Chapter 4 - THE PIANO IN MY FATHER'S HOUSE
Mave refused to let Declan break into her father's house.
“I'll go.”
“No.”
“It's my house.”
“You haven't lived there in six years.”
“My key still works.”
“You don't know who's inside.”
“Neither do your men.”
Declan stared at her.
“You're extremely inconvenient.”
“You kidnapped me.”
“I'm beginning to regret it.”
“Good.”
He almost smiled.
They went after midnight.
No guns inside, Mave insisted.
Declan ignored that condition.
Mave ignored him ignoring it.
The baby grand stood in the library.
Exactly where it had been since she was seventeen.
Her mother, Evelyn, had died when Mave was nine.
The piano was one of the few things Arthur kept.
Mave had always thought sentiment was the reason.
Now she knew better.
She lifted the bench.
Nothing.
Removed the music rack.
Nothing.
Declan crouched beneath the instrument.
“Three-two.”
“What?”
“Sean's code.”
Three knocks.
Two.
Mave examined the underside.
Three screws along the left brace.
Two along the right.
They removed them.
A wooden panel dropped.
Inside was a metal case.
Declan stared.
Eleven years of grief compressed into something the size of a book.
He opened it.
Ledger.
Photographs.
Shipping manifests.
Names.
Police.
Politicians.
Customs officers.
Blake employees.
Collins executives.
Arthur Collins.
Gideon Blake.
Mave's eyes stopped.
“Gideon was involved?”
“Looks like he joined later.”
“How much later?”
Finn checked dates.
“Six years ago.”
Chloe had started dating Gideon six years ago.
Not coincidence.
Mave heard a click behind them.
A gun.
Arthur Collins stood in the doorway.
“Mave.”
She turned.
Her father's face looked older than it had that morning.
“You're alive.”
Strange words from a father seeing his kidnapped daughter.
Not thank God.
Not are you hurt.
You're alive.
Mave understood.
“You knew.”
Arthur lowered the gun slightly.
“Knew what?”
“That Sean saved me.”
“Mave—”
“You told the police I was alone.”
“You were traumatized.”
“You sent me to that house.”
His face tightened.
“To get Chloe's necklace.”
“There was no necklace, was there?”
Silence.
“No.”
The answer nearly folded her.
“Why?”
Arthur looked at Declan.
“Patrick needed insurance.”
Mave felt sick.
“What does that mean?”
Arthur's voice broke.
“He thought I was cooperating with federal investigators.”
“So?”
“He told me to prove loyalty.”
Mave already knew.
She wished she didn't.
“How?”
“By sending someone I loved into the house.”
Declan moved.
Mave raised a hand.
“No.”
She needed to hear it.
Arthur continued.
“Patrick said nothing would happen to you. You were supposed to arrive, retrieve an envelope and leave. Then he'd know I hadn't warned anyone.”
“You chose me.”
Arthur's eyes filled.
“Mave—”
“You had two daughters.”
He closed his eyes.
There it was.
The truth she'd always known without words.
“Why me?”
“Mave.”
“WHY ME?”
“Because Chloe was the future of the company!”
The room went silent.
Arthur realized what he'd said.
Too late.
Mave nodded slowly.
“And I wasn't.”
“You were seventeen.”
“So was I less expensive to lose?”
“No.”
“Then explain it.”
“I can't.”
At least that was true.
Declan stepped forward.
Arthur raised the gun.
“Stay back.”
Declan stopped.
Arthur looked at his daughter.
“I spent eleven years trying to make it up to you.”
“How?”
“I paid for your surgeries.”
“You were my father.”
“I gave you an apartment.”
“You owned the building.”
“I gave you a job.”
“As Chloe's assistant.”
Arthur's face collapsed.
Everything he considered generosity had actually been the minimum.
Mave wiped her face.
“Did you know Sean was still inside when the house burned?”
Arthur said nothing.
Declan's voice became deadly.
“Answer her.”
“Yes.”
Declan moved again.
Mave stepped in front of him.
“No.”
He stared at her.
She whispered:
“If you kill him, he never talks.”
Declan's chest rose and fell.
Then he stepped back.
Mave turned to Arthur.
“What happened to Sean?”
“Patrick took him.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
Declan went still.
Mave's heart hammered.
“Where?”
Arthur looked at the ledger.
“I don't know.”
Declan grabbed him by the collar.
“You've had eleven years.”
“I DON'T KNOW!”
“Then why did you keep this?”
“Because it was the only thing keeping Patrick from killing my daughters.”
Mave stared.
Arthur looked at her.
“The ledger wasn't just evidence.”
He swallowed.
“It was leverage.”
Then his phone rang.
Chloe.
Arthur answered.
All they heard was Chloe screaming.
Then Gideon Blake said:
“Bring me the ledger, Arthur.”
A pause.
May you like
“Or this time, you lose the daughter you actually wanted.”
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