Chapter 4 - The Locked Nursery
Julian took them to the sealed nursery in the west wing, where a hidden passage led toward the gardens.
"Stay here," he told Elara. "I'm calling the police chief myself."
"Don't call anyone your mother can reach."
"I know how to make a private call."
"Do you?" Elara asked. "Because the last time you trusted your family, you lost six years with your daughter."
Maisie sat on a rug and arranged three toy animals in a neat line. She had inherited Elara's careful hands and Julian's habit of pressing her lips together when she was thinking.
"Are you really my dad?" she asked him.
Julian crouched until they were eye to eye.
"I believe I am," he said. "And I'm sorry I wasn't there when you needed me."
"Were you looking for me?"
He swallowed. "I didn't know you existed. But if I had known, I would have looked everywhere."
Maisie studied him, then handed him the teddy bear. "You can hold him. He gets scared in new places."
A knock sounded at the hidden door behind a wardrobe. Elara turned pale. Julian pulled the wardrobe aside and found a narrow passage leading to the old family archive.
The passage had been bricked up on the other end for years, but the door was open now.
On a shelf inside sat a stack of file boxes, each marked with dates. At the top was a folder bearing Elara's name and the words INTERNAL THEFT REVIEW.
"This room was locked," Julian said.
"Someone has been using it," Elara replied. She took the folder and opened it. The first page showed a transfer authorization carrying her signature.
The second showed Julian's approval. Both signatures were perfect. Both were fake.
Behind them, Maisie whispered, "Mom?"
She was staring at a framed photograph on the wall. It showed Julian as a teenager beside his father and Caroline. On the back, someone had written a date and a single sentence: If anything happens to me, the child must be protected.
Julian pulled the frame down. A thin envelope had been taped behind it.
Inside was a note in his father's handwriting.
Julian, if you are reading this, Lydia has found the accounts. Do not trust Graham. The foundation is being used to buy silence, and the child named in the sealed trust is the only person who can expose it.
May you like
He turned the page. A name was typed at the bottom, beneath a paragraph about a trust created before his father died.
MAISIE QUINN VALE.
