Chapter 13 - The Little Blue Room

The little blue room was Theo's nursery.

We had painted it together before he was born, and Mara had spent an entire Sunday refusing to let me hang a shelf because the screws weren't level. After the funeral, Arthur had offered to redecorate.

"A fresh start," he'd called it.

I had refused, mostly because I couldn't bear another change.

At the hospital, an independent physician examined Mara. Her injuries and medication exposure needed investigation, but she was alert enough to explain that she had been held against her will. Simone arranged for a patient advocate and made certain Mara had access to her own lawyer, not merely mine.

"Your decisions are yours," Simone told her. "Including whether Evan is in this room."

Mara looked at me for a long moment.

"He can stay. But he has to listen."

I sat down.

She described the weeks before the crash. As a financial analyst for the foundation, she'd noticed that grants intended for children's rehabilitation were being sent to providers with suspiciously similar billing records. She checked vendor addresses and found shell companies registered through Arthur's longtime associates.

"I told Vivian," Mara said. "I thought she'd want to fix it. Instead she asked me which files I'd downloaded."

"And Dad?"

"He said I was making enemies over clerical errors. The next day someone broke into my office."

She'd copied portions of the grant ledger and an email from Vivian authorizing false reimbursement figures. She put the copies somewhere Arthur wouldn't search.

"Behind the whale picture," she said.

I remembered a watercolor Mara had painted for Theo. A blue whale swam beneath three white stars. It hung above the dresser.

Grant stood at once. "I'll go with you."

"No," I said. "The house will be watched."

Mara tightened her hold on my hand.

"Be careful. Arthur asked me about that picture while I was pregnant. He never cared about anything in the nursery."

My phone rang again. This time the screen showed our home's landline.

I answered.

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Arthur spoke softly, as if he'd caught me coming home after curfew.

"Evan, I see you've found Mara. Before you do something foolish, you need to understand what is inside your son's bedroom."