Ashes of a forgotten wife

Chapter5

Chapter 5: First Day in the Lion's House

Evelyn's POV

Monday arrived faster than Evelyn was ready for.

She stood in front of the mirror at six in the morning, Reuben leaning against the doorframe behind her and Zion sitting on the bathroom counter eating a piece of bread he had smuggled from the kitchen.

"You look nervous," Reuben said.

"I'm not nervous sweety," Evelyn replied.

Zion looked up from his bread. "You braided and unbraided your hair three times."

"I'm deciding."

Reuben crossed his arms. "You decide things very fast normally. This shows you're nervous."

Evelyn put the braid down and left her hair loose. "Both of you go eat breakfast and get your bags ready for school. Sandra will walk you down at seven-thirty."

They shuffled out without argument, which meant they had already decided this was a battle they would not win.

Evelyn looked at herself in the mirror.

Emilia Cross looked back.

A steady woman. A capable woman. A woman with no history in this city. She pressed her hands flat on the counter, breathed in, breathed out, and then she picked up her bag and went to work.

The childcare unit on the third floor of Valour Industries was bright and well-designed. There were low tables, colored bins, a reading corner with soft cushions, and a window that looked out over a small garden. Four staff children were already there when Evelyn arrived, overseen by two junior caregivers who introduced themselves as Blessing and Glory.

Blessing was cheerful and a little scattered. Glory was quiet and sharp-eyed, the kind of person who noticed things.

Evelyn liked Glory immediately.

"Benjamin usually arrives at nine with his personal assistant," Mirabel told her during the orientation walk. "He's bright and he asks a lot of questions. His emotional side can be..." Mirabel searched for the word. "Intense."

"I can handle intense," Evelyn said.

"He's had three caregivers leave in four months."

"I'm not planning to leave," Evelyn said simply.

At nine-fifteen, Benjamin Valour walked through the door of the childcare unit. He wore a little navy jacket and carried a backpack that was almost as big as he was. He walked in, looked at the room, looked at the junior caregivers, and then his eyes found Evelyn.

His whole face changed.

"You're here," he said, as if confirming something he had been waiting to hear.

"I'm here," she responded.

He walked over and set his bag down next to her table with the air of a man putting his things in his own office. Then he climbed into the chair across from her and opened his bag.

"I brought a project," he said.

"What kind of project?"

He pulled out a jumble of string, three flat pieces of cardboard, and a collection of small metal clips. "I want to build a bridge," he said. "But I don't know the right way to make the middle part hold up."

Evelyn looked at the materials. She looked at his face, so earnest and serious.

"The middle part of a bridge needs support from underneath," she said. "Or from above, depending on the type of bridge you're building. What kind do you want?"

He thought about it. "The kind that doesn't fall down."

"Then let's add support from both directions," she said. "That way, even if one side has a problem, the other side holds."

Benjamin picked up a piece of string. "That's smart," he said. Then, without looking up from his project, "My daddy says smart is the most useful thing a person can be."

Evelyn arranged the cardboard. "Your daddy is partly right. But kind is just as useful. A smart person who is not kind can build things that hurt people."

Benjamin thought about that for a long moment.

"My daddy is not very kind," he said thoughtfully. "But I don't think he hurts people on purpose. I think he just doesn't know how to be kind. My Auntie Tonia says it's because he works too much."

Evelyn's hands did not pause on the cardboard.

"Is your Auntie Tonia around a lot?" she asked, her voice light.

"She comes to dinner sometimes," Benjamin said. "She brings me toys. But I don't like her very much."

"Why not?"

Benjamin looked up. His dark eyes were direct and unblinking. "Because she always smiles with her mouth and not her eyes. Mama used to say that's how you know someone is pretending."

Evelyn went very still.

"Your mama?" she said carefully.

Benjamin's expression shifted into something quieter. He looked back down at his bridge. "I don't have a mama. I never did. But there's a photo in Daddy's study, up on the shelf behind the big blue book. She has long hair and she's laughing." He clipped two pieces of cardboard together. "I looked at it once when Daddy didn't know. He came in and saw me and he took the photo off the shelf and put it in a drawer. He looked very sad. I didn't ask about it after that."

The room was quiet except for the other children playing across the room.

Evelyn steadied her breath and kept her hands moving on the bridge.

"Hold this end for me," she said.

Benjamin wrapped his small hand around the cardboard, and together they built the middle section slowly, carefully, each piece supporting the one beside it.

At lunchtime, she walked Benjamin to the little eating area and watched him negotiate with Blessing over whether he had to eat the carrots. He ate two of them after Blessing bet him he couldn't eat them without making a face.

He ate them without making a face.

He looked extremely proud of himself.

Evelyn was pouring juice when she heard the door behind her open.

She turned.

Anthony Valour stood in the doorway in a dark suit, looking at his son.

Benjamin looked up. "Daddy, I built a bridge."

"I can see that," Anthony said. His eyes moved from his son to Evelyn. "Miss Cross."

"Mr. Valour," she said.

He studied her face the same way he had in the lobby, searching for something he could not name.

"How is he doing?" Anthony asked.

"He's doing very well," Evelyn said. "He's patient, he's curious, and he doesn't give up when something is difficult."

Anthony's expression did not change, but something in his eyes moved.

"He didn't learn that from me," Anthony said quietly.

He looked at his son for a moment longer, then turned and left without another word.

Benjamin watched the door close. He picked up a carrot he had saved, turned to Evelyn, and said in a very small voice, "Do you think he's proud of me?"

Evelyn looked at this small boy with his golden-brown eyes and his brave face and his quiet little question.

It was the hardest thing she had done all day not to pull him close.

"Yes," she said. "I think he absolutely is."

Benjamin nodded. He ate the carrot. He did not make a face.

That evening, back at Sandra's apartment, Evelyn was setting the table for dinner when her phone rang from a number she recognized: Mirabel's office line.

But it was not Mirabel's voice on the other end.

It was Anthony Valour.

"Miss Cross," he said. "I need you at the penthouse at seven tomorrow morning. Benjamin woke up twice in the night and asked for you by name. I don't know what you did today, but whatever it was, he trusts you." A pause. "That does not happen easily with my son."

Evelyn held the phone and said nothing for a moment.

The penthouse.

The forty-second floor.

The place where she had once chosen curtains and hung a painting above a fireplace.

"I'll be there at seven," she said.

She set the phone down.

Across the table, Zion looked up from his drawing and said, "Mama. You have the river face again."

"What's the river face?" Reuben asked.

"The face she makes," Zion said, "when she's about to do something very scary but she's going to do it anyway."

Evelyn looked at her son.

She pulled his drawing toward her and studied it. He had drawn a tall building with a small figure at the very top.

"Who is this?" she asked, pointing at the figure.

Zion picked up his crayon and drew a tiny sun above the figure's head.

"That's you, Mama," he said. "You're always at the top."

Evelyn put the drawing down and pressed her hand over her mouth for just one second.

Then she straightened up and went back to setting the table.