Chapter 2
Nobody left the ballroom.
Massimo closed the doors himself.
That was enough.
Men stopped moving.
Women gathered the children.
Bodyguards appeared at every exit without anyone needing to ask.
Grant climbed slowly from the broken sleigh.
Blood touched the corner of his mouth.
“This is ridiculous.”
My father ignored him.
He crouched in front of Josephine.
“Sweetheart.”
She hugged the damaged reindeer tighter.
“What did Daddy ask Mommy about?”
“The red key.”
“What did he say?”
Josephine looked at me.
I wanted to disappear.
Instead, I nodded.
She thought carefully.
“Daddy asks where Grandma put it.”
My mother had been dead eleven years.
The room felt suddenly colder.
I looked at my father.
“Dad?”
Massimo stood.
“The old estate has an emergency route beneath the east chapel.”
I'd grown up in this house.
I knew every staircase.
Every servant corridor.
Every place I had hidden as a child.
I had never heard of it.
“What kind of route?”
“A tunnel.”
Grant looked at the floor.
Barely.
Enough.
Massimo saw it.
“So you know.”
Grant laughed.
“I know nothing about a tunnel.”
My father continued as if he hadn't spoken.
“It begins under the east wing and exits beyond the south wall.”
“How?”
“With an inner gate.”
“And the red key?”
Massimo looked toward the Christmas tree.
“Your mother kept it.”
Something in my stomach twisted.
I remembered Grant asking questions.
Not direct ones.
Never direct.
Did Mom keep old jewelry?
Did she have a private room?
Did she hide things from Dad?
Which side of the house did she use most?
I thought he was curious about my childhood.
He hadn't been curious.
He'd been searching.
I looked at him.
“You weren't asking about Mom because you cared.”
He wiped blood from his mouth.
“Don't start.”
“You wanted the key.”
“I don't know what they're talking about.”
Josephine frowned at him.
Then whispered:
“Daddy says that when he's lying.”
One of the capos coughed into his fist.
I almost laughed.
Grant didn't.
Robert stepped forward.
“This is nonsense.”
Massimo looked at him.
“You gave my granddaughter that reindeer.”
“Yes.”
“Where did you get it?”
“Trash.”
“No.”
Something in my father's voice made Robert stop.
Massimo lifted the toy from Josephine's arms.
Turned it over.
Underneath the saddle were faded initials.
I.C.
Mine.
I stared.
“No.”
Memory hit me.
Christmas morning.
My mother's perfume.
My father laughing as I rocked too fast.
That reindeer had been mine.
“Where was it?” I asked.
Robert said nothing.
Massimo answered.
“Your mother's storage room.”
A room that had remained locked since her death.
I turned toward Grant.
His face had gone completely blank.
Massimo shook the reindeer.
Something rattled inside.
He removed a small blade from his pocket.
One runner had been cut open and screwed back together.
My father removed the screws.
A thin piece of red-painted metal fell onto the table.
Not a key.
A broken tag.
Massimo picked it up.
Stamped into the back was a symbol.
A crown pierced by a black line.
Three older capos immediately went still.
I looked at my father.
“What?”
He stared at Grant.
“This belonged to the tunnel gate.”
Grant said nothing.
Massimo turned the tag over.
“The gate hasn't been opened in eleven years.”
Robert swallowed.
My father noticed.
Then smiled without humor.
“No.”
May you like
He looked slowly around the ballroom.
“Someone has already taken them down there.”
