Chapter 17 - The Last Room
Rebecca did not want to return to the mansion.
She went anyway.
Sonia came with her.
The reception hall looked smaller without guests.
No white roses.
No music.
No bourbon.
Just sunlight on marble.
Rebecca stared at the spot where Lily had knelt.
Sonia touched her arm.
"You okay?"
"No."
"Me neither."
They walked to the service corridor.
The basement door was open.
The red key was gone.
Police had removed the camera and evidence months earlier.
The pink blanket remained sealed in an evidence bag until the appeals deadline.
Rebecca had requested it be destroyed afterward.
No museum.
No artifact.
No reason Lily should ever see it again.
On a shelf, Sonia found a box of children's drawings.
Most were gray scribbles.
One showed a yellow phone.
"Those are the videos of Caroline I used to show her," Sonia said.
"You kept her mother alive for her."
"I tried."
Rebecca found a second box labeled BEHAVIOR.
Inside were printed charts.
Stars for silence.
Marks for crying.
Penalties.
Rewards.
A system built around a toddler.
Rebecca carried it upstairs and fed it page by page into an industrial shredder.
Sonia joined her.
Neither spoke.
At the bottom of the box was one photograph.
Grant, Caroline, newborn Lily.
For a moment Rebecca wanted to tear it.
Then she stopped.
Caroline was smiling.
Lily deserved that part.
She kept the photo.
Everything else went.
Before leaving, Rebecca walked through the reception hall one last time.
The new owner planned to renovate.
"Take out the marble," Rebecca said.
The real-estate agent blinked.
"Excuse me?"
"Nothing."
Outside, she called Dr. Patel.
"Is it wrong that I want the whole place erased?"
"No."
"But?"
"But healing doesn't require pretending it never existed."
Rebecca looked back at the mansion.
That was harder.
Erasing was simple.
Remembering accurately was work.
She drove home.
Lily met her at the door.
"Where you go?"
"Old house."
Lily's face changed.
Rebecca crouched.
"You never have to go there again."
Lily stared at her.
Then asked:
"Room gone?"
Rebecca thought of the empty basement.
"Yes."
Lily nodded.
"Good."
Then she ran back to her crayons.
No ceremony.
May you like
No final speech.
The room had lost its power before the building ever changed.
