Chapter 2 - The Key on the CarpetMarlowe drove for six minutes before realizing she had nowhere to go.
The mansion was hers.
Her father had left it to her.
Yet she had fled from it like a guest who had walked into the wrong room.
Copper sat beside her, watching her with worried brown eyes.
Marlowe pulled into a quiet overlook and turned off the engine.
Her hands shook against the steering wheel.
She called the only person she trusted professionally enough not to panic with her.
Evelyn Park.
Her father’s estate attorney.
Evelyn answered on the fourth ring.
“Marlowe?”
“I need somewhere to stay tonight.”
A pause.
“What happened?”
Marlowe swallowed.
“I found my mother in my wardrobe.”
Another pause.
“With Gavin.”
Evelyn’s voice changed.
“Come to my house.”
Marlowe closed her eyes.
“There’s more.”
“What?”
“I don’t know yet.”
That was the part frightening her.
Because Gavin had not looked merely ashamed.
He had looked terrified.
The next morning, Marlowe returned to the mansion with Evelyn.
Gavin was waiting in the foyer.
Daphne had apparently left.
“Marlowe.”
Gavin approached.
Evelyn stepped between them.
“She’s here to collect personal belongings.”
“This is my home too.”
Evelyn looked at him.
“The deed says otherwise.”
Gavin’s expression hardened.
Marlowe noticed.
“You knew that.”
“Of course I knew.”
“Then why did that bother you?”
“It didn’t.”
Marlowe walked upstairs.
The bedroom smelled faintly of Daphne’s perfume.
She hated that she recognized it.
Her mother had worn the same fragrance to Marlowe’s wedding.
Copper walked straight toward the wardrobe.
Marlowe flinched.
“Not again.”
She opened it.
Empty.
She began removing clothes.
Evelyn checked the desk for passports and personal documents.
Then Copper sniffed the carpet.
His nose stopped near the wardrobe.
Marlowe saw something glint beneath a dress.
She bent down.
A small brass key.
Evelyn looked over.
“What’s that?”
Marlowe read the engraving.
“Wellington Private Bank.”
Evelyn immediately went still.
Marlowe noticed.
“What?”
“Your father used Wellington.”
“I know.”
“His trust documents were originally held there.”
Marlowe turned the key over.
Gavin entered the room.
His eyes went directly to Marlowe’s hand.
The reaction lasted less than a second.
But she saw it.
“What is that?” he asked.
Marlowe closed her fist.
“Why?”
“I’m asking.”
“And I’m asking why you care.”
“I don’t.”
Evelyn stepped closer.
“Gavin, please leave the room.”
He ignored her.
“Marlowe, your mother and I made a terrible mistake.”
“A mistake?”
“It happened once.”
Marlowe stared at him.
Behind his guilt she saw calculation.
“You expect me to believe that?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I love you.”
Marlowe almost laughed.
Instead she said, “Then look at me and tell me you didn’t know she was hiding anything financial from me.”
Silence.
Gavin frowned.
“What are you talking about?”
Marlowe held up the key.
He looked at it again.
Too quickly.
Too knowingly.
Evelyn saw it too.
Marlowe slipped the key into her pocket.
“We’re done.”
Gavin followed her into the hallway.
“Marlowe.”
She stopped.
“If you come near my hotel, I’ll call security.”
“I’m your husband.”
“Yesterday that meant something.”
She walked downstairs.
Daphne was waiting outside beside her car.
Marlowe nearly stopped breathing.
Her mother looked as if she had not slept.
“Marlowe, please.”
“No.”
“I need five minutes.”
“You had a wardrobe full of time to think of an explanation.”
Daphne winced.
“I’m sorry.”
“For which part?”
Daphne’s gaze dropped.
“The affair.”
Only the affair.
Marlowe heard the distinction immediately.
She stepped closer.
“What else should you be sorry for?”
Daphne looked up.
“What?”
Marlowe showed her the key.
Daphne’s face changed.
Not guilt.
Fear.
“Where did you get that?”
“It fell out of your purse.”
Daphne reached instinctively toward it.
Marlowe pulled her hand back.
“What’s in box 317?”
“Nothing that concerns you.”
Marlowe stared at her mother.
Then she understood the sentence.
Not nothing important.
Not I don’t know.
Nothing that concerns you.
Marlowe’s voice became very quiet.
“It’s my father’s bank.”
Daphne said nothing.
“Whatever is inside that box concerns me now.”
Daphne’s eyes flicked toward Gavin standing in the doorway behind Marlowe.
And that one glance told Marlowe everything she needed to know.
May you like
Her mother and husband shared another secret.
One neither wanted the other to reveal.
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