Chapter 2 - The Secret Sewn Inside the White RabbitAdrien did not open the door.
He moved toward it without making a sound and looked through the peephole.
A man stood in the hallway holding a clipboard.
Not Damian.
Mid-forties.
Blue utility jacket.
Baseball cap.
Adrien did not recognize him.
“Who is it?” he called.
“Gas company.”
Evelyn shook her head immediately.
“They checked the meters yesterday.”
Adrien’s face hardened.
“Name?”
There was a pause.
“Building inspection.”
“You just said gas company.”
Another pause.
Then footsteps retreated.
Fast.
Adrien opened the door seconds later.
The hallway was empty.
By the time he reached the stairwell, the exterior door downstairs slammed shut.
He returned to the apartment.
Evelyn was holding Lily.
“We have to leave.”
Adrien agreed.
“No.”
“You just said—”
“I mean Lily and I leave.”
“Not alone.”
“I’m not going to your house.”
“I didn’t ask you to.”
He pulled out his phone.
“You don’t trust my people. Fine. I understand why.”
He called Thomas Whitaker.
“I need a secure conference room at your office. No staff except you. Private entrance.”
Thomas asked no questions.
Adrien hung up.
Evelyn stared at him.
“You expect me to go willingly?”
“No.”
That caught her attention.
“I expect you to make your own decision. But whoever knocked on that door knew something. Maybe they knew I was here. Maybe they didn’t. Either way, I’m not leaving you and Lily in this apartment.”
Lily tugged Evelyn’s sleeve.
“Can Snow come?”
Evelyn looked at the rabbit.
Her fear returned.
“Yes.”
Twenty minutes later, the three of them entered the underground garage of Whitaker & Hale through a private access point used by clients who valued discretion.
Thomas met them himself.
At sixty-eight, he had represented the Valente family since before Adrien was old enough to understand what an attorney actually did.
His silver hair was perfectly combed despite the early hour.
His expression changed when he saw the rabbit.
“My God.”
Adrien noticed.
“You recognize it.”
“Of course.”
Thomas looked at Evelyn.
“Serena still had that?”
“She gave it to Lily.”
“When?”
“Three days before she died.”
Thomas removed his glasses.
Adrien had known the man most of his life.
He had almost never seen him surprised.
Now Thomas looked shaken.
They entered a private conference room.
Lily received hot chocolate from a small machine in Thomas’s office and immediately became more interested in drawing pictures than in the adults.
Snow remained beside her.
Adrien closed the door.
“Evelyn.”
She looked at Lily.
Then at Adrien.
“Serena came to my apartment.”
“Three days before the crash?”
“Yes.”
“She’d never been there before?”
“She had. She visited after Lily was born.”
Adrien frowned.
“Why?”
“Because Serena paid my hospital bill.”
That silenced him.
Evelyn continued.
“Lily’s father left when I was six months pregnant. I was working extra shifts at the estate because I couldn’t afford to stop.”
She gave a humorless laugh.
“Serena figured it out before anyone else.”
Adrien remembered the shopping bags.
The baby clothes.
His sister disappearing for afternoons and refusing to explain.
“She told me taking care of someone wasn’t charity if you loved them.”
Evelyn wiped beneath one eye.
“She was Lily’s godmother.”
Adrien stared at her.
He had not known.
The fact hurt more than it should have.
Not because Serena owed him every detail of her life.
Because he had apparently been living ten feet from a sister whose world he barely understood.
“She gave you the rabbit.”
“Yes.”
“What did she say?”
“She was nervous.”
Evelyn looked toward Lily.
“She said if something happened to her, I was supposed to protect Snow until I knew who I could trust.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I tried.”
Adrien’s expression changed.
“When?”
“The morning after the funeral.”
“You never came to me.”
“I came to the estate.”
Evelyn’s eyes sharpened.
“I waited almost four hours.”
Adrien remembered that morning.
Hundreds of flowers.
Phone calls.
People pouring through the residence.
He had locked himself in Serena’s study and refused nearly everyone.
“Damian told me you didn’t want to see staff.”
Adrien said nothing.
“He asked why I needed you.”
“And?”
“I said Serena had left something.”
Thomas swore quietly.
“Three days later the watch appeared in your locker,” Adrien said.
“Yes.”
The sequence was suddenly obvious.
Damian had not dismissed Evelyn because of a watch.
The watch had been the weapon.
Adrien looked toward the rabbit.
“Open it.”
Evelyn shook her head.
“I promised Serena.”
“She told you to wait until you knew who to trust.”
“How do I know I can trust you?”
The words might have insulted another man.
Adrien only nodded.
“You don’t.”
He leaned back.
“So don’t give it to me.”
Evelyn frowned.
“Give it to Thomas.”
Thomas raised an eyebrow.
Adrien continued.
“He has represented Serena’s interests since she was eighteen. If she left legal instructions anywhere, he would know what they meant.”
Thomas nodded.
Evelyn remained hesitant.
Then Lily walked over.
“Mommy?”
“Yes, sweetheart?”
“Is Snow sick?”
“No.”
“Then why is everybody looking at him?”
Nobody answered.
Lily placed the rabbit on the table.
“You can fix his tummy if you have to.”
Evelyn stared at her daughter.
Then she reached into her purse and removed a tiny sewing kit.
With trembling fingers, she cut three stitches Serena had made herself.
Inside Snow’s cloth body, beneath faded cotton stuffing, Evelyn found a small plastic sleeve.
She pulled it free.
