Chapter 6: Elara’s Last Protection
The judge postponed the guardianship decision for six hours so the electronic records could be examined.
Miriam allowed Aldric one supervised visit with Thora in a courthouse family room.
Thora sat beside a box of crayons without touching them.
“Did you find my music box?”
“Not yet,” Aldric said.
“Can you tell me where it is?”
“Heloise took it.”
“Did she say why?”
“She asked what Mommy put inside it.”
Aldric pulled his chair closer.
“Did your mother give you something before she went away?”
Thora nodded.
“A little silver key.
Mommy said it opened the place where she kept promises.”
“Where is the key?”
Thora pointed at her shoe.
Miriam knelt and found a small key sewn beneath the inner sole.
“She made me take off my necklace,” Thora said.
“So I hid it there.”
Aldric covered his mouth with one hand.
“You had to protect this by yourself.”
“You weren’t there.”
The sentence emptied the room.
Aldric lowered his hand.
“No,” he said.
“I wasn’t.”
“You said work was only for a little while.”
“I kept saying that because it was easier than admitting I was choosing badly.” He took a trembling breath.
“I trusted Heloise, but I also left you when you needed me.
That part is mine.”
“Did you forget me?”
“Never.”
“Then why didn’t you come?”
“Because I believed adults who lied to me instead of asking my little girl what was happening.”
Thora’s chin shook.
“I thought you didn’t want me anymore.”
Aldric slid to his knees beside her chair.
“I wanted you every day.
And I am sorry my choices made you feel unwanted.”
She reached for him.
Miriam nodded, and Aldric gathered Thora into his arms.
“I was bad at dinner,” Thora cried.
“I dropped a spoon.”
“No child sleeps on a floor because of a spoon.”
“Heloise said Mommy would be ashamed.”
“Your mother would have lifted you into her arms.”
Thora cried against his shoulder until her small body stopped shaking.
Miriam placed a box of tissues beside them and quietly wiped her own eyes.
Conrad was waiting in the corridor when the visit ended.
“My bank traced the deposit.”
“To Heloise?”
“To a trust administration company controlled by Corvin.”
Fiona examined the silver key.
“Elara kept a safe-deposit box at Northbridge Bank.
If this opens it, we need a court officer present.”
At the bank, the manager carried a narrow metal box into a private room.
Fiona inserted the key while Aldric signed the access register.
Inside lay a sealed envelope, a memory card, and a handwritten letter addressed to Thora.
Aldric opened the legal envelope first.
“This is a trust amendment.”
Fiona read over his shoulder.
“Elara removed Heloise as successor trustee.”
“Why?”
“Read paragraph nine.”
Aldric read aloud.
“‘If Heloise attempts to obtain custody of Thora, remove Aldric from the family residence, or interfere with their relationship, she forfeits every benefit named in my earlier will.’”
Conrad let out a slow breath.
“She tried to gain everything and activated the clause that gives her nothing.”
The bank manager inserted the memory card into a secure computer.
Elara appeared on the screen, pale but smiling.
“If you are watching this,” she said, “someone has tried to separate my husband from our daughter.”
Aldric gripped the edge of the table.
Elara continued, “Corvin knows about this amendment.
He witnessed it.”
Fiona turned toward the manager.
“Make three certified copies immediately.”
A fire alarm suddenly screamed through the bank.
Sprinklers did not activate, but people rushed toward the exit.
Corvin appeared beyond the glass wall and grabbed the metal box.
May you like
“Stop him!” Conrad shouted.
Corvin ran toward the emergency stairwell with Elara’s original amendment in his hand.
