[Reid Mansion—Evening]
Alexander stepped inside the mansion just as the evening lights warmed the corridors.
The first thing he did, without thinking, was stop one of the maids.
"Where is Evelyn?"
"She is in her room, sir."
"And my mother?"
"Madam is in the master bedroom," the maid answered.
He thanked her and turned down the corridor he hadn't walked into for years.
…..
[The Master Bedroom—Pauline's Room]
The door to the master bedroom stood slightly ajar.
Alexander pushed it open slowly.
The room smelled faintly of lavender and old wood polish, familiar in a way that made his chest tighten. The furniture was the same, refinished, cared for but unmistakably unchanged. The tall windows, the armchair near the window and the bed where his parents had once slept before everything fractured.
