Chapter 4 - THE AUNT RICHARD REMOVED FROM THEIR LIVES
Claire Bennett answered Noah’s call on the third ring.
He used Vanessa’s phone.
Not because she suddenly cared about Emily.
Because Vanessa wanted answers too.
“Hello?”
Noah froze.
He had not heard his aunt’s voice in almost eighteen months.
“Aunt Claire?”
Silence.
Then a sharp inhale.
“Noah?”
He began crying before he could stop himself.
Vanessa turned away.
Even she seemed uncomfortable.
Claire’s voice softened.
“Hey. Hey, sweetheart. I’m here.”
Noah looked toward Richard’s study door.
“Did Mom write me letters?”
Another silence.
“Yes.”
“How many?”
Claire exhaled.
“I don’t know if I should—”
“Twenty-four.”
Claire went quiet.
Noah continued:
“Dad told me.”
“Okay.”
“Why didn’t you?”
The question broke something on the other end.
“I tried.”
Noah closed his eyes.
“What?”
“I tried to see you.”
“Dad said you didn’t want to.”
Claire began crying.
“Noah, that’s not true.”
Richard walked into the room.
“Hang up.”
Noah stepped away.
Richard stopped.
Vanessa watched both of them.
Claire heard him.
“Richard.”
His expression hardened.
“This is not appropriate.”
Claire laughed bitterly.
“Not appropriate?”
“Do not involve Noah in adult conflict.”
“You made his mother’s letters adult conflict.”
Noah held the phone tighter.
Claire continued:
“Tell him why you stopped me from delivering the first one.”
Richard said:
“Because he was nine and grieving.”
“That’s not the whole reason.”
“Claire.”
Vanessa’s eyes narrowed.
“What’s the whole reason?”
Richard looked at her.
Claire answered first.
“Emily’s letters weren’t only for Noah.”
Richard closed his eyes.
Noah stared at the phone.
“What do you mean?”
“She wrote some for Richard too.”
Vanessa turned toward him.
“You got letters?”
Richard’s mouth tightened.
Claire continued.
“And one of them changed everything.”
Richard took the phone from Noah.
“Enough.”
He ended the call.
Noah shouted:
“Give it back!”
Richard put the phone down.
“No.”
Vanessa stepped between them.
Not to protect Noah.
To confront Richard.
“What did Emily write to you?”
“None of your business.”
“I live in her house.”
“That does not make this yours.”
Vanessa’s face hardened.
Noah stared at both adults.
That sentence revealed something he had never considered.
Vanessa treated the mansion as hers.
Richard still called it Emily’s house.
There was a marriage inside the room that had never really ended.
And somehow Noah had paid for that too.
He looked at his father.
“What did Mom say?”
Richard stared toward the dark windows.
Finally:
“She asked me not to marry again until you were eighteen.”
Vanessa went completely still.
Noah whispered:
“And you married Vanessa anyway.”
May you like
Richard looked at him.
“Yes.”
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