Chapter 9 - The First Inspection
Mitchell did not move.
Lena’s colleague stepped closer.
“Mr. Monroe, open the door.”
Mitchell’s expression hardened.
“He put himself in there.”
Aubrey stared.
“He what?”
Mitchell shot her a warning look.
Lena caught it.
“Open it.”
Mitchell took the key from his pocket.
He unlocked the door.
Dylan stood inside beside a small mattress.
His eyes were red.
There was a bottle of water.
A blanket.
Nothing else.
Lena crouched.
“Dylan?”
He ran straight to Aubrey.
She wrapped both arms around him.
Mitchell immediately began explaining.
“He has behavioral episodes.”
Lena stood.
“What behavioral episodes?”
“He hides. Refuses instructions. Sometimes locks himself in.”
Aubrey looked at the lock.
On the outside.
Lena looked too.
“This lock operates externally.”
“It’s an old door.”
“Why was it locked?”
Mitchell exhaled.
“He asked for quiet.”
Dylan buried his face against Aubrey.
“No, I didn’t.”
Mitchell stared at him.
Dylan shrank.
Aubrey pulled him closer.
Lena saw everything.
“We’re going downstairs.”
Mitchell blocked the hall.
“Are you removing my children?”
“Not yet.”
“Then this is my home.”
“And I’m conducting a welfare assessment.”
Mitchell stepped aside.
Downstairs, Lena interviewed the children separately.
Mitchell objected.
She reminded him the emergency placement order permitted private welfare interviews.
Aubrey sat with Lena in the kitchen.
The door remained open.
Another worker stayed in the hallway.
“You’re not in trouble,” Lena said.
Aubrey nodded.
“Has Dylan been locked in that room before?”
Aubrey looked toward the door.
Mitchell was somewhere beyond it.
“Yes.”
“How often?”
“I don’t know.”
“Hours?”
“Yes.”
“Overnight?”
Aubrey’s eyes filled.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Aubrey hesitated.
Because Mitchell wanted the notebook.
Because he wanted the trust money.
Because he had threatened Dylan.
But she remembered Claire’s note.
Trust Rachel.
Not everyone.
“What happens if you don’t do what Mitchell wants?”
Aubrey whispered:
“Dylan goes in there.”
Lena’s jaw tightened.
“What does Mitchell want you to do?”
Aubrey looked down at the servant dress she was still wearing.
“Work when people come.”
“What kind of work?”
“Food. Drinks. Cleaning.”
“Anything else?”
“No.”
“Has anyone touched you inappropriately?”
“No.”
Lena nodded.
“Has Mitchell hit you?”
“No.”
“Threatened you?”
Aubrey thought.
“He doesn’t have to say everything.”
Lena waited.
“What does that mean?”
“He uses Dylan.”
The interview lasted twenty minutes.
Dylan told the same story in simpler words.
Dad gets mad.
Door closes.
Aubrey has to make him happy.
The workers called their supervisor.
Temporary removal was considered.
But Mitchell’s attorney arrived before the assessment ended.
He challenged the process immediately.
No physical injuries.
No explicit statutory basis for emergency seizure without a new court order.
The interior lock was troubling, but Mitchell claimed it was a temporary safety measure after Dylan had run toward the staircase during a tantrum.
It was a lie.
But lies required proof.
Lena did not like leaving them.
She also knew removing children improperly could weaken future action.
She ordered Mitchell to remove the exterior lock immediately and required daily contact until the placement hearing.
Mitchell smiled.
“Of course.”
When the workers left, Aubrey felt sick.
Dylan whispered:
“They left us.”
Mitchell closed the front door.
He did not speak for a full minute.
Then he turned.
His face was completely different.
No shouting.
No rage.
Only calculation.
“You talked.”
Aubrey stepped in front of Dylan.
“Yes.”
Mitchell looked at the removed lock sitting on the table.
“You made this difficult.”
“You locked him up.”
Mitchell ignored her.
He walked to the kitchen counter and picked up his phone.
“Daniel.”
He waited.
“We accelerate.”
Another pause.
“No. Monday is too late.”
He looked directly at Aubrey.
“Tomorrow.”
He ended the call.
Aubrey’s stomach dropped.
“What happens tomorrow?”
Mitchell smiled.
“Nothing you need to understand.”
But that night, after Mitchell went to bed, Aubrey searched his study again.
She found a property file.
Inside was a contract.
Proposed Sale of 38% Beneficial Interest — Monroe Restoration Holdings.
Below it:
Estimated transaction value: $2.8 million.
A handwritten note in Mitchell’s writing:
Need guardian authority before trustee review catches up.
Aubrey did not understand the legal language.
But she understood urgency.
Mitchell was running out of time.
And tomorrow he planned to do something with nearly three million dollars of their mother’s property.
At the bottom of the file was another note.
One word.
Rachel.
Beside it:
Must neutralize before box opens.
Aubrey’s hands began shaking.
Mitchell did not simply want the blue notebook.
May you like
He knew Rachel could expose him.
And now he knew Aubrey had reached out to her.
