Chapter 5 - the letter Rosa never sent
The missing letter had been written in anger.
Rosa had never intended Ethan to see it.
She wrote it after losing her job, apartment and medical insurance. At the time, she believed Ethan had chosen silence.
You once told me you were afraid of becoming like your father. I think that fear controls you more than you understand. You let powerful people make decisions around you because questioning them would require admitting your family is not what you thought it was.
Your mother knew this. She said the Vale name was built on a secret that could destroy the company. She believed Victoria was searching for proof.
I do not know what the secret is. I only know your mother said you were not the child your father feared losing.
Rosa had stopped there.
She had not understood Eleanor’s final sentence.
She still did not.
Victoria did.
That was why the letter frightened her.
Rosa found Arthur in the greenhouse after midnight.
He entered through a side gate carrying a gardener’s bag. To security cameras, he appeared to be an elderly contractor checking the heating system.
“You told Victoria your surname?” he asked.
“She recognized me.”
“Then we have less time.”
“She took my letters.”
“We expected her to search your room.”
“I didn’t expect her to find that one.”
Rosa explained what Eleanor had said.
Arthur went still.
“Those were her exact words?”
“You were not the child your father feared losing.”
“Yes.”
Arthur looked toward the dark mansion.
“Eleanor should not have told you that.”
“What does it mean?”
“Nothing that helps Lily tonight.”
“Arthur.”
He opened the gardener’s bag and removed a narrow metal instrument.
“This will allow us to access the piano without opening the outer casing. Eleanor placed the key beneath the lowest string.”
“You’re avoiding my question.”
“I am protecting the sequence she established.”
“Eleanor is dead.”
“And the people who frightened her are not.”
Rosa thought of Victoria’s white rose outside the Madrid music room.
“Was Victoria working alone?”
Arthur’s silence answered.
“Who else knows about Lily?”
“At least one person besides Victoria.”
“Who?”
“Richard Vale.”
Ethan’s father.
Rosa had never met him.
Richard had remained separated from Eleanor during the final years of their marriage. He lived in New York and appeared at foundation events only when photographers were present.
“Why would Ethan’s father care about Lily?”
“Because Eleanor’s revised trust transfers the controlling shares away from him.”
“To Lily?”
“To Ethan’s first child.”
“Then Richard and Victoria both benefit if Lily disappears.”
“Victoria benefits more. Once she marries Ethan, she intends to challenge the revision and claim spousal authority over the estate.”
“Can she do that?”
“Not legally.”
“That has never stopped her.”
Arthur looked at Rosa with tired approval.
“No, it has not.”
They crossed the dark ballroom.
Moonlight reflected from the chandelier crystals. Rows of white chairs waited before the flower-covered altar. The grand piano stood beside the staircase, its black surface polished like glass.
Arthur lowered the piano’s front panel.
Rosa held a flashlight while he reached between the strings.
His fingers found a small metal box.
Inside was the duplicate brass key.
Rosa exhaled.
Then the ballroom lights turned on.
Victoria stood at the top of the staircase.
Two security guards waited behind her.
Arthur closed his hand around the key.
Victoria descended slowly.
“I wondered how long it would take you to appear,” she said.
Arthur stepped in front of Rosa.
“You should not have interfered with Eleanor’s instructions.”
“Eleanor was dying. She was confused.”
“She understood you perfectly.”
Victoria stopped beside the piano.
“Give me the key.”
“No.”
“This is private property.”
“It belongs to the trust.”
“I will call the police.”
Arthur glanced toward the security guards.
“The police are already reviewing documents related to your accounts.”
Victoria’s face tightened.
“You are bluffing.”
“Perhaps.”
She looked at Rosa.
“You brought your daughter into a house where you knew she might be in danger.”
“I brought her to the only place containing proof you could not erase.”
Victoria lowered her voice.
“Ethan will hate you for this.”
“That is his choice.”
“And when he does?”
Rosa thought of Lily sleeping upstairs.
“I will still be her mother.”
Victoria smiled.
Then she snapped her fingers.
One guard seized Arthur’s bag.
The other moved toward Rosa.
Before he reached her, the greenhouse alarm began ringing throughout the estate.
Victoria turned toward the security panel.
Arthur whispered into Rosa’s ear.
“Take the key. Go to the west corridor.”
“What about you?”
“I started the alarm.”
The guards looked toward the doors.
Rosa slipped the key into her pocket and ran.
Behind her, Victoria shouted an order.
Rosa reached the west corridor and stopped before a wall covered in Eleanor’s family portraits.
There was no door.
Only a painting of two young girls standing beside a lake.
May you like
One of them was Eleanor.
The other girl’s face had been cut from the canvas.
