Chapter 9
The key fit nothing in Eleanor’s old office.
Maya tried every drawer, cabinet, and antique lock she could remember.
Nothing.
Julian suggested safe-deposit boxes.
Samuel suggested storage facilities.
Anthony suggested the possibility that the key did not belong in Chicago at all.
Vanessa knew.
Maya became certain after showing her only a photograph of the key.
Vanessa’s pupils widened.
Then she pretended confusion.
“What is that?”
“You tell me.”
“A key.”
“To what?”
“I have no idea.”
Maya sat across from her in a private dining room at one of Julian’s restaurants.
No Richard.
No capos.
Just Maya, Vanessa, and two attorneys waiting outside.
“You loved him?”
Vanessa’s expression hardened.
“This isn’t about Richard.”
“It is for me.”
Vanessa looked away.
Maya continued.
“How long?”
“Seven years.”
Maya went still.
She had met Richard eight years ago.
Married him six years ago.
Vanessa had been there almost the entire time.
“Did he ever plan to leave me?”
Vanessa laughed quietly.
“You still think you were the extra person.”
Maya looked at her.
Vanessa immediately regretted the sentence.
“What does that mean?”
“Nothing.”
“No. Explain it.”
Vanessa pushed back from the table.
Maya remained seated.
“You said I was the extra person.”
“I said you think you were.”
“Which means Richard needed me.”
Vanessa did not answer.
Maya’s stomach tightened.
Not because of the affair anymore.
Because the marriage had begun to look transactional.
“The ring.”
Vanessa’s eyes shifted.
Maya understood.
“He knew Eleanor gave it to me before he proposed.”
Still silence.
Maya whispered, “That’s why.”
Vanessa looked down.
The truth arrived without ceremony.
Richard had not accidentally married a woman connected to Eleanor.
He had married Maya because she was connected to Eleanor.
The birthday attack had not created the betrayal.
It had exposed a betrayal that started before their wedding.
Maya sat completely still.
“Did Richard ever love me?”
Vanessa’s expression softened unexpectedly.
“Yes.”
Maya almost wished she had said no.
Vanessa continued.
“That was the problem.”
“What?”
“He was supposed to find what Eleanor gave you. Then leave.”
Maya felt sick.
“But you got pregnant.”
“Lily.”
Vanessa nodded.
“He changed.”
“For how long?”
“A while.”
“And then?”
“His father died. Richard found Victor’s old notes. He started looking again.”
Maya looked at the brass key.
“What does it open?”
Vanessa shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
“You recognized it.”
“I’ve seen the drawing.”
“Where?”
“In Victor’s notes.”
Maya leaned forward.
“What did he call it?”
Vanessa hesitated.
Then finally answered.
“The second door.”
Maya remembered Eleanor’s final weeks.
One strange sentence suddenly returned.
The old woman had once told her:
Never trust the first thing that opens.
May you like
Maya had assumed Eleanor was talking about people.
Now she was no longer sure.
