Chapter 6: The Secret Inside the Emerald
"Take me home.""
I barely recognized my own voice.
Daniel looked at me.
"Claire, that's exactly what they want.""
"My mother's things are in that house.""
"Which is why we shouldn't walk into a trap.""
Celeste reached for her phone.
"I'll arrange security.""
"No," I said.
"I want to know what Adrian is looking for.""
The driver changed direction.
Twenty-five minutes later, we arrived at the townhouse Adrian and I had shared for eleven years.
The front gate was open.
One of the security cameras had been turned toward the wall.
I stepped out of the car.
Daniel caught my sleeve.
"Wait.""
He pointed toward the driveway.
Adrian's car was parked beside the garage.
But another vehicle stood behind it.
A white delivery van.
Its rear doors were open.
Several cardboard boxes were stacked inside.
"He's removing things," Daniel whispered.
We approached the house through the garden entrance.
The back door was unlocked.
Inside, the familiar smell of cedarwood and expensive candles filled the hallway.
Everything looked normal.
Until I reached the staircase.
A framed photograph of my mother had been removed from the wall.
The glass lay shattered on the floor.
I knelt and picked up a piece.
My mother's smiling face stared back at me.
Someone had deliberately destroyed it.
"Claire," Daniel called softly.
I followed him upstairs.
Our bedroom door was open.
The safe stood beside the wardrobe.
Its heavy steel door hung wide.
My jewelry boxes had been emptied onto the carpet.
Adrian's watches were gone.
So were several original sketches I had kept in a leather portfolio.
But something else was missing.
My mother's small wooden music box.
I remembered it clearly.
She had given it to me on my eighteenth birthday. Inside, beneath the velvet lining, was a handwritten message.
The truth is never lost. It is only hidden.
I had placed it in the safe after her funeral.
"Where is it?"" I whispered.
Daniel examined the empty shelf.
"Someone took it.""
A floorboard creaked behind us.
We turned.
Adrian stood in the doorway.
His tie was gone, and his shirt sleeves were rolled up.
He held the wooden music box in one hand.
"Looking for this?""
I stepped forward.
"Give it to me.""
He smiled.
"Do you know how many years I've waited for this?""
"Give me my mother's box.""
"Your mother made one mistake, Claire. She trusted the wrong people.""
Daniel moved between us.
"Put it down.""
Adrian ignored him.
"Inside this box is something Eleanor should never have kept.""
I looked at the small brass lock.
"What's inside?""
Adrian ran his thumb across the lid.
"Something that could destroy everyone connected to Moreau International.""
"Then why don't you open it?""
His smile disappeared.
"Because I need the key.""
I remembered the silver key recovered from Vanessa's dressing room.
The necklace clasp.
I touched my throat instinctively.
"Where is the necklace?"" I asked.
Adrian's eyes moved toward me.
"Vanessa has it.""
"Then she has the key.""
He nodded.
"Which means you should stop making this difficult.""
I took another step.
"You've stolen my mother's designs, her jewelry, and possibly her company. What else do you want?""
Adrian looked almost amused.
"Everything she promised me.""
Daniel laughed.
"Mom never promised you anything.""
Adrian suddenly turned toward him.
"Your mother promised me the Bennett Collection.""
The room went silent.
I stared at him.
"Why would she promise you that?""
"Because I was the only person who could keep her work alive. She knew Celeste was becoming too powerful. She knew Eleanor Bennett's designs deserved a future.""
"Then why did she leave everything to me?""
His expression darkened.
"Because she changed her mind.""
For the first time, I saw something beneath Adrian's anger.
Fear.
He looked down at the music box.
"She changed her mind after she discovered the truth about my father.""
I felt the room tilt.
"Your father?""
Adrian said nothing.
Daniel looked at me.
"Claire, I think you need to hear this.""
He opened the folder and removed a photocopy of an old hospital record.
It listed Eleanor Bennett as the emergency contact.
The patient's name was Robert Vale.
Adrian's father.
But the date was more than thirty years old.
I looked at Adrian.
"What does this have to do with my mother?""
His jaw tightened.
"Everything.""
He placed the music box on the dresser.
Then he said something I would remember for the rest of my life.
"Your mother didn't just know my father, Claire. She was the reason he disappeared.""
I shook my head.
"That's impossible.""
Adrian leaned closer.
"Ask Celeste about the night Robert Vale died. Ask her why Eleanor paid for the private burial. Ask her why my father left me a letter saying the Bennett family had stolen his future.""
Daniel looked furious.
"That's a lie.""
"Is it?"" Adrian replied.
"Then why did Eleanor keep his medical records?""
I looked at the photocopy again.
There was a handwritten note at the bottom.
Paternity confirmation pending.
My fingers went numb.
"Whose paternity?""
Adrian smiled bitterly.
"Mine.""
Before I could ask another question, his phone rang.
He glanced at the screen.
"Vanessa?""
He answered.
"What happened?""
Her voice came through loudly enough for us to hear.
"Adrian, I opened the necklace.""
He froze.
"What?""
"The compartment. The key worked.""
"Did you find it?""
A pause.
Then Vanessa whispered:
"Yes. But there's something else inside.""
Adrian gripped the phone.
"What?""
"There's a photograph.""
I heard paper rustling.
Then her voice broke.
"Adrian, it's a picture of you.""
He went completely still.
"What are you talking about?""
Vanessa began crying.
"You're a baby. Eleanor is holding you. And the man standing beside her...""
Her voice stopped.
Adrian's face drained of color.
"Who?""
Vanessa whispered the name.
And suddenly, the music box slipped from Adrian's hand.
It struck the floor.
The lid sprang open.
Inside was a small envelope, sealed with my mother's initials.
Daniel picked it up.
He opened it carefully.
One sentence was written on the paper.
Claire, if you are reading this, then you finally know why Adrian married you.
I looked at my husband.
He wasn't looking at me anymore.
He was staring at the photograph Vanessa had just sent to his phone.
Because the man standing beside my mother wasn't Robert Vale.
It was someone Adrian had spent eleven years calling his closest friend.
May you like
And beneath the photograph, my mother had written one final sentence:
Your father is not the man you think he is.
