Chapter 4 - Sophie’s Warning
Daniel reached the girls before Eleanor did.
“What did Sophie give you?”
Sophie went pale.
“Nothing.”
Lily tried to hide the note behind her back.
Eleanor stopped several feet away.
“What are you two whispering about?”
Sophie looked at the floor.
Lily stepped in front of her cousin.
“We were talking about the cake.”
Eleanor smiled.
“Then you won’t mind showing us the paper.”
Daniel held out his hand.
Lily gave him the note.
Eleanor moved forward, but Daniel opened it first.
The message had been written in blue crayon.
The box is in the blue room. Mom moved it there last night. Grandma said Lily must never see the papers because Uncle Daniel would destroy everything.
Daniel folded the note.
Rebecca approached from the garden.
“What happened?”
Daniel handed her the paper.
Rebecca read it.
Her face drained of color.
“Sophie,” she said, “go outside.”
Sophie did not move.
“Now.”
The child flinched.
Daniel noticed.
He placed one hand on Sophie’s shoulder.
“She stays.”
Rebecca’s voice sharpened.
“She is my daughter.”
“And she is terrified of you.”
Several nearby guests turned toward them.
Rebecca forced a laugh.
“She’s nervous because she knows she has been lying.”
Sophie began to cry.
“I’m not lying.”
Rebecca grabbed her wrist.
Daniel removed Rebecca’s hand.
“Don’t touch her.”
Rebecca stared at him.
“You have no idea what it is like raising a child who constantly seeks attention.”
Daniel looked at the bruise near Sophie’s bracelet.
“What happened to her wrist?”
“She fell during gymnastics.”
“I don’t do gymnastics anymore,” Sophie whispered.
Rebecca’s face hardened.
Eleanor stepped between them.
“This conversation is finished.”
“No,” Daniel said. “It’s beginning.”
A waiter entered from the garden and announced that lunch was ready.
Eleanor turned toward the growing crowd.
“We will discuss this after the guests leave.”
“The blue room,” Daniel said. “Open it.”
“I don’t have the key.”
Daniel reached into his jacket.
“I do.”
Eleanor saw the silver key.
For the first time in Daniel’s life, he watched genuine fear pass across his mother’s face.
Rebecca stepped forward.
“Where did you get that?”
“Sophie gave it to Lily.”
“That key was in Mother’s safe.”
“Then explain how Sophie found it beneath Anna’s box.”
Rebecca looked at Eleanor.
The silent exchange lasted less than a second.
It was enough.
Daniel walked toward the western staircase.
Eleanor blocked him.
“You cannot search my house.”
“Father left half of this property to me.”
“Under trust restrictions.”
“Restrictions that expired last year.”
Eleanor’s eyes narrowed.
“You never completed the transfer.”
“I completed it two months ago.”
Rebecca stared at him.
“You said you weren’t interested in the estate.”
“I wasn’t. Then someone sent me Anna’s bank records.”
Eleanor’s hand tightened around her brooch.
“What bank records?”
“A twenty-five-thousand-dollar transfer to the family foundation.”
“I told you it was a donation.”
“Anna never authorized it.”
“You cannot prove that.”
“Maybe the papers in the blue room can.”
Daniel started toward the stairs.
Eleanor’s voice stopped him.
“If you open that door during Sophie’s party, you will destroy what remains of this family.”
Daniel looked back.
“My family is standing beside me.”
He pointed toward Lily.
“And someone in this house has been making her believe she doesn’t belong.”
Eleanor’s expression softened into something almost sorrowful.
“You do not understand what Anna brought into this family.”
“What did she bring?”
“Danger.”
Daniel waited.
Eleanor looked at Lily.
“Ask her what her mother was hiding.”
Lily’s breathing became shallow.
Daniel moved between them.
“She was three when Anna died.”
Eleanor smiled without warmth.
“Children remember more than adults realize.”
The magician’s music began outside.
The guests slowly moved away, pretending not to listen.
Daniel turned toward Lily.
“You don’t have to answer her.”
But Lily was staring at Eleanor.
“I remember the blue necklace,” she whispered.
Eleanor froze.
Rebecca dropped her glass.
The wine spread across the marble floor like a dark stain.
Sophie grabbed Lily’s hand.
“She has it,” Sophie said.
“Who?” Daniel asked.
May you like
Sophie pointed toward Eleanor.
“Grandma wears it when she goes into the basement.”
