Chapter 4 - THE KEY HIDDEN INSIDE THE PIANO
“The music room?” I repeated.
Luca was already moving.
I followed him through the mansion, Daniel asleep against my shoulder.
Richard hurried behind us.
Vanessa came last.
The grand piano stood where the evening had begun.
The chandelier lights had been dimmed.
The dining room was nearly empty.
Only a few staff members remained, clearing untouched dessert plates.
I looked at the instrument.
“Why would Grandpa hide anything here?”
Richard shook his head.
“He didn't.”
Luca stopped.
“What?”
“Anthony did.”
Richard approached the piano but refused to touch it.
“Your father had this instrument custom-built in Italy. There was a small compartment beneath the left side of the keyboard.”
Luca frowned.
“I know that compartment. My father kept sheet music there.”
“Not that one.”
Richard knelt and pointed beneath the polished frame.
“There's another.”
Luca crouched beside him.
For several seconds, he examined the wood.
Then he found a tiny brass plate.
A keyhole sat in its center.
My heart began pounding.
The stolen key belonged there.
Vanessa spoke from behind us.
“My father knows about that compartment.”
Richard looked at her sharply.
“How?”
“He came here six months ago.”
Luca slowly stood.
“I was in New York that week.”
“I know.”
“Why was he in my house?”
Vanessa swallowed.
“He said there was something your father left behind.”
“Did you let him search?”
She nodded.
“I thought he was trying to help you.”
Luca stared at her.
“You allowed Victor into my father's private rooms without telling me?”
“I was afraid of what would happen if I refused.”
Luca looked away.
I recognized that expression.
The terrible silence of someone who'd discovered that a trusted person had been keeping secrets in his own home.
Daniel shifted against me.
“Mommy?”
“I'm here.”
He rubbed his eyes.
“Did we find Grandpa's song?”
“Not yet, sweetheart.”
Luca looked toward him.
Then back at the piano.
“Sarah, could Daniel sit with Mrs. Alvarez while we examine this?”
I nodded.
Daniel surprised me by reaching toward Luca.
“Can I sit on the piano chair?”
Luca's face softened.
“Of course.”
He carefully helped Daniel onto the bench.
My son rested his hands in his lap.
He didn't touch the keys.
That small hesitation hurt more than I expected.
Luca noticed.
“You can play whenever you want, Daniel.”
My son's eyes widened.
“Really?”
“Really.”
Daniel pressed one gentle note.
Then smiled.
It was the first genuine smile I'd seen from him that evening.
While he played quietly, Gabriel arrived with a small leather case.
“We searched the apartment hallway cameras,” he told Luca.
“Did you identify the person?”
“Yes.”
Gabriel showed him a still photograph.
A man wearing a maintenance uniform entered my building carrying a toolbox.
Richard leaned closer.
His expression changed.
“That's Owen Mercer.”
Luca looked up.
“Victor's security director?”
Richard nodded.
“He's worked for the Bellinis for fifteen years.”
I stared at the screen.
“I saw him once.”
“Where?” Luca asked.
“At Grandpa's funeral.”
Richard closed his eyes.
The same man had stood near the back of the chapel.
He'd offered to carry flowers to my car.
I remembered his unusual silver ring.
A small lantern engraved on its face.
Luca turned to Gabriel.
“Find out where Mercer went after leaving Sarah's apartment.”
Gabriel nodded.
“But there's another problem.”
He opened a second image.
The maintenance man had left my building carrying a narrow wooden box.
I recognized it immediately.
“Grandpa's music box.”
Richard stared.
“Thomas still had it?”
I nodded.
“It played Little Lantern. But the mechanism broke years ago.”
Richard sat down.
For several seconds, he said nothing.
Then he looked at Luca.
“Your father gave Thomas that box the night he disappeared.”
“Why?”
“Because Anthony didn't trust the cassette alone.”
Luca frowned.
“What was inside it?”
