Chapter 13 - The Hearing Before Breakfast

At nine the next morning, Gideon sat in a White Plains courtroom while Celeste's attorney described him as fragile, impulsive, and vulnerable to manipulation.

Gideon remained still until the lawyer called Ivy “an alleged descendant.”

“Her name is Ivy,” he said.

The judge asked him to let his attorney speak. Amina rose and calmly presented independent medical records showing Gideon was competent to manage his affairs. She requested that the court preserve the foundation's records and prohibit transfers while the financial investigation continued.

Celeste sat two rows back, dressed in pale gray instead of pink. She looked like a devoted wife enduring a tragedy.

When Nora entered, reporters crowded the hallway. One asked whether she'd invented a dead woman's child for the trust fund. Ivy, who had stayed with a caregiver, never heard the question. Nora was grateful for that much.

The judge declined to remove Gideon's decision-making power on the record presented. She reserved broader questions pending evidence and ordered key financial documents preserved.

Outside, Celeste stopped beside Nora.

“You could've walked away with enough money to raise her comfortably.”

“She was already comfortable,” Nora said. “She had somebody who loved her.”

“And now she has armed guards.”

Nora hated that Celeste had found the one thing she could use to hurt her.

At the hotel, Ivy was quieter than usual. On the seventh repetition, Nora noticed that Ivy played an extra low note before the final chord.

“Where did you learn that?” Nora asked.

“From the tape. You always stop it early because the last part sounds like someone dropping a book.”

Nora replayed the recording. Beneath Lydia's voice and the piano was a soft metallic click followed by a whisper.

“Under the heart,” Lydia said. “Where we hid our secrets.”

Nora remembered a childhood story Lydia used to tell: Gideon had called the old grand piano the beating heart of Briar House.

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She called Amina immediately.

“There's something still inside that piano,” she said. “And Celeste is standing between us and it.”