Unspoken Sin

too bright for the

six times. Memorized the curves of each letter, the desperation dripping from the ink

Charlotte

sibility shook

Charlotte called parenting. But now she wondered if the woman who r

tra

th

ill

heartbeat she couldn't calm. Blood remembers. The ph

eded a

rom Aiden

lockwork - then snuck into her mother's forbidden wing of the house. That's what she called it: The Forbidden Wing.Locked

was alway

not

lotte's keys weeks ago an

place down someday," he had said, ha

ected to use

lished mahogany furniture. Family portraits on the walls, except none included Vero

ver part of the

ng old real estate deeds, business contracts, photographs of Charlotte a

found the

was bound with a satin ribbon - pale gold, fade

ere phot

ly curled a

Charlotte... an

ar

. Same smile. Same bone structure

ce - it was the way Charlotte held Elara

ren't s

eren't

ere si

's breat

st

e whispered aloud, her voice shaki

ra was her mother, an

os scattered across the floor

l had she be

she told Aid

garden, hidden from view. He listened sil

hed, she could

lotte kept me. She didn't kill her out of jealousy... she did

uiet for a

ou know what thi

a looke

secret. An embarrassment. Charlotte kept you hidden b

mbled. "She raised

d her of the one per

le

from her cheek with his thumb. "But

he kissed

ime, it wa

s mad

inged. D

need to survive. To feel something other than betrayal. T

in her hair. Her

uld've

he di

be ruined. By

in the grass, ta

ed. "What if Elara didn't die?

toward her, e

we fin

a nodde

d inside her: Or maybe sh

noticed something tucked inside the lining of

e newspaper clippi

adline

Found Dead in River

red at the b

water-damaged, but th

ru

ru

ck of the article in u

as silenced. And someon

of her lif

everyone w

rlo

ym

v

o

Ai

t afford to

y trembling with the fir