Chapter 4 - The Weaver of Truths
Armed with the knowledge that her family’s history was a landscape of deceit, Amalia shifted her strategy. She couldn't just remain a hermit in the mountains; she needed allies. She began to write letters. Using the library's resources, she contacted a journalist whose name appeared in a decade-old article about her parents' "accidental" deaths. She didn't reveal her location, only the facts—the deed, the photographs, the name of the shell company.
Back at the ruin, she began to notice strange occurrences. The bushes around the perimeter of the house were occasionally trampled, and once, she found a discarded cigarette butt—the same brand Beatrix smoked. They knew she was alive. The realization spurred her into action. She began to fortify the shack. She used the scrap wood from the caved-in roof to reinforce the door and set up crude tripwires around the yard using fishing line Mr. Hilario had given her to "catch dinner."
Mrs. Matilda noticed the change in the girl. "You look like you're preparing for a war, child," she noted, her voice tinged with worry.
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"I'm preparing for the truth, Mrs. Matilda," Amalia replied steadily.
She had stopped playing the part of the frail, abandoned orphan. In the mirror of the shard of glass she used for grooming, she saw a girl whose eyes held the same intensity as the people in the photographs—minus the black ink. She was the one who would finally unveil them.