“A message.”
I shook my head.
“I've opened that box a hundred times. There was nothing inside.”
Richard looked at me.
“Thomas knew how to hide things.”
Daniel stopped playing.
“Grandpa had a trick.”
We all turned toward him.
He smiled shyly.
“With the bird.”
“What bird?” I asked.
“The little gold bird inside the box. Grandpa said it could turn around.”
I remembered the music box.
Inside its lid was a small decorative bird.
I'd never noticed that it moved.
Luca glanced at Richard.
The older man's expression confirmed something.
“That's the compartment,” he whispered.
My stomach tightened.
“Then Victor already has it.”
“Not necessarily,” Luca replied. “We need to know whether Thomas moved the contents.”
Daniel tugged at my sleeve.
“Grandpa said the bird likes the window.”
I crouched.
“What do you mean?”
“He put it by the window when he showed me.”
Richard frowned.
“Which window?”
Daniel pointed toward the tall windows beside the piano.
“That kind.”
Luca walked over.
The evening city lights shimmered beyond the glass.
Richard followed him.
“Anthony used natural light to check hidden markings on old sheet music,” he explained.
“Are you saying there's something written on the box?”
“Possibly.”
Luca turned toward Gabriel.
“Find Mercer. But don't approach him yet.”
Then he looked at Vanessa.
“You're going to tell us exactly what your father asked you to do.”
Vanessa sat down.
Her red silk gown pooled around her feet.
“I was supposed to find Sarah's grandfather's recordings.”
“And?”
“If I found them, I was to send them to my father. If Sarah asked questions, I was supposed to dismiss her.”
“Why didn't you?”
Vanessa looked toward Daniel.
“Because he reminded me of my brother.”
The room went quiet.
I'd never heard Vanessa mention a brother.
She swallowed.
“His name was Matthew. He had hearing difficulties after a childhood illness. My father hated when anyone noticed.”
Daniel looked at her.
Vanessa's voice broke.
“Matthew died when he was fourteen.”
For one moment, I saw the frightened younger woman beneath the cruelty.
Then I remembered her demanding my son sit on the marble floor.
“Your brother deserved kindness,” I said. “So does mine.”
Vanessa looked down.
“I know.”
Luca leaned against the piano.
“What did Victor threaten you with?”
Vanessa hesitated.
“When I was twenty, I signed financial papers for one of his companies. I didn't understand what they were. Later, I learned money had been moved through an account in my name.”
“Why didn't you report him?”
“Because he told me Matthew's medical care had been paid for with that money. He said the authorities would believe I'd helped him.”
Richard looked devastated.
“Vanessa, you should have told me.”
She laughed through her tears.
“You worked for him, Uncle Richard. Who was I supposed to trust?”
Nobody answered.
Then Gabriel's phone vibrated.
He read the message.
“Mr. Moretti, Mercer was seen at the old Bellini warehouse near the river.”
Luca straightened.
“Is Victor there?”
“Unknown.”
Gabriel hesitated.
“But our source photographed something being carried inside.”
He showed Luca the image.
A large rectangular object wrapped in a dark protective cover.
I couldn't understand why Luca looked so alarmed.
Then Richard whispered:
“They're moving the original piano.”
Luca turned toward him.
“What original piano?”
Richard looked at the black grand piano in front of us.
And said:
“Luca, this isn't your father's piano.”
I stared at him.
Richard continued.
“Victor replaced it after Anthony disappeared. The real one has been hidden for twenty-two years.”
Luca looked toward the instrument.
Then toward Daniel.
And for the first time, I understood why my grandfather had taught a little boy four notes from a song nobody in the Moretti family had heard in decades.
Those notes weren't merely a memory.
They were a direction.
May you like
Richard pointed at the keyboard.
“Anthony built his final message into the music. And whoever plays Little Lantern on the original piano can open what Victor has spent twenty-two years trying to destroy.”
