Chapter 4 - THE SECRET INSIDE THE STEINWAY
Everett arrived at Halden Fine Arts before the doors opened.
Rebecca came with him.
So did a private investigator she had hired overnight.
Daisy stayed home with Carmen.
Everett had promised to return before dinner.
He intended to keep it.
Julian Mercer met them near the loading entrance.
“I suspended delivery,” he said immediately.
“Show me the piano.”
The warehouse was enormous.
Paintings in climate-controlled racks.
Furniture wrapped in foam.
Crates marked for New York, Paris, Palm Beach.
At the far end sat Natalie’s Steinway.
Everett stopped walking.
For three years, he had avoided looking at it.
Now the sight almost dropped him to his knees.
He remembered Natalie sitting there barefoot on Sunday mornings.
Daisy on her lap.
Coffee balanced dangerously near the keys.
He remembered leukemia thinning her hair.
Her hands becoming weaker.
The last song she ever played.
Everett had stood in the doorway and pretended not to cry.
Julian spoke quietly.
“We had no reason to believe the consignment was unauthorized.”
Everett nodded.
“I understand.”
That surprised Julian.
“My anger belongs somewhere else.”
They checked the piano carefully.
Everett remembered Carmen’s words.
Where she made her happiest music.
Rebecca examined the bench.
Nothing.
The investigator checked beneath the soundboard.
Nothing.
Then Everett noticed a tiny scratch beneath the keyboard.
A mark shaped like a star.
Natalie used to draw stars everywhere.
On grocery lists.
Birthday cards.
Hotel stationery.
Everett crouched.
There was a narrow wood panel beneath the keyboard.
He pressed it.
Nothing happened.
He tried sliding it.
A small compartment opened.
Inside was a white envelope.
Everett stopped breathing.
His name was written across it.
In Natalie’s handwriting.
EVERETT — WHEN DAISY NEEDS THIS.
His hands started shaking.
Rebecca stepped away.
“Take your time.”
Everett opened it.
Inside were two things.
A letter.
And a small brass key.
He unfolded the letter.
Ev,
If you’re reading this, either Daisy has grown curious enough to tear apart my piano, or something has gone wrong.
He almost laughed.
Even dying, Natalie sounded like Natalie.
He kept reading.
I know you.
You will try to survive losing me by working.
You will tell yourself you’re protecting Daisy because the hotels are her future.
Please remember that Daisy does not need an empire as much as she needs a father who notices when she is quiet.
Everett stopped.
The words blurred.
Rebecca looked away respectfully.
He forced himself to continue.
There are documents in the safe-deposit box connected to this key.
Not because I distrust you.
Because I know grief changes people.
And because someday someone may see Daisy not as a little girl, but as the heir to something enormous.
Promise me nobody gets to make her earn her place in our family.
Everett lowered the letter.
He couldn’t breathe.
Natalie had written it three months before she died.
Before Meredith.
Before all of this.
Yet somehow she had understood the danger perfectly.
Rebecca touched his shoulder.
“There’s more.”
He nodded and kept reading.
The account is at Commonwealth Trust, Beacon Street. Rebecca knows enough to help if needed, though not the contents.
Everett looked at her.
Rebecca shook her head.
“Natalie asked me to witness the existence of a sealed estate instruction. I never knew where she put the key.”
Everett finished the letter.
One final line.
And Ev?
If Daisy still wants hot chocolate when it snows, let her use the blue flower mug.
Things are meant to be loved until they break.
He covered his face.
For a long moment, nobody spoke.
Then Everett folded the letter carefully.
“Take me to the bank.”
At Commonwealth Trust, the key matched a safe-deposit box registered through Natalie’s personal trust.
Rebecca had legal documentation showing Everett could access it as surviving trustee.
Inside were sealed estate papers.
A video drive.
Copies of Natalie’s personal journal.
And an amendment to Daisy’s trust.
Everett read it twice.
