Chapter 4 - MIA’S SECRET DRAWING
Mia liked drawing under my desk.
Apparently nobody had informed me this was optional.
One afternoon while I signed contracts, she placed a picture on my papers.
“That’s Mommy.”
Stick woman.
“That’s me.”
Smaller stick person.
“And that?”
A tall figure.
“Bad lady.”
Vivien.
Then Mia had drawn another man.
“Who is he?”
“The whisper man.”
My pen stopped.
“What whisper man?”
“He comes when you go bye-bye.”
I crouched.
“Where?”
Mia pointed toward garden.
“Pretty room.”
The conservatory.
“What does he look like?”
She thought.
“Hair like Rocco.”
Gray?
“Does he talk to Vivien?”
Mia nodded.
Then whispered:
“She says find the key.”
My pulse changed.
“What key?”
Mia shrugged.
“Mommy says don’t listen.”
But Mia listened.
Children always did.
That evening, I searched Vivien’s rooms.
Nothing obvious.
Until I found a photograph tucked behind a jewelry case.
My father.
Twenty-five years younger.
Standing outside Duca Harbor offices.
Beside him—
Vivien’s father.
And my uncle Alessandro.
On the back:
May you like
THE THREE KEYS CONTROL EVERYTHING.
I had never heard of three keys.
