Chapter 6 - THE SECOND SAPPHIRE
Arthur Bell contacted Evelyn from a temporary apartment outside the city.
He was bruised but alive.
Marcus had questioned him for an hour before leaving. Arthur convinced him that the brass key had been lost years ago.
When Evelyn told him about the second sapphire, he became silent.
“Arthur, how many brooches were made?”
“Two.”
“My mother never told me.”
“She wore only one in public.”
“Who owned the other?”
Arthur hesitated.
“Her sister.”
“My mother did not have a sister.”
“That is what Victor wanted everyone to believe.”
The woman from Central Station was not Lillian’s sister. She had appeared too young. But she might have inherited the second brooch.
“Tell me everything,” Evelyn said.
“Not over the phone.”
“Marcus already knows I’m investigating.”
“He does not know what you found.”
“He knows about the Founder’s Archive.”
“But he does not know what is inside.”
“Celeste may.”
Arthur exhaled.
“Then Celeste is more dangerous than Marcus understands.”
Evelyn arranged to meet Arthur the following evening at an abandoned riverside café once owned by the hotel.
Naomi arrived first.
Owen watched the street from a vehicle across the road.
Arthur entered through the kitchen carrying a leather folder.
“Your mother had an older sister named Helena,” he said. “They inherited equal interests in the Aurelia Grand from their parents.”
“Why was Helena erased?”
“She accused Victor of manipulating the trust. Shortly afterward, she disappeared.”
“Disappeared how?”
“Victor claimed she took money and fled the country.”
“And my mother believed him?”
“Not entirely. But Helena had a daughter. Lillian feared that if Victor felt threatened, the child would be in danger.”
Evelyn thought of the recording.
The girl returns.
The hotel will be divided.
“What was the child’s name?”
Arthur opened the folder.
The page containing the name had been torn out.
“Someone reached these records before I did.”
“Marcus?”
“Possibly.”
“Celeste?”
“Possibly.”
Arthur took out an old photograph.
Lillian stood beside another woman in front of the hotel. They looked almost identical, except Helena wore her dark hair shorter.
A sapphire brooch gleamed on each sister’s coat.
Between them stood two little girls.
One was Evelyn.
The other child’s face had been scratched away.
“Who damaged this?” Evelyn asked.
“It was already like that when your mother gave it to me.”
“Why would she erase the girl?”
“To protect her identity.”
Naomi studied the photograph.
“How old would Helena’s daughter be now?”
“Approximately thirty-two.”
Celeste was thirty-two.
Evelyn felt the possibility settle heavily in the room.
“Are you saying Celeste may be my cousin?”
“I am saying you should not assume she entered Marcus’s life by accident.”
A vehicle stopped outside.
Owen’s voice came through Evelyn’s earpiece.
“Three men. East entrance.”
Arthur gathered the documents.
Naomi moved toward the rear door.
Before they could leave, Celeste stepped from the kitchen corridor.
She wore a dark coat.
The sapphire brooch was gone.
“I came alone,” she said.
Owen warned Evelyn that the men outside were approaching.
Celeste placed a keycard on the table.
“This opens Suite 1901.”
“Why give it to me?” Evelyn asked.
“Because Marcus is opening the archive during the centennial celebration.”
“He cannot open it without my ring.”
“He made a copy.”
“That ring has never left my hand.”
“He photographed it while you were asleep.”
Evelyn remembered Marcus touching her hand months earlier, pretending to admire the ring.
“A copy will not activate the seal,” Arthur said.
Celeste looked at him.
“It will after the mechanism is reset.”
“Reset by whom?”
“Victor Vale.”
Evelyn stepped closer.
“Where is my father?”
Celeste’s expression became unreadable.
“Inside the hotel.”
“Is he alive?”
“For now.”
The men reached the café entrance.
Celeste moved toward the rear exit.
Evelyn grabbed her wrist.
“Who are you?”
Celeste looked at the silver ring on Evelyn’s hand.
“Someone your mother tried to save.”
May you like
Then she pulled away and disappeared into the alley.
A second later, the front windows shattered inward.
