Chapter 5 - The Letter Daniel Burned.
Natalie found Lucas beneath the grand piano in the music room.
He had pulled his knees to his chest and was staring at the pedals.
She sat on the rug without asking him to come out.
For several minutes, neither of them spoke.
Finally, Lucas whispered from the shadows.
“Is Claire my mom?”
“Yes.”
“Dad never says Claire.”
Natalie looked toward the doorway.
Daniel had not followed.
“Sometimes adults stop saying names because the names hurt.”
“Does my name hurt?”
The question came so quickly that Natalie almost missed its meaning.
She leaned closer to the piano.
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“Because when your dad says Lucas, he sounds scared.”
The boy shifted.
“That’s not love.”
“It can be, when someone doesn’t know how to show love without trying to control everything around it.”
Lucas thought about that.
Then he crawled out.
His face was tired.
“I don’t like control.”
Natalie smiled sadly.
“I noticed.”
That afternoon, Daniel stayed behind the closed doors of his study.
Men came and went.
Phones rang.
Evelyn instructed the kitchen staff to avoid the west corridor.
Natalie watched the mansion tighten around itself.
At seven, Lucas fell asleep on the sofa with his hand still wrapped around Natalie's sleeve.
Daniel appeared in the doorway.
He looked older than he had that morning.
“Put him to bed.”
Natalie lifted Lucas carefully.
The child stirred.
“Don’t go.”
“I’m taking you upstairs.”
His eyes closed again.
After Natalie settled him under the blankets, she returned to the hall.
Daniel was waiting.
“Come with me.”
He led her downstairs, past the study, into a small room near the library that smelled faintly of smoke.
A fireplace burned low.
On the desk sat a metal bowl filled with blackened paper.
Natalie stared at it.
Daniel shut the door.
“You read the last line.”
“Yes.”
“She wrote that letter the night she left.”
“Why was it locked in her room?”
Daniel looked toward the fire.
“I thought I had destroyed every letter.”
Natalie felt anger rise so suddenly that she had to steady her voice.
“You burned letters from Lucas's mother?”
“They were dangerous.”
“To whom?”
“To her.”
Natalie waited.
Daniel rubbed one hand over his face.
“Two years ago, someone used my family to get to me.”
He did not describe the details.
He did not need to.
“Claire wanted me to walk away from everything.”
“Your business.”
“My entire life.”
“And did you?”
Daniel looked at her.
“No.”
The answer was brutally simple.
Natalie understood more than she wanted to.
“So she left.”
“No.”
Daniel's voice changed.
“I sent her away.”
Natalie stared at him.
“For protection.”
“Did she agree?”
“At first.”
“And after that?”
Daniel looked at the bowl of ash.
“She wanted to come home.”
Natalie's chest tightened.
“You stopped her?”
“I stopped contact.”
“From her son?”
“I was told every message could expose where she was.”
“Who told you?”
Daniel did not answer immediately.
That hesitation mattered.
A soft sound came from the hallway.
Both of them turned.
Evelyn stood outside the partly open door.
Her face revealed nothing.
“Mr. Brooks, Victor Hale is here.”
Daniel straightened.
Natalie had heard the name before.
Victor was Daniel's oldest adviser and the one person employees treated with more caution than Daniel himself.
Evelyn looked at the metal bowl.
Then at Natalie.
“There is also something you should know.”
Daniel frowned.
“What?”
Evelyn lowered her voice.
“The letter under the red door was not there yesterday.”
Natalie felt the room go cold.
Daniel stared at her.
May you like
Evelyn continued.
“Someone put it there last night.”
