Chapter 9 - The Music Box
Victor crossed the greenhouse before Celeste could speak again.
He seized the music box from her hands.
“You were told to stay upstairs.”
Celeste stared at his fingers around her wrist.
“Let go.”
“Not until you remember what is at risk.”
Evelyn stepped between them.
Victor released Celeste and backed away.
For several seconds, no one spoke.
Then Celeste looked at Evelyn.
“I should have told you years ago.”
Victor laughed.
“You told yourself that every birthday and did nothing.”
Celeste’s eyes filled with anger.
“Because you said Adrian would come back.”
“He will.”
“He never left.”
The words silenced Victor.
Celeste took the music box from him and placed it in Evelyn’s hands.
“Mother wanted you to have this.”
Victor reached for it.
Evelyn pulled it away.
“You made your offer,” she said. “I’m declining.”
“You have no idea what you’re holding.”
“A reason to stop the sale.”
Victor’s face changed.
For the first time, Evelyn knew he had not found the seal.
She left with Celeste before he could recover.
In Rose’s bedroom, Celeste locked the door.
“Victor will control the hallways,” she said. “You have only a few minutes.”
Evelyn opened the music box.
The same lullaby she remembered from childhood began playing.
A tiny dancer rotated beneath a glass dome.
“There’s no seal,” Evelyn said.
“Mother never hid anything where people expected.”
Celeste lifted the velvet lining.
A false bottom opened.
Inside were the Hart notary seal, a memory card, and a silver bracelet engraved with the initials E.V.
Beside the bracelet was an empty space shaped for another one.
Evelyn touched the indentation.
“What was here?”
Celeste looked toward the door.
“I don’t know.”
“That isn’t true.”
“I was fifteen when Rose brought two babies to Blackwood House. Claire was nineteen. Lena had arrived at Haven House three months earlier, terrified of Adrian.”
“My father?”
“Possibly.”
“Why were there two babies?”
“Lena said they were twins.”
Evelyn’s fingers tightened around the bracelet.
“What was the other child’s name?”
“She never told us.”
“Was she the one in the locked room?”
Celeste stared at her.
“You remember that?”
“I remember crying.”
“You were both crying.”
Evelyn felt the air leave her lungs.
“What happened to her?”
“During the fire, Claire took you. Lena went for the second baby. When the firefighters entered, the room was empty.”
“Victor said Lena did something to her.”
“Victor says whatever keeps people afraid.”
A heavy knock struck the bedroom door.
“Celeste,” Victor called. “Open the door.”
Evelyn removed the memory card and seal.
Celeste placed the music box back on the mantel.
“Use the servant stairs.”
“What about you?”
“I’ll tell him I gave you nothing.”
“He won’t believe you.”
“He stopped believing me years ago.”
The knock came again.
Evelyn hesitated.
Celeste touched her cheek.
“I am sorry I was not better to you.”
It was the closest thing to affection Evelyn had received from her aunt in years.
She slipped through the concealed servant door.
In Nathan’s office, they opened the memory card.
The first video showed Rose meeting Martin Voss.
Martin placed a revocation document before her.
Rose refused to sign.
“You have no authority to sell Blackwood House,” she told him.
“Victor has already borrowed against it,” Martin replied. “If the sale fails, everything collapses.”
“Then let it collapse.”
“You will destroy your daughter.”
“Victor has already done that.”
Martin leaned closer.
“Sign, or Adrian receives Evelyn’s current address.”
Rose stared at him for a long time.
Then she picked up the pen.
Instead of signing, she broke it in half.
The second video began after Rose left.
Celeste entered.
She stood before Victor, trembling with anger.
“You promised no one would touch the girls,” Celeste said.
Victor turned toward the camera.
“Lower your voice.”
“I helped you because you said the documents would keep Adrian away.”
“They did.”
“Then why is Claire back?”
Victor walked toward Celeste.
The video ended.
Nathan removed the memory card.
“Rose recorded them without their knowledge.”
Evelyn looked at the silver bracelet.
“Girls,” she said. “Victor knows both of us survived.”
Her phone rang.
It was the housekeeper from Blackwood House.
Celeste had vanished.
Her bedroom had been searched.
Rose’s music box lay broken on the floor.
May you like
Inside the wooden lid, someone had burned a message.
Nathan Cole is not his name.
