Chapter 2 - THE SECRET BENEATH THE SILVER TRAY
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For several seconds, nobody moved.
Margaret stood between me and the staircase, her face drained of color. Dorian remained behind her, his expression transformed from anger into something far more dangerous.
Fear.
"Finish what you were saying," I told Margaret.
Dorian stepped forward.
"Audra, she's confused. She's been working too many hours."
Margaret shook her head.
"No, sir. I've kept quiet long enough."
The old housekeeper had worked for the Kincaid family for twenty-three years. She had watched Dorian grow from an ambitious young man into a feared crime boss. She had also helped me through the darkest year of my life, when a miscarriage had left me unable to enter the nursery we'd prepared.
If Margaret was willing to defy Dorian, the truth had to be terrible.
"What did he give Blythe?" I asked.
Margaret swallowed.
"Your mother's study. The private room he promised would always remain yours."
I stared at her.
My mother's study wasn't technically in the mansion when she died. It was a small library in her Rhode Island home, filled with books, handwritten recipes, and photographs. After our marriage, Dorian had purchased the property and transferred several of its contents to our estate.
He had told me the study was being restored.
"You gave her my mother's things?" I asked Dorian.
He rubbed a hand across his jaw.
"Some furniture. Nothing important."
Margaret made a strangled sound.
"He gave her the study key. She has been going through your mother's files for months."
The room seemed to tilt.
"My mother's files?"
Dorian's silence answered before his mouth did.
I remembered a blue leather folder that had disappeared after my mother's funeral. It contained correspondence, financial papers, and several documents she had insisted I keep safe.
I'd searched everywhere.
Dorian had told me the movers must have misplaced it.
"Blythe has been searching for something," Margaret continued. "I saw her taking papers into the east office. She said you had authorized it."
I turned toward the staircase.
"Where is she now?"
"Upstairs," Dorian answered sharply. "And you're not going anywhere near her."
I almost laughed.
Seventeen years ago, that voice had made me feel protected. Now it sounded like a locked door.
"Move."
"No."
I raised my chin.
"Then call your men. Tell them to explain to the entire household why the woman you're sleeping with has been searching through my dead mother's belongings."
His eyes narrowed.
For the first time that afternoon, he looked uncertain.
Margaret reached into her apron pocket and pulled out a small brass key.
"I kept this because I was afraid she'd destroy what was inside."
She placed it in my palm.
"The old study has a hidden drawer, Mrs. Kincaid. Your mother showed me where it was years ago."
Dorian went completely still.
I felt the cold metal against my skin.
"What is in the drawer?"
Margaret's voice dropped.
"A letter addressed to you. Your mother made me promise that if anyone ever tried to take the study away from you, I would make sure you received it."
Dorian's face turned pale.
"That drawer was empty," he said.
Margaret looked directly at him.
"Only because you never found the second compartment."
I closed my fingers around the key.
Then I walked past my husband, climbed the stairs, and headed toward the east wing.
May you like
For the first time in seventeen years, I wasn't afraid of what I might discover.
I was afraid of what Dorian already knew.
