Against All Odds

As Noah opened the door to the third floor nursery, a wave of nostalgia washed over him. He knew that he had been in the room before, had been born born there actually, though he obviously wouldn't remember that far back, the room none the less held some kind of familiarity for him. Though covered in dust and decorated in cob webs, he could imagine what it might have looked like once upon a time. Love and care had been put in the preparation of the room from the chosen color palette to the crib, still standing, near a large window overlooking the garden below. With a hint of surprise, Noah realized that the nursery was located directly above the Rose Room.

"It all seems like something out of a dream." Noah remarked as he walked slowly through the room, taking it all in. Shelves of toys and aged stuffed animals lined the walls. An old rocking chair sat next to the crib and a hobby horse across the room from it. The floor was carpeted in a soft, beige shag, and the walls were a light blue with painted clouds lining the border.

"It is." Riley agreed, feeling a sense of sentimentality all his own. Of course, the room held a different meaning for him. Before it had been turned into Noah's nursery, it had been the room that his father, Eric, had used while staying at the mansion to look after El. Riley tried to imagine his father, standing there, maybe in the same spot that Riley now stood. He tried to imagine what the room looked like then. There would have been a bed. Maybe where the crib now sat. Maybe a night stand as well. Eric's clothes would have been stored in a dresser or in the wardrobe that sat against the wall. Maybe he had his favorite books on the shelves where the toys now sat.

Riley walked across the room to the tapestry hanging on the wall, concealing the door to El's room, and gently pushed it aside. Probably something his father had done a hundred times. Noah watched him and his heart leapt into his throat when he saw the door that had been revealed. Riley didn't need to tell him what door it was or whose room it led to. That room, it was Eleanor Reaney's room, his mother's room. Noah hesitated a moment, stealing his nerves before stepping forward and gripping the door knob in his hand. He turned the knob and the door creaked open. A whoosh of stale air blew past him and he inhaled deeply. The room had the smell of roses and the sweet scent of ladies perfume.

Riley stepped to the side and allowed Noah to enter the room first, then followed behind him. Noah looked around but could barely see anything. He tried the light switch but it didn't work.

"I'm pretty sure the bulbs are burned out." Riley told him. He stepped around Noah, over to the bed and lit the candle on the night stand, then walked around the room lighting more candles that he had set about earlier. Noah turned to him and smirked.

"I take it you come up here a lot?"

Riley shrugged. "I 'm sorry. I know you told me not to, but I feel closer to her here."

"I can understand that." The room, now bathed in the soft glow of the candle light opened up to him, revealing a bit of who Eleanor Reaney had been in life. All around him, the beauty of the room stood frozen in time as though time had simply stopped once you crossed the threshold. The first thing that Noah noticed upon entering the room was the bed. A gorgeous queen sized four poster bed with a burgundy duvet, and lace curtains. The floor was hardwood but covered in a large area rug with red and black floral patterns throughout. Night stands stood at each corner of the bed, candles flickering on both, and across the room, a chest of drawers with a marble top.

A jewelry box sat atop the dresser, the lid opened revealing a sparse amount of jewelry. Mostly earrings but also a few necklaces. They were beautiful pieces though Noah doubted they were anything more than costume jewelry, given El's past addiction, she'd probably sold off anything of real value long ago to buy drugs. It didn't matter though they were still exquisite in their own right and only someone with a trained eye could have seen the difference.

Noah continued his inspection of the room finding out more about the woman who had given him life as he took in everything around him. On top of the fire place mantle he found a portable CD player and a stack of CD's. It wasn't an expensive player by any means. It was a relic of a by-gone era but given El's financial situation, Noah imagined it was all she could afford. Stephen would have probably bought her an MP3 player or anything more modern had she asked and he may very well had but had taken it back once she passed, Noah didn't know for sure. Regardless, it was interesting to see what types of music his mother had been interested in.

