Amelia’s Voice From Saint Rowan
Chapter 04 - Amelia’s Voice From Saint Rowan
The call had originated from Saint Rowan Medical Residence in Vermont.
The facility treated patients with severe trauma, memory injury, and long-term medication dependence. Amelia had lived there under the name Mary Ellis for nineteen years.
Her file listed Eleanor Marlowe as financial guardian.
Clara traveled north with Thomas, Rosa, and federal investigator Isaac Cole.
Julian was forbidden from contacting them.
At Saint Rowan, the director claimed Amelia lacked capacity to receive visitors. A court-appointed physician disagreed after reviewing her current condition.
Clara entered a garden room.
A thin woman sat near the window wearing a blue cardigan. Burn scars crossed her neck and right hand. Her blond hair had turned mostly gray.
She looked up at Clara.
Her gaze moved immediately to the birthmark beneath Clara’s thumb.
“I used to kiss the moon,” Amelia said.
Clara stopped.
No one except Thomas knew what she called the mark as a child.
Amelia opened her arms, then lowered them.
“May I?”
Clara nodded.
The embrace was hesitant, not magical. Clara felt bone, trembling, and the unfamiliar scent of hospital soap.
She did not suddenly remember being a baby.
Amelia did.
She began describing the night Clara was born, the storm outside, and Thomas waiting in the hospital corridor.
Thomas had been Amelia’s godfather and the family’s legal adviser.
When Amelia uncovered the trust fraud, she gave him copies and asked him to protect Clara if anything happened.
The warehouse fire was meant to kill her and destroy the provenance archive.
A security worker pulled her out alive. Eleanor’s private physician moved her to a clinic before public authorities arrived.
Amelia woke weeks later.
Eleanor told her Clara died in the fire’s aftermath.
She used medication, false medical reports, and guardianship orders to keep Amelia confined.
Thomas learned Amelia might be alive three years later but could not locate her. He feared searching openly would reveal Clara.
“Why did you let me think my mother was dead?” Clara asked him.
“I had no proof she was alive.”
“You had doubt.”
“Yes.”
“You decided doubt belonged only to you.”
Thomas did not defend himself.
Amelia had called the ballroom after a nurse showed her a livestream preview of the wedding. She recognized the tiara and Thomas.
The nurse helped her contact the trust hotline printed inside an old letter.
The call reached every microphone because federal agents had connected Clara’s phone to the ballroom system hours before the ceremony.
Clara turned toward Thomas.
“You were recording the wedding.”
“Yes.”
“Was I the only person who didn’t know?”
May you like
Amelia reached for her hand.
“No,” she said. “I did not know what they would do to you either.”
