Chapter 5 - Six Months EarlierRichard arrived thirty minutes later.
Emily almost didn’t let him inside.
He stood in the hallway without his cane.
That surprised her.
“You came alone?”
“Yes.”
“No security?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because if you’re going to accuse me of lying, you deserve an answer without an audience.”
Emily opened the door halfway.
Richard stepped inside.
His eyes immediately found the photograph on the table.
His face changed.
“You’ve seen it before.”
He closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
Emily’s anger exploded.
“You told me you didn’t know my mother.”
“I said I didn’t know Anna.”
“She came to your house!”
“For forty minutes.”
“That counts!”
Richard didn’t argue.
Emily shoved the photograph toward him.
“What did she want?”
Richard stared at it.
“She wanted access to the old estate archives.”
“Why?”
“She wouldn’t say.”
“Did you know she was Eleanor’s daughter?”
“No.”
Emily laughed bitterly.
“You expect me to believe that?”
“She gave me a false name.”
“What name?”
“Anna Cole.”
Emily paused.
Her mother’s maiden name had been Bennett.
“Why would she lie?”
“I don’t know.”
Emily looked at the letter.
Then at Richard.
“She was scared of someone.”
“So was Eleanor.”
Emily folded her arms.
“You keep saying that as if it explains anything.”
Richard walked toward the small window.
“My father was not a kind man.”
“You already said that.”
“No.”
Richard turned.
“You don’t understand.”
His voice was quieter now.
“My father controlled judges, police officers, bankers, politicians. He destroyed people without touching them.”
Emily said nothing.
“When Eleanor disappeared, I asked questions.”
“And?”
“He sent me away to boarding school the next morning.”
Richard’s jaw tightened.
“I didn’t return for two years.”
“What about your mother?”
“She stopped speaking Eleanor’s name.”
“Why?”
“Fear.”
Emily studied him.
“You’re afraid of a dead man?”
Richard looked at her.
“No.”
The answer came too quickly.
Emily noticed.
“Then who?”
Richard didn’t respond.
Her eyes narrowed.
“Who inherited Charles’s power?”
He looked toward the floor.
“My older brother.”
Emily blinked.
“You have a brother?”
Richard nodded.
“Daniel.”
“Where is he?”
“Dead.”
Emily almost laughed.
“Convenient.”
“He died twelve years ago.”
“How?”
“Car accident.”
Richard’s expression said there was more.
Emily noticed.
“You don’t believe it was an accident.”
“No.”
The room went quiet.
Emily picked up her mother’s letter.
“Do you want to know what she wrote?”
Richard looked at it.
“Yes.”
“Why should I trust you?”
“You shouldn’t.”
That answer surprised her.
Richard continued.
“But if Anna came back six months ago, someone inside Whitmore knew.”
“You?”
“Yes.”
“Victoria?”
“Possibly.”
Emily thought about the destroyed portrait.
“Why would Victoria care?”
Richard’s eyes darkened.
“Because Daniel was her father.”
Emily stared at him.
“What?”
Richard nodded.
“I raised Victoria after Daniel died.”
“You’re not her father?”
“Legally, yes.”
“Biologically?”
“No.”
Emily sat down slowly.
The family structure shifted in her mind.
Victoria wasn’t Richard’s daughter.
She was his niece.
Meaning Eleanor had been Victoria’s aunt too.
Richard continued.
“Daniel worshipped our father. He inherited his methods.”
“Then Victoria…”
“Was raised by him until she was fifteen.”
Emily thought of the fountain.
Then learn your place.
Suddenly the cruelty felt inherited.
Richard looked at the envelope.
“What else did Anna leave you?”
Emily covered the key with her hand.
“Nothing.”
Richard glanced down.
He knew she was lying.
But he didn’t challenge her.
Instead he said, “Whatever your mother found, someone is afraid you’ll find it too.”
Emily looked at the photograph under her door.
“Who sent this?”
“I don’t know.”
Richard’s phone rang.
He answered.
“What?”
His expression changed.
“When?”
A pause.
“Don’t touch anything.”
He ended the call.
Emily stood.
“What happened?”
Richard looked at her.
“Someone broke into the west archive.”
Emily’s stomach tightened.
“What did they take?”
Richard stared at the key hidden beneath her palm.
“Nothing.”
“Then why break in?”
“They weren’t stealing.”
“What were they doing?”
Richard answered quietly.
“They were looking for something.”
Emily looked at the small brass key her mother had left behind.
Richard followed her gaze.
And this time, he saw it.
His face went pale.
“Where did you get that?”
Emily closed her fist around it.
“My mother.”
Richard took one step back.
“No.”
“What?”
“That key…”
May you like
He stared as if he had seen a ghost.
“It opens Eleanor’s room.”
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