Chapter 4 - The Locked BedroomMia lay in a hospital bed with a splint on her wrist and bruising along one cheek. Her scans showed no life-threatening bleeding or spinal injury, but the doctors wanted observation for her concussion. I thanked them, then sat beside her.

"I should've stayed home," she whispered.

"No. You did nothing wrong. Not one thing."

She looked at the door. "Will Aunt Sarah come?"

"Not unless you want her to, and you don't have to decide anything today."

Mia swallowed. "She came to our villa yesterday. You were at a meeting. She said Grandma told her I ruined everything just by being there."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"She said you'd lose your job if I did."

My chest tightened. Sarah had known I would never risk scaring Mia with my business troubles, even though those troubles were invented.

"What else happened?"

"She locked the bedroom door and searched my backpack. She wanted my drawing book."

"Your blue one?"

Mia nodded. "I hid it under the mattress."

She loved that book. Pages of sea turtles, crooked houses, and tiny versions of the two of us holding hands. What could Sarah want with it?

I called Marcus. He sent an officer to secure our villa and photographed the untouched room before collecting the book. Under Mia's mattress, they found the sketchbook exactly where she'd described. Tucked inside was a folded paper I didn't recognize.

A scanned image arrived on my tablet minutes later. It was a copy of a shareholder document bearing my late grandfather's signature, dated seventeen years ago.

My father's handwritten note ran across the margin: ELENA MUST NEVER FIND THE SECOND TRUST.

I read it twice.

My grandfather had left me a small college fund, or so I'd been told. He'd also been the only adult who defended me when my parents called me difficult.

My attorney, Naomi Price, answered on the second ring.

"Naomi, pull every record of my grandfather's estate. Particularly anything involving my father as trustee."

"Why now?"

"Because someone entered my daughter's bedroom looking for evidence."

Naomi went silent. "Elena, there's something I've tried to tell you about that estate. Something the original lawyer asked me to hold until you were ready."

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"Tell me."

"Your grandfather didn't leave you a college fund. He left you controlling interest in an entire company."