Chapter 3
The estate emergency key hung from Vivian’s wrist.
I had noticed it when I entered.
I noticed it differently now.
“Why are you carrying that?”
She looked down.
A small brass key on a black ribbon.
“It’s an estate key.”
“I know what it is.”
I held out my hand.
“Give it to me.”
She did not move.
Interesting.
“Mother.”
Her fingers closed around it.
“Elise wandered during these dinners.”
My body became cold.
I looked at my wife.
“What does that mean?”
Elise stared at the floor.
“The first time, I tried to leave.”
Vivian interrupted.
“She became emotional.”
Elise looked at her.
“No.”
Then at me.
“The dining-room doors were locked.”
I stopped breathing for half a second.
“This room?”
“Yes.”
I looked toward the double doors.
No visible lock.
Because the emergency mechanism sat inside the wall panel.
Used during security threats.
The brass key overrode it.
My mother had turned a safety system into a cage.
“How long?”
“Usually until I agreed to sit back down.”
My jaw clenched.
“And the bruise?”
Elise slowly touched her arm.
“Last week.”
Vivian snapped:
“She grabbed the key.”
I looked at my mother.
“You bruised my pregnant wife because she tried to unlock a door you locked.”
“She was hysterical.”
That word.
Convenient.
Nolan looked uncomfortable now.
I turned.
“You knew the doors were locked?”
He hesitated.
“Yes.”
“How many times were you here?”
“Five.”
Five.
Enough.
“What did you do?”
His eyes dropped.
“Nothing.”
At least honest.
I looked at the six relatives.
Rebecca had attended eight.
My uncle Victor, all eleven.
Two cousins, four each.
An elderly aunt twice.
One capo’s wife three times.
Different knowledge.
Same room.
Same silence.
Elise whispered:
“The emergency key opens something else.”
Vivian’s face changed.
There.
First real fear.
I looked at Elise.
“What?”
“The old service corridor behind the wine room.”
I knew it.
Sealed after renovations.
Or supposedly sealed.
“What’s there?”
Elise looked at Nolan.
He went pale.
“Ask him.”
I turned toward my brother.
He said nothing.
So I took the emergency key from my mother myself.
She resisted for one second.
Then let go.
I held it between two fingers.
May you like
The object that was supposed to open doors during danger had been used to keep my wife inside one.
Now it was going to open whatever my family had been hiding from me.
