Chapter 1 - THE KEY IN HER WHITE DRESS.
Grant fell onto the marble, stunned but unharmed, while Vanessa stood between him and six-year-old Lily.
“The girl you tried to humiliate is the only person who knows what you did to her mother.”
Lily pointed toward the gilded mirror.
“He hid Mommy’s picture behind it.”
Eleanor ordered the guests to remain where they were. A steward removed the mirror and found a narrow wall safe. Grant insisted it contained private family papers.
Vanessa answered, “Private is the word rich families use when evidence belongs to someone poorer.”
Inside lay a photograph of Lily’s mother, Anna Brooks, wearing the Ashford family ring beside Grant. A notarized document beneath it identified Anna—not Grant—as controlling trustee of the estate.
Grant claimed the signature was forged.
Then Lily took a small brass key from her white dress pocket.
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“Mommy said this opens the room where he kept her voice.”
The key fit a locked drawer beneath Eleanor’s chair.
