Chapter 3 - Lock the Gates
"Lock the property."
August's voice was quiet. Mason Reed moved at once.
The estate gates began closing while the last gala guests whispered beneath the chandeliers. Nora read Caroline's note twice.
Do not let her take the child.
Elsie clutched her pink backpack.
"Did your mother ever talk about me?" August asked.
She nodded. "She said you liked pancakes too much."
The answer nearly broke him.
"What else?"
"She said you thought she was dead."
August looked toward the west corridor. "Where is Victoria?"
Mason checked his phone. "Heading toward the private offices."
"Bring her back."
Before he finished, headlights appeared outside. Victoria's sedan raced toward the service gate.
"Open it?" Mason asked.
"No."
The gate closed.
Victoria stopped inches from the iron bars. Security surrounded the car and escorted her back inside.
She entered furious.
Then she saw Elsie.
"Where did Caroline keep the rest?" Victoria demanded.
The room went silent.
August turned slowly. "The rest of what?"
Victoria realized what she had said.
Nora's eyes sharpened. "So the envelope isn't all there is."
Elsie moved closer to August.
Then she lifted the brass key from Caroline's envelope.
"Mom said this opens the room where Grandpa buried the truth."
"My father?"
Elsie nodded.
"The room with the blue door."
August stared at the key.
The number 214 was stamped into the metal.
He knew that number.
Building 214 had once been a neighborhood clinic funded by his father, Henry Caldwell. It had been abandoned after a fire more than twenty years earlier.
August had not been there since he was thirty.
Victoria whispered, "You don't know what you're opening."
August looked at her.
May you like
"No. But you do."
And for the first time since the girl entered his ballroom, Victoria looked less afraid of Elsie than of where that key might lead.
