Chapter 4 - THE SILVER KEY INSIDE THE RABBIT
Mia's stuffed rabbit was named Captain Buttons.
He had one missing eye.
A crooked ear.
And a small blue ribbon around his neck.
I'd seen Mia carry him through the mansion hundreds of times.
I had never looked twice.
Now Elena explained that Gabriel had hidden a tiny silver key inside the rabbit before his disappearance.
“He told me to keep it safe,” she whispered. “He said if anything happened, it would open the truth.”
I stared.
“Why give it to a child?”
“He didn't. He gave it to me. I hid it inside the rabbit after Mia was born.”
I swallowed.
“And Vivien knows?”
Elena shook her head.
“She knows about the key. Not where it is.”
We went upstairs.
Mia was asleep.
Captain Buttons lay beside her pillow.
Elena carefully opened a hidden seam beneath the rabbit's ribbon.
Inside was a small silver key.
It was old-fashioned.
Hand-cut.
And engraved with two letters.
G.D.
Gabriel Duca.
I held it beneath the lamp.
My brother had been clever.
Too clever for his own good.
He loved puzzles.
Hidden compartments.
Old locks.
And leaving messages in places nobody thought to search.
I remembered a childhood game.
Gabriel would hide something important, then tell me:
The answer is always where the family keeps its history.
I went still.
Our family history was stored in the old west wing.
The wing that had been closed since our father's death.
The next morning, I met Rocco.
I showed him the key.
His expression changed.
“Where did you find that?”
I stared.
“You recognize it?”
He nodded.
“Gabriel had a private room in the old west wing.”
My heart tightened.
“What room?”
Rocco hesitated.
“The observatory.”
I stared.
The observatory had been locked for years.
I hadn't entered it since Gabriel died.
We went there immediately.
Dust covered the furniture.
A brass telescope stood beside the window.
Old books lined the walls.
And a large wooden cabinet occupied the far corner.
I examined the lock.
The silver key fit.
My heart pounded.
I turned it.
The cabinet opened.
Inside were several folders.
A notebook.
And a sealed metal box.
I lifted the box.
Across the lid, Gabriel had scratched three words.
FOR MY BROTHER.
My throat tightened.
I opened it.
Inside was a photograph.
Gabriel standing beside a man in a dark suit.
The man's face was partly hidden.
But I recognized the watch on his wrist.
It belonged to my oldest lieutenant.
Rocco.
I looked up slowly.
He was standing in the doorway.
May you like
Watching me.
And for the first time in twenty years, I wondered whether the man I trusted most had betrayed my family.
