Chapter 7 - The Baby Photograph Proved Cormac and Sadie Had Been Promised to Each Other Before They Could Even Speak
The photograph became a family treasure.
Evelyn explained everything.
Matteo and Cormac's father had once planned a union between families.
Not marriage.
Business.
The photograph had been taken during a family celebration.
Sadie had been six months old.
Cormac had been sixteen.
He had held her once.
Then the fire happened.
The old agreement was forgotten.
But the trust remained.
And with the new marriage, it finally activated.
Sadie laughed.
“So we were legally connected before we even met.”
Cormac smiled.
“That sounds romantic until you remember you were a baby.”
She elbowed him.
“Don't ruin it.”
They rebuilt the old estate.
Not into a mansion.
Into a school.
Music rooms.
Libraries.
Classrooms.
A memorial garden.
A place for children who had lost homes in fires.
Sadie named the music hall after her mother.
Evelyn Harper Hall.
Julian became director.
He taught students every week.
Cormac funded it.
But he wanted no plaque with his name.
Sadie asked why.
“Because I don't need my name on a building.”
“Why?”
“I spent too long believing my name was everything.”
She smiled.
“Now?”
“Now yours matters more.”
She kissed him.
Their first anniversary came quietly.
Evelyn played Winter Glass.
Sadie joined her.
Mother and daughter.
Same piano.
Same song.
Different ending.
The room cried.
Then Evelyn spoke.
“I wrote the ending.”
Sadie turned.
“You did?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I knew one day you'd finish it.”
Sadie cried.
The composition wasn't called Winter Glass in her mother's original notebook.
Its real title was:
Homecoming.
Julian revealed the truth.
The published version had been altered.
The original had sixteen more measures.
Those measures contained the final cipher to a hidden account.
An account filled with money Matteo had saved before his death.
But that money belonged to his daughter.
Sadie.
It was enough to complete every foundation project.
No debt.
No fear.
No dependence.
She cried.
Cormac hugged her.
“Your father kept his promise.”
She nodded.
“He did.”
But one problem remained.
Someone wanted that account.
The surviving member of the old network.
Victor Kane.
He was alive.
He had been hiding.
He had been waiting.
May you like
And now he came for Sadie.
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