Alexis’ parents’ long-running bakery began to lose customers since they were unable to keep up with new trends and remained traditional. As things became more bleak, they planned a wedding for their daughter.
Alexis was about to marry a man she had never met before.
Robert was a wealthy man, yet he was quite frigid. The two seldom spoke to one another, yet their wedding was lavish. The wedding planner took care of everything, including the smallest of details. It was a picture-perfect day. Alexis donned a gown that most ladies can only dream of, but she and her husband felt like complete strangers, which was exactly what they were.
A few days before the wedding ceremony, Robert told Alexis, “I’m looking forward to being married. But I’m not sure what I’m doing,” and that was the closest he’d come to allowing her in.
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After the wedding, the couple moved into Robert’s home. It was more of a mansion, with many rooms, each more elegantly designed and furnished than the other.
“Come, I’ll show you around,” Robert said.
“It’s beautiful,” Alexis exclaimed as they entered the kitchen. “Everything is beautiful.”
“Now, Alexis, this house belongs to you too,” he said with pride.
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However, there was one rule that Robert imposed. He asked Alexis not to go to the attic ever. It was a forbidden room.
Alexis agreed and promised she would never go into the attic.
Her curiosity, however, was stronger than her senses, so when Robert departed for a meeting and she was left alone in the house, she went to the attic.
When she opened the door, she began crying. She didn’t understand how she could be confused and relieved at the same moment.
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There, in the dimly lit attic, Alexis felt as if she stumbled upon a treasure trove of her husband’s hidden memories. Toys with untold stories, antique postcards, and photographs from Robert’s life before his union were scattered throughout the space. Amidst these artifacts, poignant letters exchanged between a small child and his father, a soldier stationed far away during the war, lay nestled, providing glimpses of a bygone period.
“How dare you enter this place? My wife does not comply with my wishes, so now I have to change the locks in my own house. Alexis noticed Robert at the door, clearly upset.
“I just want to know you, Robert, I just want to understand,” she uttered.
Looking at his wife, Robert calmed down and began to tell her the story.
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“My father was stern. He was a soldier, and he believed in keeping emotions hidden. “These are the only things I have from a time when I felt loved,” he admitted.
Robert talked about his lonely childhood and the boy who yearned for his father’s acceptance.
This revelation brought Robert great relief. He was no longer the chilly, silent man Alexis was accustomed to seeing. In those moments, he changed and let Alexis in, and their relationship deepened.
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Years later, Robert’s painful memories have been replaced by the laughter of his daughter April. He eventually let go of the things that had tormented him for so long and decluttered the attic, which is now a small reading nook.