Chapter 4 - Olivia Had Been Carrying a Promise
That night, after Edmund and Marina were placed under supervision by my security team in separate guest quarters, I sat with Olivia in her bedroom.
She still held the teddy bear.
Still pressed one cheek against it where Edmund had struck her.
I asked as gently as I could, “What did Mommy tell you?”
Olivia’s chin trembled.
“She said if bad people looked for the blue book, I had to never help.”
“When did she tell you that?”
“In the study.”
“Were you alone?”
She nodded.
“Mommy was hiding it?”
Another nod.
“Where?”
She shook her head. “I can’t say.”
My heart tightened.
Even now, she was trying to keep a promise to a dead mother.
I took a slow breath.
“Sweetheart, Mommy wanted you safe more than she wanted any secret safe.”
Tears filled her eyes.
“She said if I told Edmund, something bad would happen.”
There it was.
Isabella had been afraid enough to recruit a six-year-old into silence.
Or maybe Olivia had been five then.
Which made it even worse.
I pulled her into my arms.
“You did the right thing today.”
“I did?”
“Yes.”
“You’re not mad?”
“No.”
Her crying finally broke loose then, the kind children hold back until they hear the one sentence they need most.
And while she cried, I realized the notebook wasn’t only a mystery.
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It was evidence of how frightened Isabella had truly been.
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