Chapter 3 - ANNA’S BRASS KEY
Dominic did not waste another second.
“Claire, Lily stays with you.”
He moved toward the elevator.
Victor blocked him.
“Evelyn wants you angry.”
Dominic’s gaze sharpened.
“Move.”
“If you chase her without understanding what that key opens, you’ll destroy the only evidence Anna left.”
Dominic stepped closer until Victor had no room to misunderstand him.
“My daughter has been hiding in a garage because that woman made her afraid to sleep.”
Victor held his ground.
“And if you run upstairs now, Evelyn walks you directly into the story she prepared.”
That stopped him.
Not because Dominic trusted Victor.
Because the man was right.
Claire looked at the monitors.
Evelyn had disappeared from Lily’s room.
“Where would she go?”
Victor answered immediately.
“The old library.”
Dominic frowned.
“My father’s library?”
“There’s a walnut box behind the false back of the bottom cabinet.”
Dominic knew the cabinet.
His father had kept family ledgers there.
“Why didn’t I ever see it?”
“Because Anna moved it.”
Dominic stared at him.
Victor continued.
“After Lily was born, Anna realized someone was tracking her movements. She stopped trusting the family safe.”
“Did she tell you that?”
“Yes.”
“Why you?”
Victor looked at the photograph wall.
“Because she knew what your father had done to me.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
He wanted answers.
But Lily was watching.
He forced his anger down.
“Claire.”
She understood.
“Come on, sweetheart.”
Lily refused to move.
“Daddy?”
Dominic turned.
“Yeah?”
“Don’t leave me with him.”
She meant Victor.
Dominic held out his hand.
“Then you come with me.”
Victor objected.
“She shouldn’t—”
Dominic’s look silenced him.
“My daughter decides who she feels safe with tonight.”
Claire felt something change in Lily’s expression.
Not happiness.
Something smaller.
Trust returning by one inch.
They took the elevator up.
Dominic contacted his security chief, Marcus Hale.
“Where’s Evelyn?”
Marcus answered through the earpiece.
“Second floor, moving toward the east wing.”
“Keep eyes on her. Do not approach.”
“You want me to detain her?”
“No.”
Dominic looked at Victor.
“Not yet.”
The party had become uneasy by the time they entered the mansion.
Guests were being told there was a security problem.
Nobody knew more.
Evelyn had apparently told several people that Claire had stolen family jewelry and that Dominic was “handling it privately.”
Claire heard the whispers as they crossed the hallway.
She kept walking.
For six months, she had been nearly invisible in this house.
Tonight, everyone looked at her.
Lily tightened her grip on Claire’s hand.
“Don’t listen.”
Claire looked down.
“To what?”
“The mean people.”
Despite everything, Claire almost smiled.
“I’ll try.”
Dominic heard.
His expression softened briefly.
Then Marcus approached.
“She’s in the library.”
“Alone?”
“So far.”
Dominic turned to Claire.
“Stay here with Lily.”
Claire nodded.
Victor spoke.
“The box has a false bottom.”
Dominic looked at him.
“What’s inside?”
“I don’t know.”
That was the first answer Dominic believed completely.
He entered the library.
Evelyn stood beside the fireplace.
She had changed.
The elegant woman who had accused Claire before eighty guests was gone.
Her shoulders were rigid.
Her face looked tired.
The brass key rested in her palm.
Dominic closed the door.
Evelyn did not turn.
“You found B2.”
“Yes.”
“And Victor.”
“Yes.”
Her eyes shut.
“I told him this would happen.”
Dominic studied her.
“You told my supposedly dead uncle something?”
Evelyn finally faced him.
“You think tonight began with Claire’s pocket.”
“It didn’t?”
“No.”
“Then enlighten me.”
Evelyn looked toward the door.
“Where’s Lily?”
“Safe.”
“Good.”
The answer surprised him.
Not because of the word.
Because of the relief in her face.
Dominic had expected calculation.
He saw fear.
“You planted the bracelet.”
“Yes.”
“You humiliated an innocent woman.”
“Yes.”
“And you have an explanation that makes that acceptable?”
“No.”
The honesty irritated him more.
