Chapter 13 - What Julian Hid in the Piano BenchThe old piano bench arrived at Charlotte's private office before police could intercept it.
Not the whole bench.
A hidden compartment inside it.
Nora had watched Charlotte remove a thin wooden panel and leave with a folded sheet of music.
Anna knew exactly what it was.
“Julian's original manuscript.”
Mia looked confused.
“The song?”
“Yes.”
Fourteen handwritten notes.
But below them were symbols.
Numbers.
Letters.
A map disguised as musical notation.
Julian had created the song years before his death.
Then turned it into a hiding system when he realized Victor and Graham were watching him.
The first eleven notes identified the archive.
The last three changed the location.
“That's why you told me never to play them?”
Anna nodded.
“Anyone who knew the first eleven might recognize Julian's private melody.”
“And the last three?”
“They indicate which of three storage sites contains the real archive.”
Mia stared.
“Three endings?”
Anna smiled sadly.
“You noticed.”
Mia remembered Anna sometimes finishing the lullaby differently.
One ending in Phoenix.
One in Seattle.
One only at bedtime when they were completely alone.
“Which one is real?”
“The one I taught you after your seventh birthday.”
Mia hummed internally.
She knew.
Anna said,
“Charlotte never heard that version.”
Until now?
Maybe not.
Mia had played false ending at the studio.
Good.
Lena spread a copy of the manuscript across a table.
“How does it work?”
Anna pointed.
“Each final note corresponds to a coordinate set.”
“Where?”
“One is a bank box.”
“Another?”
“An old recording vault.”
“And the real one?”
Anna hesitated.
“My childhood home.”
June stared.
“Our house?”
Anna nodded.
June laughed from disbelief.
“The one in Pasadena?”
“Yes.”
“We sold it.”
“I bought it back through a trust.”
June looked almost impressed.
“You've been living like you had seventeen dollars while owning a house?”
“I couldn't touch anything tied to my name.”
Fair.
Mia asked,
“What is there?”
“The complete archive.”
“Proof Charlotte killed Dad?”
Anna looked at her.
“Yes.”
Silence.
That changed urgency.
Lena stood.
“We go now.”
Pasadena.
The house looked ordinary.
Small Spanish-style bungalow.
Empty for years.
Anna still had a key hidden beneath a loose garden brick.
Inside smelled like dust.
Mia walked through rooms her mother had grown up in.
June cried quietly near the kitchen.
Anna led them toward the back bedroom.
A closet.
Inside, an old wall vent.
Behind it—
metal box.
Mia's heart pounded.
“The bird key.”
Anna looked at the empty tuning peg.
“We don't have it.”
Lena examined the lock.
“We can open it.”
“No.”
Anna stopped her.
“Tamper mechanism.”
“Seriously?”
“Julian was paranoid.”
“Your entire family seems exhausting.”
Mia almost laughed.
Then headlights swept across the window.
Everyone froze.
A car stopped outside.
Lena drew her weapon.
“Stay back.”
Door opened.
Charlotte entered alone.
Hands visible.
“I have the key.”
Anna's face became ice.
“How?”
Charlotte held up a tiny silver object.
“I took it from the guitar case the first night.”
Mia felt betrayed again.
Charlotte looked at her.
“I was going to put it back.”
“That doesn't help.”
“No.”
Anna stepped forward.
“Give it to us.”
Charlotte closed her hand.
“Not until we talk.”
Lena aimed her weapon.
“This is not your negotiation.”
Charlotte looked at the detective.
“Arrest me after.”
Anna laughed.
“You assume that's optional.”
Charlotte's eyes filled.
“I didn't know Graham touched the brakes.”
Anna went still.
“We're doing this now?”
“I need Mia to hear it.”
“No.”
Mia stepped out from behind June.
“Yes.”
Anna turned.
“Mia.”
“I want to know.”
Charlotte looked at her.
“The night Julian died, I thought I was stopping him from ruining our family.”
“You were protecting money.”
“I thought I was protecting my mother too.”
“What mother?”
“Victor threatened to expose things she had done.”
Anna scoffed.
Charlotte continued.
“I followed Julian.”
“You pushed him off the road.”
“I moved toward him.”
“He swerved.”
“Yes.”
“That's pushing him.”
Charlotte cried.
“I didn't know he couldn't brake.”
Mia stared.
“Did you call 911?”
Charlotte stopped.
There.
The real answer.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Victor arrived.”
“You left Dad?”
Charlotte's tears fell.
“Yes.”
“Alive?”
Anna closed her eyes.
Charlotte whispered,
“Yes.”
Mia couldn't breathe.
Julian had survived the crash initially.
Charlotte had left him.
Anna said,
“When I reached the car, he was still breathing.”
Mia looked at her mother.
“You were there?”
“Yes.”
“Did he talk?”
Anna cried.
“He said your name.”
Mia froze.
“My name?”
“You weren't born.”
“We had chosen it.”
Anna covered her mouth.
Mia looked at Charlotte.
“You left him alive.”
“Yes.”
“Then Grandpa?”
Charlotte went pale.
Anna stared.
“What?”
Charlotte looked toward the metal box.
“Victor got there before the ambulance.”
Anna stopped breathing.
“You told me he arrived after.”
Charlotte shook her head.
“I lied.”
“What did he do?”
Charlotte whispered,
“I don't know.”
Then a man's voice came from the hallway.
“I do.”
May you like
Victor Sterling stepped into the room.
And Graham Reed stood beside him holding a gun.
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