Chapter 7 - THE OTHER CHILD
My niece stopped speaking to Heloise for five days.
Aaron told me.
“She says her mother made her the princess and Thora the servant.”
That sentence made me sick.
Heloise had created roles for both girls.
Victim.
Favorite.
Neither healthy.
My niece believed she had caused it because she liked the attention.
She had been given:
The larger bedroom.
Thora’s place at the main table.
New clothes.
A small silver bracelet from our grandmother’s collection.
Meanwhile Thora served.
Children notice inequality.
They do not always understand agency.
Aaron asked whether the girls could see each other.
Therapist approved.
At my sister Claire’s house.
Neutral.
My niece brought the maid uniform in a paper bag.
“I took it.”
Thora stared.
“Why?”
“So she can’t make you wear it.”
Then my niece started crying.
“I ate your pancake.”
Thora looked confused.
“What?”
“Mom made pancakes and said you didn’t get one. I ate mine.”
Five-year-old logic met eight-year-old guilt.
Thora hugged her.
“You were hungry.”
That broke every adult in the room.
Later, my niece told the therapist more.
Heloise had spoken about the house constantly.
When the Ravencrest deal closed:
“Everything will finally be settled.”
Thora’s room would become a guest suite.
My niece would have “Grandmother’s wing someday.”
Uncle Aldric could stay “if he stops causing trouble.”
That sounded like Heloise believed she had future control.
But the trust terms were still sealed.
Then:
“Mom said Thora’s birthday ruined everything.”
There.
My niece remembered Heloise receiving a thick envelope around Thora’s fifth birthday.
She yelled.
Then burned part of it in the fireplace.
A child’s memory.
Needed verification.
We checked Wycliffe’s hallway camera.
Sure enough.
Six weeks earlier, Heloise entered the library holding a Hawthorne Fiduciary envelope.
Twenty minutes later she left empty-handed.
Fireplace ash records?
No.
But the trust could resend documents.
Hawthorne confirmed the packet:
MANDATORY DESCENDANT ACTIVATION NOTICE.
Recipient:
Heloise as temporary steward.
Copy required:
Aldric.
Did I receive one?
No.
Tracking showed my copy delivered to Wycliffe.
Signed for by:
House manager.
Then routed to Heloise’s office under standing instructions.
Again.
Centralization.
The envelope never reached me.
Hawthorne admitted failure to require direct digital confirmation.
Institutional negligence.
Not conspiracy.
Then Naomi noticed something in the resend.
Page count:
Thirty-four.
The copy recovered from Heloise’s filing archive:
Twenty-nine.
Five pages missing.
Which pages?
Schedule D.
Conflict rules.
Economic disclosures.
May you like
And the paragraph defining exactly what happened when Thora turned five.
We were three chapters away from the answer.
