Chapter 8 - The Woman in the Garden
Clara rushed toward the window.
The figure disappeared behind the trees.
She unlocked the glass door and stepped onto the balcony.
“Mom?”
No answer.
Then Clara noticed something on the railing.
A white envelope.
Her name was written across it.
Inside was a single sentence.
TRUST ARTHUR.
BENEATH it was a drawing.
A small bird.
Clara pressed the note against her chest.
Her mother had been there.
Or someone wanted her to believe she had.
The next morning Vanessa entered Clara’s bedroom without knocking.
She immediately saw the open balcony door.
“You were outside?”
“No.”
Vanessa walked toward it.
Her eyes moved across the railing.
Clara had hidden the note inside her pillowcase.
Vanessa turned.
“You know, Clara, your father thinks you’re having trouble accepting our marriage.”
“I’m fine.”
“I think you need somewhere peaceful.”
Clara’s stomach tightened.
Vanessa smiled.
“There’s an excellent boarding school in Vermont.”
Clara stared at her.
“I live here.”
“For now.”
At breakfast Daniel confirmed it.
“You’ll visit for holidays.”
Clara dropped her spoon.
“No.”
Daniel folded his newspaper.
“This isn’t punishment.”
“Yes, it is.”
“You need stability.”
“I need my mother.”
Vanessa’s hand stopped around her coffee cup.
Daniel stared at Clara.
“Your mother is dead.”
Clara looked him directly in the eyes.
“Did you see her body?”
Daniel’s expression hardened.
“That’s enough.”
“No body means you don’t know.”
“I said enough.”
Clara stood.
Daniel grabbed her wrist.
Instantly another memory struck her.
Daniel’s hand gripping Evelyn’s wrist beside the cliff.
The same pressure.
The same voice.
Give it to me, Evelyn.
Clara screamed.
Daniel released her.
Vanessa stared.
“What did you remember?”
Clara ran upstairs.
Behind her, Daniel said quietly, “Cancel Vermont.”
Vanessa looked surprised.
“Why?”
“Because until we know what’s in her head, she doesn’t leave this house.”
That afternoon Clara discovered her phone had been removed.
The landlines no longer worked from her room.
The servants had been told she was ill.
But Daniel had forgotten about something.
Evelyn’s old nursery still contained an antique emergency call button connected directly to the gatehouse.
Clara pressed it three times.
A pattern Arthur had taught her years earlier.
One minute later, a voice crackled through the hidden speaker.
Not Arthur.
A woman.
“Clara?”
Clara’s entire body shook.
“Mommy?”
May you like
There was a long silence.
Then Evelyn whispered, “Baby, don’t say my name out loud.”
