Chapter 3 - The Man in the Secluded Corner
Arthur Lancaster had not visited Maison Aurelia for twelve years.
The restaurant occupied the ground floor of a building his company had once owned. He had attended its opening with Margaret and Elena when the dining room was smaller and the chandeliers had not yet been installed.
On the anniversary of Margaret’s death, Arthur reserved the same secluded corner table.
He brought the antique wooden box with him.
The necklace inside had belonged to Margaret, then Elena.
Arthur carried it on important dates because it was one of the few family objects Conrad Hawthorne had failed to obtain.
After Elena’s disappearance, Arthur had nearly destroyed himself searching for answers.
The police insisted the coastal crash had been an accident.
Conrad had encouraged him to stop investigating.
“You have lost enough,” Conrad had said. “Do not lose the company too.”
Arthur had trusted him.
That trust became the greatest regret of his life.
While Arthur mourned, Conrad had presented contracts that supposedly protected Lancaster Hotels. Arthur signed documents without reading them carefully.
Within five years, Conrad controlled almost everything.
By the time Arthur understood what had happened, it was too late.
He still owned shares and several properties, but the company bearing his family name had been dismantled.
Conrad became one of the most powerful businessmen in California.
Arthur became a grieving old man people described as unstable.
On the evening he returned to Maison Aurelia, Arthur noticed Emily before she noticed him.
She was serving an elderly couple near the window.
The man accidentally knocked a spoon onto the floor and apologized. Emily smiled, brought him another, and quietly moved the table so his wheelchair had more space.
There was something familiar in the way she tilted her head.
Arthur watched her cross the room.
She looked like Elena.
Not exactly. Time and memory could create similarities where none existed.
But then Emily smiled at another waiter, and Arthur felt as if the past had opened in front of him.
Elena had smiled that way.
Arthur asked his private attorney, David Cho, to join him.
When David arrived, Arthur nodded toward Emily.
“Find out who she is.”
David studied her carefully.
“Do you know her?”
“No.”
“Then why are your hands shaking?”
Arthur looked down.
He had not realized they were.
David quietly asked a staff member for Emily’s name.
“Emily Carter,” he reported.
The surname disappointed Arthur, but only briefly.
Children were adopted. Names changed.
“Find public records,” Arthur said. “Do it discreetly.”
David hesitated.
“Arthur, we have followed dozens of false leads.”
“I know.”
“Each one hurt you.”
“I know.”
David looked toward Emily again.
“What makes this different?”
Arthur opened the antique box and looked at the necklace.
“Margaret once told me that hope was painful only when it had nowhere to go.”
May you like
He closed the box.
“For the first time in years, mine has somewhere to go.”
