Chapter 1
Claire’s torn sleeve trembled beneath my hand as I pulled her and Ava closer.
She was not looking at Marina.
She was staring past me.
At the locked door built into the stone wall behind the old barrel alcove.
“What did my wife hear behind that door?”
Marina’s anger vanished.
That frightened me more than her violence had.
Gavin remained among the fallen wicker crates, one hand against his mouth. He looked toward the door too.
Wrong reaction.
I crouched beside Claire.
“Tell me.”
Her breathing was uneven.
“I heard voices.”
“Whose?”
She looked at Marina.
Then Gavin.
“Yours.”
I went still.
“My voice?”
She nodded.
“And men from your council.”
The adjoining council had been private.
No recording equipment.
No staff.
No guests.
“What was I saying?”
Claire swallowed.
“You were talking about Ava.”
My eyes moved toward our daughter.
She stood against my leg, still crying quietly.
“What did I say?”
“That if something ever happened to you, nobody was to use her name to claim your chair.”
I remembered saying it.
Six months ago.
In my study.
Not here.
Not at the winery.
I slowly turned toward Marina.
“How does a conversation from my study end up behind a cellar door?”
She said nothing.
Claire continued.
“There were other voices too.”
“How many?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why were you listening?”
Her eyes filled.
“I wasn’t.”
She pointed toward the door.
“It was already playing when I walked past.”
Gavin finally spoke.
“You misunderstood.”
I looked at him.
“Then open the door.”
Silence.
“Gavin.”
He looked at Marina.
Again.
Always her first.
Marina lifted her chin.
“You have no idea what is inside.”
“No.”
I stepped toward the door.
“That is becoming the problem.”
She moved in front of me.
I stopped.
“You put my wife inside a wine press to protect whatever is behind that door.”
Her face tightened.
“So now I know exactly where to look.”
Ava tugged my jacket.
“Daddy?”
I looked down.
“Mommy heard Aunt Marina say everybody tells secrets when they drink the old wine.”
The cellar became completely silent.
Claire closed her eyes.
Marina’s face finally broke.
May you like
And I understood the locked room was not hiding one conversation.
It was hiding years of them.