“I needed Claire out of the house.”
“Because Lily trusted her.”
“Because Lily tells Claire things.”
“That sounds like the same answer.”
“It isn’t.”
Evelyn approached the cabinet.
“Lily started drawing the tunnels.”
Dominic said nothing.
“She drew doors. Hallways. A man with a scar.”
“Victor.”
“I thought someone was getting to her.”
“Someone was.”
“Yes.”
Evelyn’s mouth tightened.
“But I didn’t know if Victor was protecting her or using her.”
Dominic remembered the planted recorder.
Neither did he.
Evelyn unlocked the hidden compartment.
Inside was a walnut box.
She lifted it onto the desk.
“Anna left this.”
“You’ve known about it?”
“For three weeks.”
“And said nothing.”
“Because Pike told me the contents could destroy you.”
Dominic’s expression became very still.
“You take advice from Pike?”
“I did.”
“Past tense?”
Evelyn looked ashamed.
“I thought he was helping Lily.”
Claire, standing outside with Lily, could hear only fragments.
But Victor heard enough.
He leaned toward the door.
“That’s what Pike always does.”
Claire looked at him.
“What?”
“He finds frightened people and gives them one explanation they desperately want to believe.”
“What explanation did he give Evelyn?”
“That Lily’s silence was caused by Claire encouraging fantasies about Anna.”
Claire stared at him.
“That’s why Evelyn hated me?”
“Partly.”
It did not excuse what Evelyn had done.
But it made the cruelty less simple.
Inside, Dominic opened the walnut box.
A photograph rested on top.
Anna.
Pregnant with Lily.
Standing beside Dominic’s father, Salvatore Russo.
Dominic stared at it.
Behind them was a young Raymond Pike.
“You knew Pike worked for my father?”
Evelyn shook her head.
“I didn’t until tonight.”
Dominic removed the photograph.
Beneath it was an old pocket watch.
His father’s.
Dominic remembered seeing it every day of his childhood.
Salvatore had claimed it was stolen months before Anna died.
Dominic opened the cover.
Inside, someone had scratched three initials.
A.R.
V.R.
R.P.
Anna Russo.
Victor Russo.
Raymond Pike.
Under the watch was a folded train ticket.
Philadelphia to Baltimore.
Dated three days after Anna’s alleged death.
One passenger.
A. Russo.
Dominic stopped breathing for half a second.
Evelyn whispered, “That’s why Pike said this would destroy you.”
Dominic looked at the ticket.
Anna had either been alive after the crash—
Or someone wanted him to believe she had been.
He opened the false bottom.
Empty.
Victor entered without permission.
Dominic’s hand went instinctively toward his jacket.
Victor ignored it.
“There should be a necklace.”
Dominic stared at him.
“What necklace?”
“Anna’s mother’s.”
Lily’s small voice came from the doorway.
“This one?”
Everyone turned.
She held up the gold locket Victor had given her.
Victor looked stricken.
Dominic looked between them.
“You said Anna wanted Lily to have it.”
“She did.”
“Then why was it supposed to be in this box?”
Victor had no answer.
Lily touched the tiny clasp.
“It opens funny.”
Dominic knelt beside her.
“Show me.”
She pressed the edge.
The locket opened.
Inside was no photograph.
There was a tiny strip of paper folded four times.
Dominic removed it carefully.
Three words were written in Anna’s handwriting.
DON’T TRUST VICTOR.
Nobody spoke.
Lily looked at the gray-haired man.
Victor closed his eyes.
Dominic rose.
Twenty minutes earlier, Victor had accused Dominic’s father.
Now Anna herself appeared to be accusing Victor.
Dominic held up the note.
“You have ten seconds.”
Victor looked at him.
“Anna wrote that because she discovered what I had done.”
“What did you do?”
Victor’s face seemed to age another decade.
“I moved her after the crash.”
Dominic’s entire body went still.
Claire gripped Lily’s shoulders gently.
Dominic asked the question slowly.
“Moved her where?”
Victor looked at the train ticket.
“To Baltimore.”
Dominic stared at him.
“Alive?”
May you like
Victor whispered:
“Yes.”
