Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN AT THE PIANO
Richard reached the conservatory before anyone else.
Rose followed with Leo pressed against her side.
The four piano notes came again.
Slow.
Measured.
Familiar enough that Richard felt them in his chest before he saw who was sitting at the instrument.
The woman stopped playing.
She turned.
Richard stared.
“Eleanor.”
Fiona’s older sister had aged in the four years since he had last seen her, but not enough to hide the resemblance.
Same gray-blue eyes.
Same straight posture.
Same habit of pressing her lips together when she was frightened and refusing to show it.
On her right hand was Fiona’s ring.
Helena stopped in the doorway behind them.
Her face lost every trace of color.
“You,” she whispered.
Eleanor Sinclair stood.
“This was my sister’s.”
She touched the ring.
“She gave it to me six weeks before she died.”
Richard’s voice hardened.
“And you waited four years to tell me?”
“I tried to tell you.”
“No.”
“You refused my calls.”
“You accused my family of stealing from Fiona before she was buried.”
“Because they were.”
Richard took one step toward her.
Leo grabbed Rose’s hand.
Richard noticed and stopped.
That small movement hurt worse than Eleanor’s accusation.
His son was measuring whether his father was dangerous.
Eleanor saw it too.
Her voice softened.
“I didn’t come here to fight you.”
“Then why is Thomas on a television telling me my son’s birth is connected to this?”
A panel beside the bookcase opened.
Thomas stepped through.
He was pale.
Sweat darkened his collar.
Richard crossed the room so quickly that Thomas flinched.
“You disappeared during a search for my son.”
“I know.”
“You let me think someone had taken you.”
“I needed Helena to think I was afraid of her.”
Helena laughed once.
“You are afraid of me.”
Thomas looked at her.
“No. I’m afraid of what I helped you hide.”
Richard’s hand curled.
Rose had seen that hand break a man’s nose fifteen years earlier.
Tonight, he did nothing with it.
“Explain.”
Thomas reached into his jacket.
Richard’s security men reacted instantly.
“Easy,” Thomas said.
He slowly removed the gold phonograph case.
Leo sucked in a breath.
“That’s it.”
Thomas placed it on the piano.
Richard stared at him.
“You took it.”
“Yes.”
“From the wall?”
“Yes.”
“Before I got there?”
Thomas nodded.
Richard’s voice went frighteningly quiet.
“My son was trapped five yards away.”
“I didn’t know he was there.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“No. I expect you to check.”
That stopped Richard.
Thomas pointed toward the gold case.
“I went into the passage because Helena told me Fiona’s hiding place had been opened.”
Rose turned toward Helena.
Helena said nothing.
Thomas continued.
“I found the case. I heard voices coming from the other end. I thought Helena was behind me, so I left through the old study.”
“The red velvet thread,” Rose said.
“My jacket caught the chair.”
Richard stared at him.
“You could have told me.”
“I’ve spent ten years not telling you things.”
The shame in Thomas’s voice landed differently from fear.
Richard picked up the case.
It was heavier than the brass one.
He opened it.
Empty.
His eyes lifted.
“Where is the list?”
Thomas looked at Eleanor.
Eleanor shook her head.
“It was already gone when he brought it to me.”
Helena laughed again.
This time there was no humor in it.
“So this is your evidence? An empty tube and a dead woman’s home movie?”
Leo stiffened.
Rose felt it.
“Don’t call her that,” he whispered.
Helena looked toward him.
For an instant, something almost human crossed her face.
Regret.
Then it disappeared.
Richard moved between them.
“Don’t look at him.”
Helena’s jaw tightened.
“I never intended to hurt Leo.”
“You locked him behind a wall.”
“I intended to keep him away from something.”
“That is not a defense.”
“I know.”
The answer surprised everyone.
Helena looked at Leo.
“I closed the panel.”
Richard’s expression froze.
Rose could barely breathe.
Helena continued before anyone interrupted.
