Chapter 3 - The Singer’s Family Heirloom
Victoria refused to answer for almost a minute.
Then she sat down.
“The brooch was never supposed to leave my father’s safe.”
Alexander stared at her.
“You stole it?”
“I borrowed it.”
Maya nearly laughed.
“You borrowed evidence connected to a missing woman?”
Victoria snapped, “I didn’t know it was evidence.”
Elena said, “You knew whose it was.”
Victoria looked at her.
“Yes.”
Alexander’s face hardened.
“How?”
“I found it when I was seventeen.”
Twenty-one years earlier.
“My father kept a private cabinet at our Connecticut house. I was looking for jewelry for a school recital.”
“You broke into a locked cabinet?”
“I knew where he hid the key.”
“What did you find?”
“The brooch. Newspaper clippings about Celeste. An old gala program.”
Alexander folded his arms.
“And you never asked?”
“I did.”
“What did Sebastian say?”
“That Celeste had given it to him.”
Elena shook her head.
“She would never have done that.”
Victoria ignored her.
“My father told me they had been close.”
Alexander’s eyes narrowed.
“Close how?”
“He implied they had an affair.”
Elena stood so abruptly the chair scraped.
“That is a lie.”
Victoria shrugged.
“I was seventeen.”
“You’re thirty-eight now.”
Victoria looked away.
Alexander said, “When did you stop believing him?”
Silence.
“Victoria.”
“When I was twenty-six.”
“What happened?”
“I needed money for my first European tour.”
Maya stared.
“Your family is rich.”
“My father’s money was never mine.”
That sounded less ridiculous than Maya expected.
Victoria continued.
“He controlled everything. Voice coaches. Agents. Apartments. Contracts.”
Elena recognized the shape of it.
Money used as a leash.
“I threatened to sell the brooch.”
Alexander’s expression changed.
“You blackmailed him.”
Victoria’s mouth tightened.
“I reminded him I had something valuable.”
“How much did he give you?”
“Three million dollars through a trust.”
Maya whispered, “Jesus.”
Victoria glared.
“That financed the tour that made my career.”
Alexander paced toward the mirror.
“So your career began with money you extracted from your father by threatening to expose my mother’s jewelry.”
“I didn’t know she was dead.”
“But you suspected something.”
“Yes.”
Alexander turned.
“And tonight?”
Victoria looked at the shattered brooch.
“I wore it because my father told me not to.”
Elena stared.
“That’s why?”
Victoria gave a small bitter smile.
“Everyone thinks I’m obedient because I know how to smile while people photograph me.”
Maya said, “Then why panic when Elena touched it?”
“Because I recognized her.”
Elena froze.
“You remembered me?”
“My father kept a photograph.”
Alexander stepped closer.
“What photograph?”
“An employee ID. Elena Navarro, wardrobe department.”
Elena’s stomach turned.
“Why?”
Victoria’s voice dropped.
“Because her name was written on the back.”
“What did it say?”
Victoria looked at Elena.
“‘Paid. Never contact.’”
The humiliation returned with full force.
Alexander’s disappointment deepened.
Elena gripped the table.
“Who wrote it?”
“I don’t know.”
“You know your father’s handwriting.”
Victoria did not answer.
Alexander’s phone buzzed.
His general counsel.
He read the message.
ORPHEUS PROPERTIES LLC formed Delaware, 1994. Early manager: Marlowe Arts Management. Later beneficial ownership unclear. Acquired St. Aurelia east annex, 1996.
Alexander looked up.
“How much did Orpheus pay for the annex?”
Another message arrived.
$1.2 million.
Alexander’s jaw tightened.
“What is it worth now?” Maya asked.
He typed.
The reply came moments later.
Estimated $186 million.
Victoria stared.
“No.”
Alexander showed her.
“The company linked to your father bought St. Aurelia property three weeks after my mother disappeared.”
Elena whispered, “Celeste said the property was part of it.”
Alexander called his counsel.
“Pull the deed. Board authorizations. Appraisals. Every document.”
He ended the call.
Victoria stood.
“I’m going onstage.”
Maya looked at the clock.
“You’re twenty-two minutes late.”
“The gala can wait.”
Alexander almost smiled.
Victoria headed toward the door.
Elena said, “Your father didn’t give you that brooch.”
Victoria stopped.
“He took it from Celeste.”
Victoria’s shoulders stiffened.
“How would you know?”
“Because I saw it on Sebastian’s desk the next morning.”
Victoria turned.
Elena continued.
“The police were already searching for her.”
Alexander’s eyes hardened.
“He possessed my mother’s missing jewelry during the investigation?”
“Yes.”
“And kept it thirty years.”
“Yes.”
Victoria whispered, “Why would he do that?”
Elena answered softly.
“Maybe because he thought nobody would ever question him.”
Victoria looked down at the pieces.
For the first time, she appeared less like an antagonist and more like a daughter discovering the architecture of her own life had been built by someone else.
Then a security guard knocked.
“Ms. Marlowe?”
Maya opened the door.
“Your father is downstairs.”
Victoria’s face changed.
Alexander looked at Elena.
“Sebastian came here?”
The guard nodded.
“He says he needs to speak with his daughter privately.”
Elena felt thirty years collapse.
Sebastian Marlowe was not hiding behind lawyers.
He was coming directly toward them.
Then the guard added, “He also specifically asked whether Ms. Navarro was still in the building.”
Alexander’s expression went cold.
“Tell him she is.”
Elena looked at him.
May you like
Alexander continued.
“And tell him I am too.”
