Chapter 3 - The Music Box.
Mrs. Vale recovered quickly, but not quickly enough to erase what everyone had heard.
“I meant before she died,” she said.
Adrian stared at her.
“You said after.”
“I misspoke.”
“You don't misspeak.”
Mrs. Vale straightened her shoulders.
“Grief makes memory imprecise.”
Adrian held out his hand.
“Give me the music box.”
For a moment, Mrs. Vale did not move.
Elena noticed her thumb pressed firmly against the brass latch.
“Mr. Curto, I think it would be better if this remained stored.”
“I didn't ask what you think.”
The twins watched from their cribs, suddenly quiet.
Mrs. Vale placed the box in Adrian's hand.
It was made of dark walnut, polished smooth at the corners, with a small silver moon inlaid on the lid.
Adrian turned it over.
His expression changed.
“There used to be a key.”
Mrs. Vale answered too fast.
“It was lost years ago.”
Adrian looked at her.
“The girls are not two yet.”
Mrs. Vale pressed her lips together.
Elena wished she were anywhere else.
Adrian opened the lid.
Nothing happened.
Inside lay a velvet compartment with a small empty groove where a winding key should have been.
Nora pointed at the box.
“Mama.”
Adrian nearly dropped it.
Lily copied her sister.
“Mama song.”
Elena turned toward the twins.
Mrs. Vale stepped forward.
“They are confused.”
Adrian's eyes did not leave Nora.
“What did she say?”
Elena answered softly.
“She said Mama song.”
Adrian closed the lid.
He looked like a man trying to hold back eight months of memories with one hand.
“Everyone out.”
Elena obeyed immediately.
Mrs. Vale remained.
“Adrian, I can explain.”
He looked at her sharply because she almost never used his first name.
“Not now.”
Elena walked into the hallway.
Before the door shut, she heard Nora begin to cry.
Every instinct told Elena to turn around.
Every rule told her not to.
She kept walking.
By noon, the entire upstairs staff knew that something had happened in the nursery, though nobody seemed to know what.
The cook stopped talking when Elena entered the kitchen.
The gardener avoided her eyes at lunch.
Even the delivery driver glanced toward the staircase as if the walls might answer questions.
Mrs. Vale emerged from Adrian's office at two thirty with her face composed and her clipboard under one arm.
She walked straight to Elena.
“You are reassigned to the guest wing.”
“For how long?”
“Until further notice.”
“Did Mr. Curto say that?”
Mrs. Vale gave her a level stare.
“I manage the household.”
Elena nodded because arguing would only make things worse.
She spent the afternoon cleaning rooms nobody used.
At six, she found a tiny blue pajama sock beneath a guest bed.
It could only belong to Lily.
Elena carried it back toward the nursery, intending to leave it outside the door.
As she passed the library, she heard voices inside.
Mrs. Vale was speaking to someone on the phone.
“No, he found the box.”
Elena stopped.
“I said he found it.”
A pause followed.
Mrs. Vale lowered her voice.
“The key is still safe.”
Elena's pulse jumped.
She knew she should keep walking.
Instead, she stood perfectly still beside the closed library door.
“No, the maid doesn't know anything.”
Another pause.
“She is becoming a problem, but I can handle her.”
Elena stepped backward.
The floorboard beneath her sneaker creaked.
Silence fell inside the library.
Elena moved quickly down the corridor.
The door opened behind her.
“Miss Brooks.”
Elena stopped and turned.
Mrs. Vale stood in the doorway.
“Were you listening?”
“No.”
The answer sounded weak even to Elena.
Mrs. Vale looked at the blue sock in her hand.
“You were told to stay away from the nursery.”
“I found this in the guest room.”
Mrs. Vale walked closer.
“Give it to me.”
Elena handed over the sock.
Mrs. Vale folded it once and tucked it into her pocket.
“You are new here, so I will give you advice.”
Elena waited.
“Do not confuse Mr. Curto's gratitude with trust.”
Elena's jaw tightened.
“I don't.”
“Good.”
Mrs. Vale turned away.
Then Elena saw something hanging from the older woman's key ring.
It was small, brass, and shaped like a crescent moon.
Elena's eyes moved from the key to Mrs. Vale's face.
Mrs. Vale noticed exactly where she was looking.
The older woman closed her hand around the key ring.
For the first time, she did not look annoyed.
She looked afraid.
That night, Elena returned to her room and found her silver headphones placed neatly in the center of the bed.
She had left them locked inside her suitcase.
Beside them was a handwritten note.
May you like
It contained only six words.
“Stop making the girls remember Claire.”
