Chapter 164
Breathless, she stumbled past the gate of the rose garden and stopped in front of the darkened shed. The door was tightly locked, but she already knew where the key was.
The key box. Standing on tiptoe, Vanessa opened it and fumbled inside until her fingers found a flat metal key.
For a fleeting moment, hesitation crept in. This was a space without its owner. She was intruding. A quiet guilt rose at the thought of touching someone else’s belongings.
And yet, what erased that hesitation was a memory.
“Don’t just stand out here next time. Wait inside. Even in summer, it gets cold before sunrise.”
“…What if I accidentally break something important to you?”
“Whatever’s inside, do whatever you want with it.”
Absolved, her hand slipped the key into the lock. With a creak, the door opened.
The moment she stepped inside, a wave of emotion surged up so violently she thought she might burst into tears.
The scent that filled the space was so achingly familiar.
The traces he had left behind. Her already damp eyes lifted as she searched the shed desperately.
The first thing she saw was his travel bag. It still sat boldly in the corner, exactly as he had left it. On the desk lay a worn compass, bottles of ink, a fine fountain pen, and thick leather notebooks that looked like navigation logs.
They were the things River Ross always kept close. For someone who had been gone ten days, it was strange, he had taken nothing.
As if he hadn’t gone to Linden at all. As if he would remain in this garden forever. As if he might open the door and walk in at any moment. As if he would always come back.
‘Useless sentiment.’
She muttered coldly, forcing down the tremor in her chest. Now was not the time to drown in emotion. For his sake, his honor. River Ross was not a deceiver. Even if the entire world betrayed her, he couldn’t.
He must not.
Vanessa spread the crumpled contract flat across the desk and opened a drawer. A flicker of guilt rose again as she was invading someone else’s private belongings, but she crushed it down.
‘Just once.’
Just once, River Ross had left behind a signature on a drawing. If she could find the sketchbook he used and compare it to this, everything would become clear.
Words, behavior, even the past. Those could all be fabricated if one tried hard enough. But the unconscious never lied. And no one could fake the instinctive flow of their handwriting.
If someone could, then they were either a born liar or someone who had deliberately set out to deceive. She refused to believe River Ross was either.
The sketchbook, usually left in the same place, was nowhere to be seen. Her impatience spiked. Had he taken it?
She searched everywhere, beside the bed, beneath it, even inside the kitchen cupboards. As she reached up to the highest shelf, her fingers brushed against something. She nudged it forward.
It rolled out with a soft clink. A small glass vial, no larger than half her palm.
‘What is this…?’
A strange feeling crept over her. She lifted the vial and held it up to the sunlight. Inside were neatly arranged pills.
She didn’t need to guess what they were. The label attached to the bottle spelled it out clearly.
Trinyl. A contraceptive used by men to prevent illegitimate children.
“I don’t need a child. I can’t have one anyway.”
Vanessa sucked in a sharp breath, gripping the edge of the desk. The nausea surged violently and she collapsed to the floor.
All the unease she had been forcing herself to ignore came crashing in like a tidal wave. Everything in the room, everything she had once overlooked, now took on an entirely different meaning.
Perfume from Burford. A cigar case from Milon. A wristwatch from Largo. They were luxuries so exquisite that no amount of wealth alone could obtain them, only status could.
Something shattered in her ears. It was a thin, fragile veil she had blinded herself behind, one she had perhaps always sensed and had desperately wanted to believe in.
It cracked, then broke apart completely.