Natalie had placed thirty percent of her personal shares in Sloan Hospitality into an irrevocable trust for Daisy.
Everett had known about the trust.
What he hadn’t known was the protective provision attached to it.
No future spouse of Everett’s could gain control over Daisy’s shares, vote them, borrow against them, or benefit from them indirectly.
Not even through marriage.
Rebecca sat slowly.
“This explains something.”
Everett looked at her.
“What?”
“If Meredith believed marriage would eventually give her access to the trust, she was wrong.”
“Would she have known?”
“Not unless she saw this document.”
“The cedar box.”
Rebecca nodded.
“She may have believed Natalie kept the trust amendment there.”
Everett’s expression hardened.
“So she searched Natalie’s things.”
“And when she didn’t find the document, she may have started selling them.”
“To hide the search?”
“Or because she had another financial reason.”
That reason arrived less than an hour later.
The investigator called.
“Mr. Sloan, we found Charles Landon.”
“Where?”
“Logan Airport.”
Everett stood.
“He was leaving?”
“Trying to.”
“For where?”
“Zurich.”
Rebecca looked at him.
The investigator continued.
“Corporate security stopped him before boarding. He agreed to speak with us.”
“About Meredith?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
There was a pause.
“You’re going to want to hear this yourself.”
They met Charles in a conference room at Sloan Hospitality headquarters.
The man looked ten years older than the day before.
His tie was loose.
Hands trembling.
Everett sat across from him.
“Why did you block my daughter’s calls?”
Charles swallowed.
“I didn’t know what Meredith was doing to her.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Charles looked down.
“Meredith asked me to keep household issues away from you.”
“And you obeyed.”
“She said you were overwhelmed.”
“You worked for me.”
“I thought I was helping.”
Everett laughed bitterly.
“That phrase is getting popular.”
Charles closed his eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
“Why were you flying to Switzerland?”
Charles looked at Rebecca.
“I want a lawyer.”
“You should have one.”
Everett stood.
Then Charles spoke.
“She paid me.”
Everett froze.
“How much?”
“Two hundred thousand.”
“For what?”
“To give her access to your schedule.”
“My schedule?”
“And certain corporate credentials.”
Rebecca leaned forward.
“What credentials?”
“Document authorization.”
Everett felt cold.
Charles continued.
“She said she needed them for wedding planning and household restructuring.”
“You believed that?”
“No.”
Charles whispered it.
“I stopped believing it months ago.”
“But you kept taking money.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I was in debt.”
Everett stared at him.
Charles looked broken.
“I gave her access to the signature verification system. I helped create the second email account.”
Rebecca’s expression sharpened.
“That’s fraud.”
“I know.”
“What else?”
Charles swallowed.
“She kept asking about Daisy’s trust.”
Everett leaned forward.
“What exactly?”
“Whether marriage would make her Daisy’s legal guardian if anything happened to you.”
The room went silent.
Everett felt something primal move through him.
“What did you tell her?”
“That I didn’t know.”
“And then?”
“She asked about your life insurance.”
Everett stood so fast the chair moved backward.
Rebecca raised one hand.
“Everett.”
He stopped.
Charles looked terrified.
“She asked what would happen if you died before the wedding.”
Everett stared.
“Before?”
“She wanted to know the difference.”
Rebecca asked, “And after?”
Charles closed his eyes.
“After the wedding, she expected to become guardian of the household assets.”
Everett’s voice turned to ice.
“And Daisy?”
Charles barely whispered.
“She said boarding school would make things easier.”
Everett thought of the brochure.
DON’T CRY THERE.
Suddenly Meredith’s cruelty had a shape.
She wasn’t merely jealous of Natalie.
She wanted Natalie erased.
Daisy isolated.
Everett married.
And access to the Sloan name secured.
But there was one thing Meredith had never understood.
May you like
Natalie had seen people like her coming years before.
And she had protected Daisy from beyond the grave.
