Chapter 7 - The Scissors Were Searching For Evidence
Richard understood the jagged haircut differently now.
Not as uncontrolled rage alone.
As a search.
Lily often wore Caroline’s old hair clips and ribbons.
Victoria believed Caroline might have hidden the storage chip inside
something Lily still possessed.
The vase broke while Victoria was searching.
The envelope fell out.
Panic followed.
Andrew insisted he had never told Victoria to frighten Lily.
“I told her to leave your daughter out of it.”
Richard’s voice hardened.
“And you still kept working with her.”
“I needed Caroline’s medical records.”
“You chose evidence over my child’s safety.”
Andrew flinched.
Richard did not soften the truth.
Andrew had been wronged twelve years earlier.
That did not erase his responsibility now.
Andrew nodded.
“You’re right.”
It was the first apology Richard had heard from him.
Andrew then revealed why Victoria sold the vase.
The original had belonged to Charles.
Inside its base was a maker’s cavity where Charles once hid a key to a
private archive.
Victoria discovered the cavity but found it empty.
She sold the vase to finance toxicology testing, then replaced it with a
reproduction so Richard would not notice.
The yellow envelope was hidden inside the fake vase because Victoria
feared Andrew might betray her.
It documented the sale and protected her financially.
Richard asked where the original archive key was.
Andrew smiled sadly.
“Caroline took it years ago.”
“Where is it?”
“I don’t know.”
Then Richard remembered Lily pointing toward the portrait.
His daughter noticed things adults ignored.
He returned home and asked Lily a simple question.
“Did Mommy ever give you a special key?”
Lily shook her head.
Then she paused.
“She gave me a music box.”
Richard found it in Caroline’s old nursery closet.
The wooden box played a soft version of “Moon River.”
Inside were childhood photographs.
Under the velvet lining, Richard found a flat brass key.
Andrew had described it perfectly.
The archive was real.
But before Richard could decide what to do, the house alarm sounded.
Someone had entered Caroline’s old study.
Security cameras showed a familiar man walking through the corridor.
Richard stared at the monitor.
It was his father’s former chief financial officer.
Thomas Vale.
A man who had attended Caroline’s funeral.
May you like
A man who had just used a security code supposedly deleted seven years
earlier.
