Chapter 3 - Amelia’s Locked RoomThe key to Amelia’s bedroom was kept in Alexander’s private office.
At least, Alexander believed it was.
The next morning he opened the door for the first time in twenty-two months.
Lavender.
The scent was faint, almost gone.
Memory supplied the rest.
For a moment Alexander could not move.
Amelia’s books remained where she had left them.
A shawl still rested across the chair near the window.
Photographs of Noah as a toddler sat on the mantel.
Alexander had preserved the room because touching anything felt like admitting she would never return.
Now somebody else had entered it.
Noah stood in the hallway holding Elena’s hand.
Alexander had reversed her dismissal before sunrise.
Victoria had called it emotional weakness.
Alexander had ended the call.
“Noah,” he said gently.
His son looked inside the room.
“Can you show me where Vanessa went?”
Noah hesitated.
Then pointed.
The desk.
Alexander crossed the room.
“Which part?”
Noah pointed again.
Bottom drawer.
Locked.
Alexander found Amelia’s old desk key inside a jewelry box.
The drawer opened.
Empty.
Completely empty.
Alexander frowned.
He remembered papers.
Personal insurance copies.
Letters.
Documents related to Noah.
Nothing of obvious commercial value.
He called his attorney.
By afternoon, they had an inventory from Amelia’s estate records.
One item mattered immediately.
Six months before she died, Amelia had revised documents connected to Noah’s trust.
More importantly, she had written a memorandum expressing her wishes for Noah’s upbringing.
Alexander had known about it.
Grief had buried the details.
The memorandum stated that Noah should remain primarily in his home environment until at least sixteen unless medical, safety, or educational circumstances required otherwise.
Boarding school was not forbidden.
But Amelia clearly opposed sending him away merely for convenience.
Vanessa’s search suddenly felt less random.
Alexander confronted Victoria in the morning room.
She did not deny discussing St. Alden’s.
“You work fifteen hours a day,” she said.
“My schedule is not Noah’s crime.”
“Don’t be theatrical.”
“He overheard you planning his removal.”
“We were discussing possibilities.”
“With a woman you were encouraging me to marry.”
Victoria’s face remained composed.
“You need a wife.”
“I need to be a father.”
“You need both.”
“No.”
Alexander leaned forward.
“Did you give Vanessa access to Amelia’s bedroom?”
Silence.
That was enough.
“Mother.”
“She wanted to understand the household.”
“So you gave her a key to my dead wife’s private room?”
“Amelia is dead.”
The sentence entered the room like broken glass.
Victoria’s expression changed immediately.
But it was too late.
Alexander’s voice became very quiet.
“Leave.”
“Alexander—”
“Leave this house.”
“This is my home too.”
“No.”
Victoria stared.
“The estate is held through Whitmore Holdings.”
“And I control the entity that controls the estate.”
For the first time, he spoke to his mother not as her son but as the man shareholders feared across conference tables.
“You will leave today.”
Victoria stood.
“You’ll regret letting emotion govern you.”
Alexander looked toward the doorway.
“No. I regret letting you govern everything else.”
Victoria left before dinner.
Not forever.
But for the first time in Alexander’s adult life, she left because he ordered it.
That evening, Noah sat beneath his bedroom window.
Alexander crouched nearby.
“You keep letters here?”
Noah stiffened.
Alexander immediately raised his hands.
“I won’t read them.”
Noah looked suspicious.
“They’re for Mommy.”
“I know.”
“Not you.”
“I know.”
That hurt.
Alexander accepted it.
Noah opened the loose wooden panel.
Inside were dozens of envelopes.
Different colors.
Different childish handwriting.
Alexander saw one near the top.
MOMMY — DADDY IS HERE BUT HE IS ALWAYS SOMEWHERE ELSE.
His chest tightened.
He looked away before he could accidentally read more.
Then Noah reached deeper.
“What are you looking for?”
Noah frowned.
“Blue one.”
“What blue one?”
Noah shrugged.
“Mommy’s.”
Alexander stared.
“Amelia put something in here?”
Noah nodded.
“When?”
“When I was little.”
Alexander’s heartbeat changed.
Noah searched.
Then stopped.
“It’s gone.”
Alexander went cold.
“Are you sure?”
Noah nodded.
“There was a blue envelope.”
“What did it say?”
“I couldn’t read all of it.”
“Was there a name?”
Noah thought.
Then whispered:
“Daddy.”
Somebody had entered Amelia’s room.
May you like
Somebody had emptied her desk.
And now a letter Amelia had hidden where Noah kept his messages was missing too.
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