As he looked through the CD's he found that El had a diverse taste in music. There were albums from some more modern artists from the time but quite a few from the 1990's as well as some older bands dating back to the 1970's. Apparently she was into rock music more than anything else and had a fair collection such as Aerosmith, Nirvana, Metallica, Guns and Roses, and poison. She also had Pink Floyd and Queen. Noah smiled to himself as he looked over each CD. He liked most of the bands that she had apparently liked, especially Queen, which was one of his favorite bands.

The more he looked around the room, the closer he felt to El and that closeness came with a mixture of sorrow and regret. He would have liked to have known her, grown up with her, and been a son to her. More than that though, he wanted to have known the truth about her long before now. So many years lost that he could have mourned her and kept her memory alive instead of allowing it to rot away in an abandoned part of the mansion. Lilian had taken that away from him. Not only taken his real mother from him, but her memory as well. Noah could forgive Lilian for a lot of the things she had done but not that. That, he would never forgive her for.

"Noah." Noah turned and saw Riley standing next to the bed. He lifted the pillow and revealed the diary he had hidden there. Noah saw the cleverness of his hiding place. Indeed, Lilian never would have looked for the book there. She might have suspected that he'd hidden it in El's room but never would have gone there looking for it. To Noah's knowledge, Lilian had not set foot on the third floor in years. Maybe since El's death. He never understood it before, her fear of the third floor but now it suddenly made sense to him. She may not have believed in ghosts or feared El's vengeance before being attacked in the Rose Room but she did fear the third floor. She feared facing the truth she'd tried so hard to keep hidden and she feared facing her own sins.

Riley sat down on the bed and Noah sat next to him, neither of them saying anything for the longest time. Noah looked down at the book, still closed, in Riley's hands and felt a knot form in his throat. He had dismissed the diary until now, never really paying it much mind. Eleanor Reaney had been a story he'd heard from his mother a time or two and some of the older staff had mentioned her but that's all she had been, a story, a brief mention in passing. Now, he was looking at the last connection he had to her, the only connection. Her own words, penned by her hand, in a diary left for future generations to find. Maybe she had intended for Noah to find it all along. Who knows. The one thing he did know was, if not for Riley, none of this would have ever come to light.

Had El orchestrated their meeting as well? Had she somehow reached out and put the pieces in place that would lead them to each other? Riley had been the key to unlocking the long buried secrets of Reaney Hall all along so it wasn't so much of a stretch to believe that their meeting each other had been made possible by a ghostly push in the right direction. In any case, he was here now, and the truth of his past lay waiting at his fingertips.

Reaching out, Noah took the book gently from Riley's hands and placed it on his own lap before slowly laying it open. The words written across the page were written elegantly, a proper ladies script. He softly ran a finger over the top sentence and held his breath. Eyes closed, he imagined El sitting on her bed, pen in hand as she wrote. He fingers touching the very page that Noah now touched. Spilling her heart out, word by word, in a tragic tale that would take decades to be told. A tear slipped from Noah's eye as Riley wrapped his arms around him and held him close, comforting him in a way only a lover could.

"Are you ready for this?" Riley asked him.

Noah let out the breath he'd been holding then nodded. "I am." He softly whispered. "She's waited long enough."

Without saying a word, Riley turned the pages, searching for the one page with the torn corner. It had to be that page. Riley knew it somehow. It was the page that would reveal everything and lead them to the truth they sought after. He turned each page, past the ones he had already read and past the ones he had not, then he found it. It wasn't the last page in the diary, but it was the last page that had been written on. The rest of the book was filled with blank pages. Perhaps she had given up or--more likely--there was nothing left to write and no one to write it. Both Noah and Riley looked down at the page and to their surprise, found that it had not been written by El. Noah narrowed his eyes and looked at Riley, questioningly. Riley shrugged, just as confused as Noah.

"Who..." Noah began to ask but stopped as his eyes scanned down the page to the very bottom where it had been signed, Eric Morgan.

"My father." Riley whispered, more to himself than to Noah. "But why? Why would he..."

Noah placed a hand on Riley's and gently squeezed it. "You don't have to." He said, nodding to the entry. "I can read it if you'd rather."

