRIAGE / EXCESSIVE ATTACHMENT.
I stared at those words.
Excessive attachment.
A four-year-old missing her father.
Below:
DISPOSITION: RETURNED TO PRIMARY HOUSEHOLD.
Many children had the same.
Some did not.
TRANSFERRED TO WEST BRANCH.
PLACED WITH AUNT.
REASSIGNED TO MATERNAL HOUSE.
One name appeared beside:
PERMANENT FAMILY REALIGNMENT.
A child named Elise Huxley.
Age five.
I looked at Cordelia.
“Who was Elise?”
Her face collapsed.
“My daughter.”
Silence.
I had known Cordelia never had children.
Apparently another family story built from omission.
“What happened?”
Cordelia had Elise at twenty-four before marriage.
The father was considered unsuitable.
Cordelia’s parents sent the child to Rose House “temporarily.”
Cordelia believed she could earn her return by behaving.
Then her father arranged Elise’s placement with a childless Huxley cousin in another state.
Permanent.
Different surname inside the family.
Cordelia was allowed visits twice a year.
Eventually the child bonded with the other household.
By twelve, Elise refused contact.
Cordelia stopped trying.
I stared at my aunt.
“And you were going to send Priscilla here?”
She cried.
“I thought thirty days would be different.”
There.
Trauma repeating itself under the illusion of control.
“If you knew what this place could become, why?”
“Because I thought if I controlled the rules, I could make it safe.”
No.
You cannot redeem a machine by choosing a nicer setting before placing another child inside.
May you like
Cordelia had spent thirty-seven years proving Rose House did not destroy her.
And almost offered my daughter to it for validation.
