Chapter 6 - THE HOUSE NOBODY MOVED INTO
Michael had been planning to leave too.
Not the family emotionally.
The hierarchy.
The endless meetings.
The inherited expectation that Galen would lead and Michael would support him.
The house Serena found became an idea larger than a house.
A place where both brothers could remain family without living inside the old structure every day.
Serena knew Michael was unhappy.
Galen did not.
He had never asked.
Michael looked at his brother.
“You always seemed certain.”
“That doesn’t explain why you hid it.”
“I thought uncertainty disappointed you.”
Galen almost rejected the sentence.
Then he remembered dozens of moments.
Michael questioning a decision.
Galen answering before he finished.
Michael suggesting a change.
Galen saying the family had always done it another way.
Not threats.
Not cruelty.
Something quieter.
Galen had made certainty the price of being heard.
Ainsley saw that weakness.
She used it.
When Michael discussed the house, Ainsley told him Galen would see it as betrayal.
When Serena expressed frustration, Ainsley told her Galen would never choose a quieter life.
When Galen complained Serena seemed distant, Ainsley told him Serena was emotionally leaving.
She never created every problem.
She made sure each problem stayed separated from the person who could solve it.
Galen returned to Serena’s old room.
Eira followed.
She had slept only a few hours.
She carried the locket.
“Daddy sad?”
“Yes.”
“Because Mommy?”
“Yes.”
Eira climbed onto the bed.
She opened the locket.
Then frowned.
“Picture wrong.”
Galen looked over.
“What?”
She removed Serena’s photograph.
Behind it was the small folded note.
Then Eira pointed toward the edge.
“Mommy had two.”
Galen’s attention sharpened.
“Two pictures?”
Eira nodded.
“One Daddy.”
He looked at the locket.
Only Serena’s photograph remained.
“Where?”
Eira pointed toward Ainsley’s room.
“Miss Ainsley took Daddy.”
Galen stood.
He searched Ainsley’s personal luggage.
No photograph.
Then one bodyguard found a small silver frame inside her locked jewelry case.
Galen opened it.
A photograph of himself.
Not recent.
Taken six years earlier.
Before Eira.
Before his marriage to Serena.
He was standing outside a restaurant, laughing with Michael.
Galen turned it over.
Serena had written:
THE NIGHT AINSLEY TOLD ME SHE LOVED HIM.
Galen froze.
Ainsley had loved him before Serena married him.
Maybe before Serena even knew.
He confronted her.
Ainsley did not deny it.
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“Since I was twenty-four.”
Galen was thirty-four then.
Already close to Serena.
Ainsley told Serena.
Not Galen.
Serena asked if she wanted him.
Ainsley said no.
She said she only needed to admit the feeling so it could die.
For a while, it did.
Then Galen married Serena.
Ainsley remained close.
Years passed.
Galen became powerful.
Serena became increasingly tired of the Moretti world.
Ainsley began imagining something ugly.
That she would fit better.
That she understood Galen better.
That Serena was wasting the life Ainsley wanted.
“I never touched you while she was alive.”
Ainsley’s voice was defensive.
Galen looked at her.
“You touched everything around me.”
She flinched.
Then he asked:
“Did Serena know you still loved me?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“She asked.”
“And?”
“I told her.”
Galen stared.
Ainsley had confessed only two months before Serena died.
Serena told her to step away from the family.
Ainsley refused.
That was when their friendship truly ended.
Then Galen noticed something.
Ainsley’s engagement ring.
Serena had chosen it.
Not for Ainsley.
For herself.
Galen bought the ring years earlier after Eira was born.
Serena decided it was too formal and never wore it.
After Serena died, the ring disappeared from the jewelry drawer.
Months later, Ainsley wore it when Galen proposed.
She told him it had belonged to her grandmother.
Galen looked down.
“Take off the ring.”
Ainsley froze.
“Galen.”
“Now.”
She removed it.
He examined the inside.
There was an engraving.
S + G.
Ainsley went pale.
Galen stared at her.
“You didn’t just want Serena gone from the wedding.”
May you like
His voice became colder.
“You have been wearing her life.”