"No." Riley shook his head. "Read it aloud. I want to hear it."

"You're sure?"

Riley nodded. "He made this entry for a reason. I want to know why. Clearly he intended for someone to find it and I think El wants us both to know what happened."

"Alright." Noah scooted to the head of the bed and sat back, closer to the flickering light of the candle. Riley situated himself between Noah's legs, resting his back against Noah's chest as Noah held the diary up so both of them could see, and began to read...

Entry by Eric Morgan

To whomever may find this,

I pray that by the time you're reading this, the truth will finally be out, and justice will have been served. But, if it hasn't, if this is the first you're hearing of this, then I need you to understand everything I'm about to say. This isn't a confession. Not in the way you might think. It's a detailed account of what happened to El, my dear friend. How she died, and how I ended up involved in this nightmare.

I had come to work for the Reaney family when Stephen Reaney hired me to care for his younger sister, Eleanor Reaney. She was pregnant, single, and had come to Stephen for help. I was told many things about her that I will not repeat only to say that I didn't believe half of them. She seemed like such a sweet girl, sad and quiet, and not at all the picture that Stephen Reaney had painted of her.

She'd had some problems with addiction in the past, she admitted that to me, but I don't think it was as bad as Stephen had tried to make it seem. El had changed, and she was trying to do better. She wanted to be a good mother to her child. I believe that. I truly do. Stephen and his wife, Lilian, were keeping El confined here at the mansion. In the beginning perhaps they had El's best interests in mind but I believe their motivations had changed over time. I've heard it said before, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

By the time I had been hired, it was clear that Stephen and Lilian had no intention of ever letting El leave. At least, not with her baby. She had become a prisoner here and Stephen Reaney was too rich and powerful to fight. I was scared of him. I'll admit that though it's no excuse for my role in El's confinement. I should have done more to help her. I should have at least tried. I'm as much to blame for what happened as Stephen and Lilian. My silence, my compliance, my own self serving actions--all played a role in the tragic events that ended El's life. For that, I will never forgive myself.

I won't ask for El's forgiveness. I don't deserve it. All I can ask for is understanding. I'm young, naive, and desperate for help so I took advantage of a bad situation, knowing full well that what the Reaney's were doing was wrong and still, I did nothing. Eleanor, I am so sorry. You deserved better. So much better. You deserved love, and happiness. Instead, all you found was misery and pain.

In the months that I worked at Reaney Hall, El and I became good friends. Honestly, I've never had a better friend. Certainly not one as loving, caring, and devoted as her. She quickly became like a sister to me and I loved her. El was nearly eight months into her pregnancy when she went to Stephen on my behalf, asking him to help my family. You see, my mother was ill, dying, and we had no money. I don't know what El expected Stephen would do. Give my father money maybe, perhaps a job. Anyway, he refused to help. When he turned El away she was furious, and they got into a terrible argument.

They were yelling at each other, each of them saying horrible things. I was in my room but I could hear their voices getting louder, angrier. El told Stephen that she was leaving and that if he tried to stop her, she would sue him for her share of the inheritance and expose him and Lilian for keeping her hostage in the mansion. Stephen told her she could leave after the baby was born, but that she wouldn't be taking it with her. He didn't care what happened to her after that.

He was done trying, done caring, but he wasn't going to let her ruin her child's life the way she had ruined her own. Stephen said she was nothing but a junkie and a whore and as far as Stephen was concerned, she could rot in hell. I cowered in my room at the end of the hall, their voices carried throughout the mansion, echoing down the corridor. I put my hands over my ears, trying to block out the yelling, the cruel and hurtful words, and the painful cries as El begged Stephen to just let her leave.

Then I heard it. The terrible, frightened, and ear piercing scream. My blood ran cold and I rushed out into the hall to help her. But just as I arrived, I saw Stephen standing at the top of the stairs, looking down. Looking at El. I gasped and he turned to me. The look on his face gave me chills. He looked shocked, scared almost, but there was something else there as well, in his eyes. Just a glint of something. I can't really describe it. It was the way he narrowed his eyes and glared at me. He took a step towards me and for a moment I thought, I felt, that I was in danger too. But then he began to sob and that sinister look in his eyes vanished.

