Chapter 7
The key was embedded inside the painting’s lower frame.
Tiny.
Flat.
Bronze.
Elsie found it before I did.
Children excel at locating things adults overcomplicate.
“Shiny.”
I took it from her.
“Thank you.”
“Treasure?”
“Probably boring.”
She looked disappointed.
Good.
Let adults carry the boredom.
Elise led us to an old music room beneath the east staircase.
Sealed since before Marina died.
Nadine claimed water damage made it unsafe.
Lie.
The bronze key opened a cabinet behind the piano.
Inside were five black folders.
No police files.
No court documents.
Vale records.
Family arrangements.
Payments.
Notes.
And one audio recorder.
Marina’s voice.
My wife had recorded herself after all.
Just not the song.
“Gideon, if you hear this, Elise came back.”
I sat down.
Elise looked away.
Marina continued.
“Nadine will tell you the council existed only if you died.”
My aunt closed her eyes.
“It didn’t.”
Silence.
“They discussed invoking it while I was alive.”
I looked at Nadine.
She did not deny it.
Marina explained that during one violent winter between Vale and another family, I spent weeks away from home.
Nadine argued I had become reckless.
The compact’s members discussed temporarily transferring household and financial authority to themselves “for Elsie.”
I never knew.
Marina stopped it by threatening to leave with our daughter.
That was why the discussion disappeared.
Not because they reconsidered.
Because they feared scandal and separation.
Then Marina said:
“Ashton will tell you he only signed because his mother asked.”
Ashton cursed softly.
Again.
My wife had known everyone.
“He also asked what position he would hold if the council activated.”
Ashton went pale.
There.
Ambition.
Not obedience.
The recording ended with one line.
“If they ever use my death to become closer to Elsie than they were entitled to be while I lived, stop them.”
I looked at Nadine.
May you like
For four years after Marina died, my aunt had become almost a second mother inside my daughter’s life.
Now I finally understood why Marina had feared exactly that.
