Chapter 4 - THE LOCKED ROOM
I wasn't going back to the Hale house alone.
Alessandro made that very clear.
“You're staying in the hospital.”
“I need the necklace.”
“We'll retrieve it.”
“No.”
He stared at me.
“I want to go.”
“You've just survived an assault.”
“I know.”
“You're pregnant.”
“I know.”
“You're not thinking clearly.”
I looked him directly in the eyes.
“I have spent eight years letting other people decide what happens to me.”
He said nothing.
“I want my mother's necklace.”
Finally, he nodded.
“Then we'll go together.”
The Hale mansion was surrounded by police when we arrived.
The house looked different.
Smaller.
Ugly.
For years, I had thought of it as a place I needed to earn my way into.
Now I realized it had never been a home.
It had been a prison.
An officer let us inside.
The kitchen still looked exactly as I remembered.
Except the blood had been cleaned.
I stopped.
My stomach turned.
Alessandro noticed.
“We can leave.”
“No.”
I walked forward.
My bedroom was upstairs.
But the necklace wasn't there.
I searched drawers.
Closets.
Boxes.
Nothing.
Then I remembered something.
My mother had given it to me on my eighteenth birthday.
She had said:
“If you ever feel like nobody is telling you the truth, remember that this belonged to me.”
At the time, I hadn't understood.
Now I did.
I remembered the place I had kept it.
The old sewing room.
I ran there.
The door was locked.
Alessandro called an officer.
The lock was opened.
Inside was dust.
Old furniture.
A broken sewing machine.
I searched the drawers.
Nothing.
Then I saw the floorboard.
One board looked slightly different.
I knelt.
My fingers found a small gap.
We lifted it.
Beneath it was a metal box.
My heart raced.
Inside was the necklace.
And a key.
A tiny silver key.
There was also a note.
I unfolded it.
My mother's handwriting.
My hands began shaking.
“If you are reading this, they have already tried to convince you that you are powerless.”
I couldn't breathe.
“Don't trust Raul.”
I looked at Alessandro.
He was reading over my shoulder.
The note continued.
“Don't trust Helena.”
Then:
“And above all, never trust Victor.”
Tears filled my eyes.
My mother had known.
She had known exactly what kind of family I would marry into.
The final line made my blood run cold.
“The key opens the account they believe they destroyed.”
Daniel immediately took photographs.
“Don't touch anything else.”
I looked at the key.
“What account?”
Alessandro answered.
“The one your mother used to document every transaction.”
A sound came from the hallway.
Footsteps.
Everyone froze.
The officer reached for his weapon.
Another step.
Then a woman's voice.
“You found it.”
I turned.
Helena stood in the doorway.
Her face was pale.
She was not crying anymore.
She looked at the key.
Then at me.
“You have no idea what you've just done.”
I stepped backward.
“What did my mother know?”
Helena laughed softly.
“More than she should have.”
“What happened to her?”
Helena's eyes met mine.
“You want the truth?”
“Yes.”
She smiled.
“Then ask your husband.”
The officer moved toward her.
She didn't resist.
But before they took her away, she looked at me one last time.
“Your mother didn't die because she knew too much.”
She paused.
“She died because she trusted the wrong person.”
My heart sank.
“Who?”
Helena smiled.
May you like
“Your father.”
Then she walked away.
