Chapter 7 - The Name in the Ledger.
Police searched the greenhouse for two hours and found no one.
The footprints ended beside an old irrigation grate large enough for a person to crawl through.
Martin explained that the channel connected the greenhouse to a maintenance tunnel beneath the east garden.
Adrian had owned the estate for most of his adult life and had never known it existed.
Each new secret made the house feel less like his home and more like a machine built to deceive him.
Lily sat in the kitchen wrapped in a blanket while Nora made toast she barely touched.
Adrian refused to let her out of his sight.
Celeste was brought in under police supervision.
She had changed out of the torn silver gown and into a plain gray sweater borrowed from the housekeeper's closet.
Without the glittering dress and practiced posture, she looked younger and more frightened.
Adrian placed Lily's damp cardigan on the kitchen island.
"Did you take this from her?"
Celeste looked at Lily, then away.
"Yes."
The word silenced the room.
"Why?"
"Because Gideon told me to."
Adrian gripped the edge of the island.
"Gideon told you to take a child's medicine?"
"I did not know the inhaler was in the pocket."
Nora stepped forward.
"I told you it was."
Celeste looked at her with open hatred.
"You told me after I took it."
"And you still did not give it back."
Celeste's face tightened.
"Because I was trying to get her out of the cellar before Adrian came home."
Adrian's voice became dangerously quiet.
"You locked her inside."
Celeste's eyes filled with tears she seemed furious to be shedding.
"I panicked."
"She could not breathe."
"I know."
"You heard her calling for help."
Celeste did not answer.
That silence was worse than any confession.
Adrian stepped back as if distance from her could contain his anger.
"Why did Gideon care about the cellar?"
Celeste looked toward the police officer beside her.
"Because of the trust documents."
"How did you know they were there?"
"I didn't until two weeks ago."
Nora lowered her eyes.
Celeste pointed at her.
"I followed her downstairs and saw her behind Evelyn's portrait."
Nora spoke before Adrian could react.
"I was searching for the letter my mother told me about."
"You found the key," Celeste said.
"No."
"Liar."
Lily suddenly spoke.
"The key was in Bunny."
Everyone turned toward her.
Lily held up the stuffed rabbit.
One seam along its back had been cut and crudely sewn again.
Nora stared at it.
"I never knew."
Adrian carefully opened the loose seam.
Inside the stuffing was a tiny paper tube.
He pulled it out.
A narrow strip of onion-skin paper had been rolled around a wooden pin.
On it, Evelyn had written a sequence of account numbers and one sentence.
JULIAN IS NOT WORKING ALONE.
Beneath the sentence were three initials.
G.C.
C.V.
A.V.
Adrian stopped breathing.
Celeste stared at the last set of initials.
"A.V."
Nora looked at Adrian.
His own initials were Adrian Vale.
Celeste gave a broken laugh.
"There you are."
Adrian's voice hardened.
"Evelyn would never accuse me of stealing from Lily."
Martin, standing near the doorway, studied the note.
"Maybe A.V. doesn't mean Adrian Vale."
Adrian looked at him.
"Who else?"
Martin's expression changed as an old memory surfaced.
"Your father had another company before Vale Holdings."
"Aster Vale."
"No," Martin said.
"A man."
Adrian frowned.
Martin looked toward the rain-dark windows.
"Arthur Vale."
May you like
Adrian's father.
A man who had supposedly been dead for thirteen years.
