Chapter 3 - Laura’s Treasure Hunt
The box was not in the mansion.
At least Sophie didn’t think it was.
Ethan sat beside her while she tried to reconstruct memories from when she was three.
Laura had made treasure hunts for her.
One afternoon, shortly before her death, Laura had changed the rules.
“She said the treasure wasn’t for me.”
“Who was it for?”
Sophie pointed at Ethan.
“For you.”
Ethan swallowed.
“What did Mommy tell you?”
“She said if Daddy ever got very sad, I should remember the blue bird.”
“Anything else?”
“Two keys.”
The first key was apparently hidden somewhere Ethan would search only if he stopped trusting his own memory.
That sounded exactly like Laura.
She had loved puzzles and despised obvious answers.
Ethan returned to the mansion with Lieutenant Brooks and a forensic team.
Celeste was forbidden from entering under an emergency protective order.
The silver suitcase was gone, taken as evidence.
Its rectangular outline remained faintly visible against the polished floor.
Ethan hated looking at it.
He walked upstairs.
Laura’s former sitting room.
The door was open.
The room was no longer Laura’s.
Celeste had redesigned it months earlier.
Cream walls.
Minimalist furniture.
Abstract paintings.
A bed Ethan had never used.
Richard apparently had.
Ethan stood in the doorway imagining the two of them here while Sophie slept down the hallway.
Rage was easy.
The harder emotion was humiliation.
Not because Celeste had betrayed him.
Because she had done it beneath his daughter’s roof while he remained deliberately blind.
Brooks entered.
“Forensics found fingerprints belonging to Richard.”
“Surprising.”
“On the bedroom furniture. Bathroom. Wine glasses.”
“How long?”
“Can’t determine that.”
Ethan opened drawers.
Most were empty.
Then he found a scratch beneath the bedside table.
Three short lines.
Laura used to mark furniture during treasure hunts with washable chalk.
This wasn’t chalk.
It was carved.
Three lines.
Ethan pulled the table away from the wall.
Behind it was an electrical outlet.
One screw looked newer.
He removed the cover.
Inside the wall cavity sat a narrow envelope.
Brooks put on gloves.
The envelope contained one photograph.
Laura.
Richard Blake.
And a man Ethan did not recognize.
They stood outside an office building.
The date printed on the reverse was five years earlier.
Two years before Laura’s death.
Two years before Ethan had supposedly met Richard.
Brooks stared at the picture.
“You said Richard became your consultant after Laura died.”
“Yes.”
“Then why was Laura meeting him before?”
Ethan looked closer.
The unknown man wore an expensive gray suit.
Silver hair.
Tall.
A sign behind them showed part of a company logo.
HAVEN.
Grayhaven.
Ethan’s phone vibrated.
Madison.
He answered.
“Someone tried to enter the hotel floor.”
His pulse jumped.
“Sophie?”
“She’s fine. Security stopped him.”
“Who?”
“He said he was delivering flowers.”
Ethan was already walking.
“Don’t touch anything. Don’t open the door.”
The alleged deliveryman disappeared before police arrived.
The flowers remained downstairs.
White roses.
Laura’s favorite.
Inside them was a card.
No name.
One sentence.
YOUR WIFE ALREADY CHOSE WHICH DAUGHTER WOULD SURVIVE.
Ethan read it twice.
Then looked at Madison.
“What does that mean?”
She was pale.
“I was hoping you knew.”
Sophie entered.
“Pretty flowers.”
Ethan moved the card out of sight.
She smiled faintly.
“Mommy liked those.”
“I know.”
Sophie touched one petal.
Then frowned.
“What?”
Ethan asked.
“These are wrong.”
“What do you mean?”
“Mommy’s roses smelled different.”
Madison looked at Ethan.
They examined the bouquet.
One flower was artificial.
Inside its hollow plastic stem was another key.
Silver.
Smaller than the brass one.
And wrapped around it was a strip of paper.
A bank name.
Northeast Heritage Trust.
A box number.
417.
Underneath:
LAURA BENNETT CARTER AND SOPHIE ELISE CARTER.
Ethan stared.
Sophie’s name.
The second key.
The brass key opened something else.
The silver key opened a bank box.
He called Brooks.
Within two hours they were inside the private vault of Northeast Heritage Trust.
Box 417 required both Ethan’s documentation as Sophie’s guardian and a court order due to Laura’s death.
Inside was no money.
No jewelry.
No letters.
Only a black flash drive.
A sealed DNA kit.
And a birth certificate.
Ethan looked at the certificate.
SOPHIE ELISE CARTER.
Mother: Laura Bennett Carter.
Father:
The line was blank.
May you like
Ethan stopped breathing.
His own name was missing.
