Chapter 4 - The West Room
Alessia did not react.
That was the first rule she had learned in the previous 48 hours.
Do not show Garrett what you know.
Do not show Evelyn what you fear.
Do not ask a question until you are ready for the answer.
She brushed Lily’s hair gently.
“Know what, sweetheart?”
Lily looked toward the bedroom door.
“The room.”
“What room?”
“The truth room.”
Alessia felt her chest tighten.
“Can you tell me where it is?”
Lily nodded.
“Near Garrett’s office.”
“The west corridor?”
Another nod.
“Why do you call it the truth room?”
“Grandma does.”
Alessia forced her voice to remain calm.
“What happens there?”
Lily pulled the blanket higher.
“They ask questions.”
“What questions?”
“About you.”
Alessia stared at her daughter.
“What do they ask?”
“If you yell.”
“If you cry.”
“If you forget things.”
“If you drink wine.”
Each sentence hit harder than the one before.
“What do you say?”
“The truth.”
“What is the truth?”
“That you don’t yell.”
Lily swallowed.
“But Grandma says that’s not the right truth.”
Alessia looked away for a moment.
She needed to control her face.
When she looked back, Lily was watching her carefully.
“Did Garrett ever hurt you in that room?”
Lily’s eyes filled.
Alessia immediately stopped.
“You don’t have to answer.”
“He grabs.”
Her voice was almost inaudible.
“Where?”
Lily touched her wrist.
The bruise.
Alessia’s eyes burned.
“What else?”
“He says if I make you angry, they’ll take you away.”
Alessia closed her eyes.
That was the mechanism.
Garrett was not simply frightening Lily.
He was teaching her to participate in a manufactured record of Alessia’s supposed instability.
He had turned a 6-year-old into a witness against her own mother.
“Listen to me,” Alessia whispered.
Lily looked at her.
“No one is taking me away from you.”
“But Garrett said.”
“Garrett lied.”
Lily’s lips trembled.
“Grandma too?”
“Yes.”
Something in Lily’s face broke.
She began crying.
Alessia held her.
For nearly an hour.
The next morning, Alessia told Garrett that Lily was spending several days with Aunt Cecilia to escape gala preparations.
Garrett frowned.
“Why?”
“She’s tired.”
“We have tutors here.”
“She wants Cecilia.”
Garrett looked at Lily.
“You want to leave?”
Lily nodded.
His expression hardened.
Alessia stepped between them casually.
“She’ll be back for the gala.”
That was a lie.
Alessia had no intention of bringing Lily anywhere near the mansion until Garrett was gone.
Garrett finally smiled.
“Fine.”
Evelyn appeared in the foyer as Lily’s overnight bag was carried outside.
“You’re indulging her.”
Alessia ignored the comment.
Evelyn bent toward Lily.
“Be good.”
Lily stepped backward.
Evelyn’s eyes narrowed.
Then Alessia saw something she would not forget.
Evelyn smiled at the child.
“Remember what happens to little girls who tell stories.”
Alessia’s blood turned cold.
But she smiled too.
“Cecilia loves stories.”
Evelyn looked at her.
For 2 long seconds, neither woman moved.
Then Alessia kissed Lily and watched the car leave.
Only when the gates closed did she breathe.
That afternoon, Garrett drove into the city.
Evelyn left for a fitting.
Alessia waited 20 minutes.
Then she entered the west corridor.
Garrett’s private office was unlocked.
The room beside it was not.
She tried the handle.
Nothing.
A keypad glowed beside the door.
4 digits.
Alessia tried Garrett’s birthday.
Wrong.
Their wedding date.
Wrong.
Lily’s birthday.
Wrong.
One attempt remained before the keypad locked.
Alessia stared at it.
Then she remembered something Garrett had once told her.
His father had died when Garrett was 12.
October 14.
The light turned green.
Alessia entered.
The room was smaller than she expected.
No windows.
A table.
2 chairs.
A camera mounted in the corner.
A child-sized chair against one wall.
And a filing cabinet.
Alessia felt sick.
She opened the first drawer.
Empty folders.
Second drawer.
Bank records.
Third.
She stopped.
A file had Lily’s name on it.
Inside were handwritten notes.
Lily became distressed when discussing mother’s emotional episodes.
Lily reports frequent maternal anger.
Lily appears fearful of mother.
Every statement was false.
Each page carried the signature of Dr. Stephen Vale.
A physician who had never met Lily.
Alessia photographed everything.
Then she saw a folder behind it.
ALESSIA MORETTI HALE.
She opened it.
Inside were medical summaries she had never seen.
Anxiety.
Alcohol misuse.
Mood instability.
Paranoid ideation.
No treating physician was listed.
Only Dr. Vale.
At the bottom of the folder sat a draft petition seeking temporary conservatorship over Alessia’s business interests.
Petitioner: Garrett Hale.
Supporting witness: Evelyn Hale.
Alessia felt suddenly dizzy.
They had built an entire version of her life.
On paper, she was already becoming unstable.
She kept searching.
At the very back of the drawer, she found a photograph.
Her father.
Vincent Moretti.
Taken 3 days before his death.
He was standing outside a restaurant beside a younger Evelyn Hale.
Alessia stared at it.
Her father had died from a sudden heart attack 5 years earlier.
Evelyn had always claimed she had never met him.
Alessia turned the photograph over.
There were 5 handwritten words on the back.
May you like
He knew before Alessia did.
And beneath the sentence was Garrett’s handwriting.