“I thought Thomas would open the passage from the other end within a minute.”
Thomas stared at her.
“You never told me Leo was inside.”
“I didn’t know you had already left.”
“You left a ten-year-old child in darkness.”
“I panicked.”
Leo’s eyes filled with tears.
“You said dead people don’t need presents.”
Helena closed her eyes.
That sentence hurt her.
Rose saw it.
Richard saw it too.
But Richard didn’t soften.
“Why were you afraid of the second case?”
Helena opened her eyes.
“Because Fiona kept a list.”
“A list of what?”
“Everyone who was in this house the night Leo was born.”
Silence settled over the room.
Thomas looked down.
Eleanor’s fingers tightened around Fiona’s ring.
Richard turned toward his brother.
“You were here.”
Thomas nodded.
“Helena?”
Another nod.
“Fiona?”
“Yes.”
“My father?”
Thomas hesitated.
Then nodded again.
Richard’s father, Victor Sterling, had been dead three years.
He had taken many secrets with him.
Apparently not enough.
Richard looked toward Eleanor.
“What happened?”
Eleanor answered.
“Fiona never told me everything.”
“But she told you something.”
“She told me Leo’s birth records were false.”
Richard frowned.
“He was born upstairs because the hurricane closed the roads.”
“Yes.”
“Dr. Warren delivered him.”
“Yes.”
“He was healthy.”
Eleanor’s expression changed.
“That isn’t the lie.”
Richard waited.
“The time is.”
Thomas sat heavily on the piano bench.
Richard turned toward him.
“What does that mean?”
Thomas rubbed both hands over his face.
“Leo wasn’t born at 2:14 in the morning.”
Richard stared.
Thomas forced himself to continue.
“He was born at 1:42.”
Rose frowned.
“Why would anyone change a birth time?”
Thomas looked at Helena.
Helena answered.
“Because something was signed at 2:03.”
Richard’s eyes narrowed.
“What?”
Helena gave a broken smile.
“The first Halcyon agreement.”
Richard looked from Helena to Thomas.
“Signed by whom?”
Nobody answered.
Richard’s voice sharpened.
“Signed by whom?”
Thomas whispered, “Fiona.”
Richard shook his head.
“She had just given birth.”
“That was the point,” Eleanor said.
Richard turned.
Eleanor’s eyes were wet now.
“If the record said Leo wasn’t born until 2:14, then papers signed at 2:03 appeared to have been signed before Fiona delivered him.”
Rose felt the meaning before Richard said it.
“While she was still legally competent,” Rose whispered.
Eleanor nodded.
Thomas looked sick.
Richard stared at Helena.
“Was she?”
“No,” Helena said.
One word.
No excuse.
No hesitation.
“She was hemorrhaging. Dr. Warren had sedated her.”
Richard’s face emptied.
“And someone signed her name.”
Helena looked down.
Richard asked the question again.
“Who signed it?”
Helena whispered, “I typed the agreement.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“I know.”
Thomas stood.
“Richard.”
Richard turned on him.
Thomas reached inside his pocket and removed an old silver wristwatch.
The crystal was cracked.
Richard recognized it instantly.
It had belonged to Fiona.
“I found this with the gold case years ago,” Thomas said.
“You stole my wife’s watch?”
“I hid it.”
“Why?”
“Because Fiona scratched something into the back.”
He handed it over.
Richard turned the watch beneath the lamp.
Four tiny characters had been carved into the silver.
B.C. — 1:42
Rose leaned closer.
“What’s B.C.?”
Thomas shook his head.
“I never figured it out.”
Leo stared at the watch.
His face changed.
Rose noticed first.
“Leo?”
The boy pointed.
“I know that watch.”
Richard crouched.
“From your mom?”
Leo shook his head.
“No.”
Everyone became still.
Leo looked directly at Helena.
“I saw it last week.”
Helena stopped breathing.
May you like
Leo’s voice was small but certain.
“It was in Helena’s jewelry box.”