He told me it was an accident. She was trying to leave. She'd run for the stairs and he tried to stop her. He grabbed her arm, trying to pull her back from the stairs so he could take her back to her room but then she jerked away from him and when she did, she lost her balance and fell backward, down the stairs. That was the scream I'd heard. Her falling. Stephen kept repeating that it was an accident, that he didn't mean to hurt her. He begged me to believe him. I didn't respond to him. I couldn't. I had to focus on El. I rushed past Stephen and ran down the stairs to the second floor landing where she was lying, motionless.

I knelt down beside her, my hands trembling as I checked for a pulse. I let out a sigh of relief. She had a pulse. It was weak, but it was there. I looked up at Stephen and told him that she was alive and needed help. I begged him to call for an ambulance. He hesitated a moment then nodded and pulled out his phone. He started to dial a number and I assumed that it was an emergency number. I held El's hand and told her that everything was going to be okay. We were going to get her help and she would be fine. I was a fool though. Stephen never called for help, at least, not help for Eleanor.

A few minutes later I heard footsteps running up the stairs from the main floor. I turned to look, thinking there was no way paramedics could have made it to the mansion that quickly. There was no way. And I was right. It wasn't the paramedics. I saw Thomas, Stephen's steward, rushing up the stairs with Lilian right behind him. For a moment, a brief moment, I thought that maybe Stephen had called Thomas so they could take El to the hospital themselves. I was hopeful, praying that they would help but then the three of them began to argue with each other.

I was horrified but what I was hearing. They were more worried about how it would look if the police showed up. Thomas told Stephen that he would be blamed for it, probably arrested. Lilian was crying, but not for El. She was worried about Stephen and what would happen to her, worried that they could lose everything. I couldn't believe how cold and callus they were being. El was laying on the floor, unconscious, maybe dying, and all they cared about were themselves. It was finally decided that Thomas would take El to her room then, they could assess her injuries, maybe call a doctor if they needed to.

I was beside myself with worry and outrage at what they were proposing. El needed to go to a hospital, she needed help, but they weren't concerned about her at all. I tried to protest but Stephen told me everything would be fine, El would be fine. I wanted to believe him, to believe that everything would be okay, El would be okay, but I knew better. I told him no, if they wouldn't call for help then I would. I pulled my phone out but then Thomas grabbed my hand. That was when the true nature of these people were revealed to me.

Thomas told me to think about what I was doing. If I called an ambulance, or the police, they could just as easily blame me, say that I had pushed her. It would be three against one and I was an omega so who were the authorities going to believe? I was implicated now and the only way to keep myself safe, and keep my family safe, was to just go along with whatever I was told to do. My heart sank at his words because I knew he was right. If I didn't do what they wanted, they could destroy my life. Destroy my parents lives. I hated myself for agreeing to go along with their plan but what choice did I have?

Thomas and Stephen took El to her room and laid her on the bed. Lilian and I changed her into a nightgown and did our best to keep her comfortable. Lilian thought El might have a concussion and said that we would need to watch her throughout the night. She didn't appear to have any visible injuries, thank God, but I'm not a nurse and had no idea if she had internal injuries or not. I did notice a few bruises and scrapes on her arm and shoulder but nothing appeared to be broken as far as I could tell. I urged Lilian to call their doctor. El needed to be examined by a processional. Lilian told me to just keep watching her and if she got any worse, they would call the doctor.

I agreed though something told me that she was again lying to me. Would they really call the doctor? They wouldn't just let her lay there and suffer, would they? Well, the answer to that question came soon enough. El was in and out of consciousness for most of the night and then, around midnight, the unthinkable happened. El's water broke. That's it, I thought. They would have to call someone now. I ran to Lilian and told her what had happened, expecting that she would call an ambulance or the doctor, somebody. Instead, she went to El's room to check on her and I suppose to see if I had been telling the truth.