Chapter 6 - EMILY’S ROOM WAS EMPTY
When the boys were discharged, Richard brought them back to Hawthorne Manor.
Emily did not go.
Ethan asked every day.
Noah called her twice.
Liam mailed her a drawing through Marcus.
She visited Saturday.
Three hours.
No uniform.
Jeans.
Blue sweater.
Her own car.
The boys launched themselves at her.
Richard stayed back.
Progress.
Then Ethan dragged her upstairs.
“We fixed your room!”
Emily stopped.
Her old staff room.
Richard had emptied it.
Fresh paint.
New furniture.
Flowers.
A note from the boys:
COME HOME EMILY.
Her chest tightened.
Richard appeared behind them.
“I told them they shouldn’t—”
“You let them do this?”
“They wanted to.”
Emily looked at him.
He understood immediately.
“I’m sorry.”
Good.
She knelt.
“Boys.”
Three faces.
“I love you.”
“Then stay,” Noah said.
“That’s not how it works.”
“Why?”
Because adults had to stop making children responsible for adult arrangements.
Emily chose simple truth.
“I used to work here.”
“Yes.”
“And now I don’t.”
“Because Daddy fired you,” Ethan said.
Richard closed his eyes.
Emily did not rescue him.
“Yes.”
Noah glared at his father.
“Bad decision.”
Richard nodded.
“Very.”
Liam asked:
“Can he hire you again?”
Emily smiled.
“He could ask.”
Three boys turned toward Richard.
He looked trapped.
Good.
Then Emily continued:
“And I can say no.”
That was the lesson.
Ethan frowned.
“Even to Daddy?”
“Especially to your daddy.”
Richard almost laughed.
The boys protested.
Emily hugged them.
She stayed three hours.
Then left.
The empty room remained empty.
Eventually Richard converted it into a reading room for the boys.
Not a shrine.
Not bait.
May you like
That mattered.
---
