Chapter 5 - Miss Hush
Rosalyn woke just after three in the morning.
I was sitting beside her hospital bed.
She blinked at me, then immediately looked toward the door.
"Miss Hush?"
"No, sweetheart."
Her shoulders relaxed.
I hated that I noticed.
"Who is Miss Hush?"
Rosalyn touched one finger to her lips.
"Shh."
"Hilda?"
She nodded.
"Does Hilda tell you to be quiet?"
Another nod.
"About food?"
Rosalyn pressed her thumb into her palm.
"No tell Daddy."
"Why?"
Her eyes filled.
"Daddy go away."
The words nearly broke me.
"Who told you that?"
"Miss Hush."
Camille stirred in the next bed.
Rosalyn whispered, "Mama cried blue room."
I froze.
"What blue room?"
She pointed vaguely toward home, toward a place she had been too young to remember clearly.
My estate had more than thirty rooms.
Only one had ever been blue.
Elena's old sitting room.
I had sealed it after her death because I couldn't bear to enter.
By dawn, Calvin and I were back at the estate.
The blue room smelled like dust and cedar.
Elena's books remained on the shelves. A half-finished embroidery hoop sat beneath a cloth. Her writing desk faced the garden.
For two years I had treated the room like a grave.
Mara's brass key fit the bottom drawer.
Inside sat an empty velvet box.
Nothing else.
Calvin frowned.
"Someone got here first."
Then I noticed scratches beneath the drawer.
We removed it.
Taped to the underside was a memory card wrapped in wax paper.
My hands shook as Calvin inserted it into an offline laptop.
One audio file appeared.
Date: four days before Elena died.
I pressed play.
Her voice filled the room.
"Graham, if you're hearing this, I was right to be afraid."
I stopped breathing.
Elena continued.
"Do not trust Helena. And do not trust the diagnosis they give you if I die."
Then there was a knock on her recording.
May you like
Elena whispered one last sentence.
"She knows about the trust."
