Chapter 6 - The Woman at the Gate.
Elena did not touch the key with her bare hands.
She used a clean hand towel, carried the rabbit and key straight to Adrian's office, and knocked until he answered.
He opened the door wearing a dark sweater and an expression that said he had not been asleep.
Elena held up the rabbit.
“This was outside my door.”
Then she showed him the key.
Adrian stared at it for several seconds.
“Come in.”
He called security again.
The hallway camera had gone offline for exactly four minutes.
The guard swore nobody had entered from the main staircase.
Adrian checked the service stairs himself.
The fire door had been propped open with a folded cloth.
Someone still had access to the house.
Mrs. Vale was technically suspended but had not yet moved out of her staff apartment on the rear property.
Adrian ordered her access card disabled before dawn.
At seven fifteen, the front gate called.
A woman named Vivian Mercer was demanding entry.
Adrian's expression changed the moment he heard the name.
Elena had never met Vivian, but she recognized Claire's eyes when the woman walked into the foyer twenty minutes later.
Vivian was Claire's older sister.
She was elegant, sharply dressed, and visibly furious.
“I heard you suspended Margaret.”
Adrian's jaw tightened.
“How did you hear that?”
Vivian ignored the question and looked at Elena.
“So this is her.”
Elena felt the judgment immediately.
Adrian stepped between them.
“This is Elena Brooks.”
“The maid who has suddenly become essential.”
Elena kept her face neutral.
Adrian did not.
“Choose your next sentence carefully.”
Vivian lifted her hands.
“I am concerned about my nieces.”
“They are fine.”
“They were fine before strangers started digging through Claire's things.”
Elena looked at Adrian.
He looked at Vivian.
“How do you know about the music box?”
For the first time, Vivian paused.
“Margaret called me.”
“When?”
“Last night.”
“Her phone was collected at ten.”
Vivian's eyes narrowed.
“Then earlier.”
Adrian knew she was lying.
Elena knew he knew.
The twins' voices sounded from the upstairs landing.
A nanny was bringing them down for breakfast.
Nora saw Elena and immediately reached toward her.
“Yena.”
Vivian's face tightened.
“That is exactly the problem.”
Adrian turned.
“What problem?”
“They barely say your name, but they call for an employee.”
The accusation hit precisely where it was meant to.
Adrian's face went still.
Elena hated that part of her understood Vivian's point.
The children had begun reaching for Elena because Elena had been physically present when they wanted play.
Adrian loved them fiercely, but much of that love lived behind office doors, schedules, and grief he did not know how to carry in front of them.
Vivian stepped closer to him.
“Claire would never have wanted this.”
Adrian's voice dropped.
“Do not tell me what Claire wanted while you are lying to me about a box she left behind.”
Vivian's confidence flickered.
Elena looked down at Nora's rabbit in her hands.
Vivian noticed it.
Her face changed.
Only for an instant.
But Elena saw it.
“You recognize this ribbon,” Elena said.
Vivian looked offended.
“Excuse me?”
“The pink ribbon around the key.”
Adrian glanced at Elena.
She continued.
“You looked at it before you looked at the key.”
Vivian laughed once without humor.
“It's pink ribbon.”
“It's printed with tiny silver stars.”
Vivian said nothing.
Elena remembered where she had seen the same ribbon.
The framed photograph in the nursery showed Claire holding the newborn twins.
Pink ribbon with silver stars had been tied around Nora's hospital cap.
Adrian seemed to remember too.
“That ribbon came from Claire's memory box.”
Vivian's composure slipped.
“I gave her that ribbon.”
Adrian stared at her.
“That box is in storage.”
Vivian looked toward the staircase.
Elena suddenly understood why Mrs. Vale had been so frightened of the music box.
The hidden key was not just about a delayed message.
Someone had been moving through Claire's belongings without Adrian's knowledge.
Adrian called the family attorney.
Vivian's posture stiffened.
“What are you doing?”
“Finding out what else has been handled without my permission.”
Vivian stepped closer.
“You should be worrying about your daughters, not objects.”
“I am worrying about my daughters.”
His answer was immediate.
“And for the first time in months, I am also questioning everyone who keeps telling me what is best for them.”
Vivian's face hardened.
“Then question her.”
She pointed at Elena.
“Ask where she was before she came here.”
Elena's stomach dropped.
Adrian looked at Vivian.
“What are you talking about?”
Vivian pulled a folded document from her handbag.
“She did not tell you why her last family dismissed her.”
Elena stared at the paper.
May you like
She knew exactly what it was.
She also knew the story on it was not true.
