Chapter 4 - The Room on the Forty-Seventh Floor
Blaire lunged toward the screen.
“Play it.”
The technician hesitated.
Luca nodded.
Eleanor appeared.
Older than Blaire remembered.
Thinner.
Alive.
“Blaire,” the recording said, “I need you to forgive me for letting you believe I was dead.”
Blaire gripped the desk.
Eleanor explained that the car accident had been real.
Her death had not.
Someone had tried to kill her after she attempted to return evidence to Sebastian Sterling.
Federal investigators had helped her disappear.
But the investigation collapsed after Sebastian died.
She remained hidden because she believed Blaire would be safer without her.
Then she learned David had approached her daughter.
“I knew who he was before you married him,” Eleanor said.
Blaire whispered, “You let me marry him?”
The recording continued as if answering.
“I wanted to come home. Every day. But David was watching you, and the people behind him were watching David.”
Eleanor looked directly into the camera.
“If Fiona has the rabbit, the second key still exists.”
The recording ended.
“Second key?” Luca said.
Blaire was shaking.
Her dead mother was alive.
Or had been alive when Fiona was born.
Every grief Blaire had carried was suddenly unstable.
She left the room.
Luca found her sitting on the floor of an empty conference room.
He sat beside her.
No speeches.
No questions.
After several minutes, Blaire said, “I buried an empty coffin.”
“I know.”
“I talked to her grave.”
Luca said nothing.
“I told her about Fiona.”
Her voice broke.
“I told a stone.”
Luca’s hand rested palm-up on the carpet between them.
Not touching her.
Offering.
Blaire stared at it.
Then placed her hand in his.
It was the first time she cried since Chicago.
Not delicately.
Not quietly.
She cried until her chest hurt.
Luca stayed.
Later, Margaret explained the “second key.”
Sebastian had divided access to the foundation archive.
One digital key.
One physical.
The memory card was digital.
The physical key was unknown.
“David thinks it’s in the rabbit,” Blaire said.
“Then he doesn’t have it,” Luca replied.
“Unless my mother hid both.”
Fiona woke near midnight.
“Mommy?”
Blaire immediately went to her.
Fiona rubbed her eyes.
“Can we go home?”
Blaire could not answer.
They had no home.
Luca crouched.
“You can stay here tonight.”
Blaire shook her head.
“No.”
“This building has residential floors.”
“I’m not taking your penthouse.”
“It isn’t my penthouse.”
“What is it?”
“A guest apartment.”
She stared.
“How many guest apartments does a billionaire have?”
“Answering that feels dangerous.”
Despite herself, she laughed.
The forty-seventh floor apartment had three bedrooms.
Fiona discovered the bathtub within five minutes.
Blaire discovered the refrigerator had enough food for twenty people.
She hated how safe it felt.
At 2:13 a.m., she woke to voices outside.
Luca.
Security.
She opened the bedroom door.
“What happened?”
Luca turned.
“Nothing you need to worry about tonight.”
“Never say that to me.”
He paused.
Then nodded.
“You’re right.”
He handed her a phone.
A photograph had been sent anonymously.
Megan leaving a police station.
Timestamp: twelve minutes ago.
Below it:
GIVE US THE RABBIT.
Blaire’s knees weakened.
“They’re threatening Megan.”
“We’ve already sent security.”
“You can’t put guards around everyone I love.”
“No.”
Luca’s expression hardened.
“But I can make whoever is doing this understand that they’re no longer dealing with an isolated woman and a child.”
Blaire looked at him.
“Why are you doing this?”
He took too long to answer.
“Because my family started it.”
“That’s not the whole reason.”
“No.”
“What is?”
Before Luca could answer, Fiona appeared carrying Bunny.
“Mommy?”
Blaire knelt.
“What happened?”
Fiona held out the rabbit.
“Something fell out.”
In her palm was a tiny brass key.
Luca stared.
The physical key.
Engraved on it:
47-3.
Blaire slowly looked toward the apartment hallway.
Three doors.
Bedroom one.
Bedroom two.
Bedroom three.
“No,” Luca said.
But Blaire was already walking.
At the end of the hallway was a narrow decorative panel she had assumed was part of the wall.
Near the floor was a keyhole.
She inserted the brass key.
It turned.
The wall clicked.
May you like
A hidden door opened.
And from the darkness inside, a phone began to ring.
