Chapter 2 - THE LAKEVIEW HOTEL
The silence in the music room was heavier than the grand piano.
Adrian held the faded matchbook between his fingers.
He didn’t yell.
He didn’t throw it.
For a man who controlled half the shipping ports on the East Coast, his anger was never loud. It was freezing.
He looked at Victoria.
“Explain.”
Victoria’s elegant composure was fracturing, but she lifted her chin.
“I found it in the guest wing,” she said, her voice tight. “In the old servant quarters. I put it in my purse to throw it away. Lily shouldn’t have been digging through my things.”
“You’re lying,” Lily whispered.
Adrian knelt in front of his daughter, blocking her view of Victoria.
“Lily,” he said softly. “Go upstairs. Lock your door. Do not open it for anyone but me.”
Lily looked at me.
Not at her father. At me—the maid.
I gave her a tiny nod.
She turned and ran up the grand staircase.
Adrian stood up. He didn’t look at his fiancée.
He looked at me.
“Anna. Go to the ballroom. Tell my capo, Marcus, to clear the house. The party is over.”
Victoria stepped forward, her red silk dress rustling.
“Adrian, you have sixty guests. The mayor is out there. You cannot cancel our engagement party over a piece of trash a child misunderstood.”
“It’s not trash,” I said.
Victoria shot me a look of pure venom, but I wasn’t looking at her. I was looking at the brass key Adrian was still holding.
“That key,” I pointed. “It’s a master key for antique hotel doors. My grandfather used to collect them. The blue paint means it was a permanent resident’s key.”
Adrian’s dark eyes locked onto mine.
He realized what I was saying.
His dead wife didn’t just visit Room 214. She lived there. Or she kept something living there.
“Clear the house, Anna,” Adrian repeated.
I did.
Ten minutes later, the mansion was empty. The string quartet packed up in silence. The champagne went flat.
I was in the kitchen, washing glasses, my hands shaking under the hot water.
I shouldn’t be involved. I was just a maid. I needed this job to pay off my grandfather’s medical debts.
Then Adrian walked into the kitchen.
He had taken off his suit jacket. His holster was visible against his white shirt.
“Dry your hands,” he said. “You’re coming with me.”
I froze. “Sir?”
“You know about old locks. You know what that piano repair meant. You see things other people don’t, Anna.”
He tossed a heavy wool coat over my shoulders. It smelled like cedar and expensive cologne.
“We’re going to the Lakeview Hotel.”
Victoria was standing in the hallway as we walked toward the garage.
She looked desperate.
“Adrian, don’t do this. You don’t know what you’re opening.”
“Then you know what’s inside,” he countered smoothly.
“I’m trying to protect you!” she cried out. “Elena wasn’t who you thought she was!”
Adrian didn’t stop walking.
We got into his black SUV. The rain started as we drove out of the city gates, heading toward the old coastal highway.
The Lakeview Hotel was a relic. Closed down five years ago.
When we pulled up to the rotting iron gates, the building was completely dark.
But as my headlights swept across the gravel driveway, my breath caught.
“Adrian,” I whispered.
Parked in front of the boarded-up lobby was a silver Mercedes.
Victoria’s silver Mercedes.
The engine was still warm.
Adrian unclipped his seatbelt. He drew his weapon.
“Stay in the car,” he ordered.
But I didn’t. Because as I looked at the front seat of Victoria’s car, I saw something sitting on the passenger seat.
A wooden box.
Painted green.
I opened my door and ran toward it.
Adrian hissed my name, but I was already pulling the door handle. It was unlocked.
I grabbed the green box.
It was heavy.
“Anna, get back!” Adrian warned, his eyes scanning the dark hotel windows.
I looked down at the box. The brass lock on the front was broken.
Someone had already pried it open.
I lifted the lid.
It wasn’t full of money. Or jewelry.
It was full of letters.
But the item resting on top of the letters made the blood freeze in my veins.
It was a silver pocket watch.
I reached out and touched the cracked glass face.
My grandfather’s name was engraved on the inside cover.
May you like
“Why does your dead wife have my grandfather’s watch?” I whispered.
Before Adrian could answer, a gunshot shattered the glass of the hotel lobby doors.