Inside were two items.
A brass key.
And a folded piece of paper.
Adrien recognized Serena’s handwriting before Thomas opened it.
The lawyer read silently.
Then he closed his eyes.
“What?” Adrien demanded.
Thomas handed him the note.
It contained only three lines.
If I am wrong, burn this and forgive me.
If I am dead, trust Evelyn Carter.
Do not trust Damian.
Adrien read it twice.
The third time, his vision blurred.
For three years, Serena had been dead.
For three years, Damian had sat beside him at Christmas dinners.
Managed employees.
Approved contracts.
Raised glasses in Serena’s memory.
And all that time, his sister had left a warning sewn inside a child’s toy.
Adrien placed the note on the table very carefully.
“What does the key open?”
Thomas was staring at it.
“I think I know.”
Twenty minutes later, they were standing in Thomas’s private records room.
He removed a small steel archive box from a locked cabinet.
On its face was a brass mechanism.
The key fit.
Thomas looked at Adrien.
“Serena gave this to me approximately a month before her death.”
“You had it for three years?”
“She instructed me not to open it unless someone produced the matching key.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Attorney-client privilege.”
“My sister was dead.”
“And my obligation to her did not die with her.”
Adrien wanted to argue.
He couldn’t.
Thomas turned the key.
Inside the box were several envelopes.
Copies of financial documents.
Property records.
A flash drive.
Photographs.
And another letter.
Adrien picked up the first document.
His own signature appeared at the bottom.
Black ink.
The document transferred ownership of a warehouse property to a holding company Adrien had never seen.
Another authorized a seven-figure payment.
Another reassigned voting rights in three businesses.
Thomas went pale.
“This is extensive.”
Evelyn stood motionless.
Adrien reached the envelope containing photographs.
The first image showed Damian leaving a building.
The second showed him meeting a man Adrien recognized immediately.
Andrew Mercer.
Head of security at the Valente estate.
Adrien’s stomach dropped.
Andrew had worked for his father.
Had carried Serena out of a swimming pool when she almost drowned at nine.
Had stood beside Adrien at Serena’s funeral.
Evelyn saw the photograph.
Her hand flew to her mouth.
“You know him?” Adrien asked.
Her face had gone white.
“That’s the man.”
“What man?”
“The stairs.”
Adrien’s voice became dangerously quiet.
“Tell me.”
“After I was fired, I came back to get my things. Andrew followed me to the service stairwell.”
She stopped.
“He asked what Serena gave me.”
Adrien felt something inside him fracture.
“I told him nothing.”
Her hand moved toward her lower back.
“He said I was making a mistake.”
Thomas stared at her.
“He pushed you?”
“I don’t know.”
“What does that mean?” Adrien asked.
“I was halfway down the stairs. I heard him behind me. Then I felt something hit me between the shoulders.”
Her voice shook.
“I woke up in the hospital.”
“And nobody investigated?”
“The report said I slipped.”
Adrien looked at the photograph again.
Andrew.
Damian.
Together.
Thomas picked up the flash drive.
“We need to duplicate everything.”
“No estate servers,” Adrien said.
“Agreed.”
Thomas inserted the drive into an isolated computer.
There were dozens of files.
Scanned documents.
Accounting records.
Audio recordings.
Then they found one labeled:
IF SOMETHING HAPPENS TO ME.
Adrien stared at the screen.
Thomas clicked.
Serena’s voice filled the room.
Calm at first.
Then unsteady.
“Adrien, if you’re hearing this, it means I wasn’t brave enough to tell you in person before it became too late.”
Adrien’s throat closed.
Lily stopped coloring.
Evelyn covered her mouth.
Serena continued.
“Damian has been using your authorization process to move assets for almost two years. I think Andrew Mercer is helping him.”
Adrien looked at the photograph.
“I found enough to prove fraud. But there’s something worse.”
Serena inhaled.
“I confronted Damian yesterday.”
The recording crackled.
“He told me this family has survived because people like me stay out of decisions we don’t understand.”
A pause.
“He knows I copied the records.”
Another pause.
Then Serena said something that made every person in the room stop moving.
“If anything happens to me, do not assume the crash was an accident.”
The recording ended.
Silence.
Adrien stared at the computer.
Three years of grief rearranged themselves inside his head.
Thomas touched his shoulder.
Adrien stepped away.
His phone rang.
Vivian.
He answered.
“I found the employee who signed the complaint against Evelyn,” she said.
“Where?”
“Indiana. He left Chicago three days after she was fired.”
“Bring him to Thomas.”
“There’s more.”
Adrien closed his eyes.
“What?”
Vivian’s voice tightened.
“Someone broke into Evelyn’s apartment fifteen minutes ago.”
Evelyn heard.
Her face drained of color.
“Was anyone there?”
“No.”
Adrien looked at Lily.
Vivian continued.
“They didn’t take the television. Didn’t take cash. Didn’t touch jewelry.”
“What did they take?”
“Nothing that we can see.”
“Then what were they looking for?”
Adrien already knew.
Across the room, Lily hugged Snow against her chest.
The little girl looked at him.
“Bakery man?”
“Yes?”
“Are bad people looking for my bunny?”
Adrien looked at the rabbit.
Then at Evelyn.
“Yes.”
Lily thought about that.
Then she held Snow tighter.
“They can’t have him.”
Adrien’s voice softened.
“No.”
He looked toward Thomas.
Then at Serena’s note.
“No, sweetheart.”
May you like
His expression hardened.
“They can’t.”
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