Chapter 6: The calm
The quiet after the fight between Viola and Clara was not real peace. It was more like the calm before a big storm. Clara felt very jumpy. She just couldn’t understand Viola. She thought she knew her cousin well, but the Viola who came back seemed like a stranger. This made Clara very worried. She had tried to spread bad stories about Viola so Viola wouldn’t get to inherit their father’s money. But Viola did nothing. This made Clara even more worried. She had a bad feeling that something big was going to happen, something that would hit her hard.
Clara kept waiting for Viola to do something. Anything. But Viola just went about her days, quiet and calm. She read books in the big library, took walks in the garden, and talked softly to the house staff. Clara watched her like a hawk. Every small move, every quiet glance, made Clara feel more and more confused. It was like Viola was playing a game, but Clara didn’t know the rules.
“She’s planning something, Harris,” Clara said to Viola’s ex-husband, Harris, one evening. Harris had come over to check on her, but Clara quickly pulled him into her worries. “She’s too quiet. The Viola I knew would be yelling, fighting, trying to clear her name. This one… she’s just waiting.”
Harris, who was always tired of Clara’s drama, just sighed. “Maybe she’s just grown up, Clara. People change.”
Clara scoffed. “Not like this. This is on purpose. She’s up to something, I tell you.”
Clara’s worry grew worse. She started checking Viola’s mail, hoping to find some secret message. There was nothing, not a single thing, to make her feel better. The lack of anything secret was even scarier.
One afternoon, Clara found Viola sitting quietly in the library. Viola was by the big window, reading a thick book. The sunlight made her look peaceful. Clara felt a strange feeling, a mix of anger and fear. Viola looked up, her eyes calm.
“Clara,” Viola said, her voice soft. “Are you alright? You seem upset.”
Clara quickly got herself together. “I am fine, Viola. Unlike some people, I have important things to do.” She wished she hadn’t said it that way. Viola just gave a small, quiet smile and went back to her book. That little smile, so hard to read, sent a shiver down Clara’s back. It was like Viola knew something, something Clara had no idea about.
Outside the house, the small talk about Viola had started to change. Clara had tried to make people think bad things about Viola. But some older people in town, who remembered Viola as a kind young woman before she left, started to speak up for her. Viola had been doing quiet good deeds, like giving money to the local children’s home and having nice talks with the old people who worked on the estate. These small acts slowly chipped away at the bad stories Clara had spread. But Clara was too caught up in her own fears to notice.
Clara started to have bad dreams, even when she was awake. In one dream, she saw herself in a courtroom. Their family lawyer, Mr. Henderson, was on the other side, smiling. Viola was there too, not looking happy, but with a quiet, knowing look that made Clara’s blood run cold.
The feeling that something bad was coming grew stronger every day. It was like a tight knot in her chest that made it hard to breathe. She started checking the locks on the doors many times at night. She thought someone would break in. She became quiet and angry, snapping at the house staff and even at Harris, who was getting tired of her strange behavior.
Then, a letter arrived. A man in a uniform delivered it. It had a special stamp Clara didn’t know, and it was only for Viola. Clara, in a moment of panic, grabbed it. Her heart pounded as she carefully opened the seal. Her hands shook. The letter was short and formal. It was from a very famous international law firm. What it said made Clara feel sick.
It wasn’t a demand or a threat. It was an invitation. An invitation for Viola to come to a private meeting about the “money and properties of the late Mr. Harvey around the world.”
“Around the world.” These words echoed in Clara’s mind, cold and scary. What were these “global assets”? And why was a big international law firm involved? And who was this mysterious and wealthy Mr. Harvey?
Clara felt dizzy. This was it. The big secret was about to come out. Viola’s quietness, her steady calm, suddenly made awful sense. She hadn’t been doing nothing; she had been quietly planning something much bigger, much more detailed than Clara could have ever guessed. The game Viola was playing wasn’t just about who got the local money; it was a huge game of chess, on a global scale.
Clara carefully closed the letter again. Her mind raced. She had to put the letter back in the reception box outside Viola’s gate before she was discovered.
That night, Clara barely slept. The truth hit her hard: Viola hadn’t been fighting back against Clara’s rumors because she didn’t need to. Clara’s small tricks were nothing, just a distraction from the real, giant battle that was about to begin. Viola had been playing a totally different game, a game whose scary size Clara was only just starting to understand.