Chapter 4 - ELARA’S LETTER
Rowan read the letter three times.
Each reading created more questions.
Elara wrote that she had discovered files beneath the Bellweather stage proving that several city officials had secretly sold public land to shell companies connected to Conrad Vale.
The community hall stood on the final piece of property needed for a luxury riverfront development.
Elara believed someone intended to destroy the records during the charity concert.
She also wrote about a frightened child.
Audrey had overheard a conversation between her father and an unnamed city official. She had run away from Conrad’s car and hidden inside the hall. Elara found her crying in a storage room.
According to the letter, Elara planned to take Audrey to the police after the concert.
The final paragraph had been written in a hurry.
If something happens, find the woman with the silver bird. She knows where I went.
There was no signature.
Instead, Elara had drawn the half-circle symbol with three lines.
“The silver bird,” Rowan said. “Who is she?”
Miriam sat on the edge of the bed.
“I do not know.”
“You kept this letter for twelve years.”
“I promised Elara I would.”
“You knew she survived.”
Miriam looked toward the broken door.
“I knew she survived the first night.”
The words struck Rowan harder than Audrey’s future cup ever could.
“You let me believe she was dead.”
“I was trying to keep you alive.”
“Where is she?”
“I do not know.”
“Stop lying.”
“I am not lying now.”
Miriam explained that shortly before dawn on the morning after the fire, Elara appeared at the townhouse. Her hair was burned. Her hands were bleeding. She carried a young Audrey, who was barely conscious from smoke inhalation.
Elara claimed that men were searching hospitals and police stations.
She begged Miriam not to call anyone.
A woman arrived before sunrise in a car with a silver bird ornament attached to the hood. Elara left with her.
Audrey remained behind.
By noon, Conrad’s security team came to retrieve his daughter.
He told Miriam that Elara had died.
He also threatened Rowan.
“If I spoke,” Miriam said, “he promised that the fire would take my second daughter too.”
Rowan felt sick.
“You protected me by erasing Elara.”
“I protected you by letting Conrad believe we accepted his story.”
“Why keep the letter?”
“Because Elara said you would need it someday.”
“Why now? Why did someone enter this room?”
“I don’t know.”
“You had a visitor three days ago.”
Miriam closed her eyes.
“Conrad.”
Rowan stared at her.
“He asked whether your memorial design contained a circle suspended between seven pillars,” Miriam continued. “When I refused to answer, he searched the house. I thought he left without finding anything.”
“He knew about the design before I submitted it.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“I think your sister described it years ago.”
Rowan looked again at her sketch.
The design she believed she had created from memory might have begun with Elara.
Perhaps Rowan had heard her sister describe it as a child and forgotten.
Or perhaps someone had been guiding her toward it.
Her phone vibrated.
Milo had sent a message.
Audrey Vale’s competition submission had been published in a promotional article.
Rowan opened the attachment.
The image showed Audrey standing beside a white architectural model.
Seven pillars leaned toward a suspended glass circle.
It was Rowan’s design.
Not approximately.
Not inspirationally.
Every proportion was identical.
Even the small symbol beneath the seventh pillar had been copied.
The article claimed Audrey had spent two years developing the concept.
At the bottom of the page, the Memorial Council director praised it as an extraordinary original vision.
Rowan looked at the name beneath the quotation.
Elias Voss.
May you like
The same director who would later reveal the timestamps on the memorial stage.
At that moment, however, Rowan knew him only as another powerful man applauding stolen work.
