Chapter 6 - THE CLOSED BEDROOM DOOR
The third subtle clue came from one of the estate’s younger housemaids.
Her name was Kelly.
She had been afraid to say anything because she thought she would be fired.
Three months earlier, during a weekend Victoria and Ava spent at the estate, Kelly heard crying from Victoria’s guest suite.
She knocked.
Victoria opened the door immediately.
Ava stood behind her.
“She was fine,” Kelly said. “But she looked scared.”
“What did Victoria say?”
“That Ava had been disrespectful and needed quiet time.”
“Did you see anything else?”
Kelly hesitated.
“There was a dinner plate outside the bedroom.”
Full.
Raffaele remembered Maria’s report about hidden food.
“What happened to it?”
“Mrs. Hayes told me to take it away.”
“Did Ava eat later?”
“I don’t know.”
Kelly also remembered Eli wandering down that hallway.
He pushed open Victoria’s bedroom door before Kelly could stop him.
Victoria shouted at him.
Eli began crying.
Ava ran toward Eli immediately.
Victoria pulled Ava back.
Raffaele’s throat tightened.
“What did Eli see?”
“I don’t know.”
“What happened afterward?”
“Mrs. Hayes told me Eli was becoming obsessed with interrupting private discipline.”
Private discipline.
The phrase stayed with him.
Two weeks later came the first allegation that Eli had hurt Ava.
The timeline shifted.
The incidents did not begin because Eli was jealous of Ava.
They began after Eli wandered into Victoria’s room while Ava was being punished.
That night Raffaele sat beside his sleeping son and looked at his tiny hands.
Three years old.
Too young to understand coercion.
Old enough to see someone crying.
May you like
Old enough to walk toward them.
Maybe that had been enough to make Victoria afraid of him.
