A Mother Who Remembered a Song
Chapter 07 - A Mother Who Remembered a Song
Lillian was not well enough to leave Rosebridge immediately, but her memories strengthened when Clara visited. They talked without forcing intimacy. Clara brought fabric samples; Lillian remembered textures before names. She could identify Bellmont silk by touch and recalled that James used blue thread to mark confidential test pieces.
One afternoon, she asked Clara to sing the lullaby.
Halfway through, Lillian joined her.
The nurse recorded the moment for Edmund, who watched from the hall because Lillian still became anxious when he entered unexpectedly. He accepted every boundary without protest.
Meanwhile, Marcus remained missing. Federal investigators froze his accounts and discovered that the missing pension money from twenty-four years earlier had been moved through the same network now financing Laurent luxury properties.
The board still refused to delay its succession vote.
Without a legally recorded transfer, Vivienne remained the designated successor. Several directors argued that Marcus’s alleged crimes should not disqualify his daughter.
Vivienne appeared on television and described herself as another victim.
Clara watched the interview beside Lillian.
“She looks afraid,” Lillian said.
“She helped him.”
“Both can be true.”
Clara struggled with that idea. Vivienne had humiliated her publicly and nearly destroyed her reputation. Yet fear had shaped every person in the story: Margaret’s silence, Edmund’s obedience to appearances, Lillian’s lost decades, and even Clara’s instinct to reject anyone who shared her blood.
Adrian found a blue-threaded sample book in Rosebridge storage among Lillian’s original belongings. Hidden beneath the spine was a microfilm strip containing the pension ledgers.
Lillian had preserved the evidence all along.
The ledgers proved Marcus framed James, started the lodge fire to destroy records, and paid a doctor to admit Lillian under a false name. They also revealed that Marcus had been secretly withdrawing money from Bellmont House for years.
The board meeting was moved forward to the next morning.
That night, Vivienne called Clara from an unknown number.
“My father contacted me,” she whispered. “He wants the microfilm.”
“Where is he?”
“At Blackwood Lodge.”
“The lodge burned.”
“Part of the cellar survived. He says Margaret hid something there that can still ruin him.”
Vivienne asked Clara to come alone and bring the golden pouch.
Adrian shook his head as he listened.
Clara agreed anyway—but only after Detective Park arranged surveillance.
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Before leaving, Lillian took Clara’s hand.
“Marcus always believed people would protect the family name before protecting one another,” she said. “Do not prove him right.”
