Chapter 7 - Sugar, Silence, and Secrets
The investigators found Locker 214 empty.
Almost.
Inside sat one object.
A burned recipe card.
Vincent’s message.
Roman took the news badly.
He didn’t shout.
Roman rarely shouted.
He simply became quiet enough that everyone around him began speaking more carefully.
Lily reacted differently.
She went into Honey & Rye’s kitchen and baked.
No recipe.
No instructions.
She mixed flour, brown sugar, butter and orange peel with furious concentration.
I stood beside her.
Roman stayed outside because I told him to.
For once, he obeyed.
After ten minutes Lily said, “Mom was scared the last week.”
I kept measuring chocolate.
“What made you realize?”
“She started checking the locks.”
I didn’t interrupt.
“She changed the code on her phone. She stopped letting me walk home.”
Lily rolled dough.
“One night I heard her arguing with Vincent.”
My hands stopped.
“What did he say?”
“I don’t remember everything.”
“That’s okay.”
“He said she had no idea what she was interfering with.”
“And your mom?”
“She told him Roman would destroy him.”
Lily’s voice shook.
“He laughed.”
I looked toward the glass wall.
Roman stood beyond it.
He couldn’t hear.
“What else?”
“Vincent said Roman trusted him more than he trusted anyone.”
That hurt even secondhand.
“And then?”
“Mom saw me.”
Lily swallowed.
“She stopped talking.”
“Did she explain later?”
“No.”
Lily cut the dough into uneven circles.
“She hugged me. Really tight.”
My chest ached.
“That was the last week?”
She nodded.
“Three days before she died.”
I waited.
Then Lily whispered, “There’s something else.”
“What?”
“The night she died, she called me.”
I stared.
“Roman said her phone disappeared.”
“She called from another number.”
“What did she say?”
“Only one sentence.”
Lily’s hands trembled.
I covered them gently.
“What sentence?”
Her eyes filled.
“Remember where we learned to make honey cake.”
Honey & Rye.
I looked around.
“Elena was telling you something was here.”
“I think so.”
“Why didn’t you tell Roman?”
“I tried.”
“When?”
“The night after the funeral.”
“What happened?”
“Vincent was with him.”
I understood.
“You got scared.”
Lily nodded.
“Then three months ago Vincent came into my room.”
“The recipe box.”
“Yes.”
“Why wait five months?”
“I don’t know.”
Maybe Vincent hadn’t known the box existed.
Maybe he learned later.
Maybe Lily had said something accidentally.
“Do you remember anything around that time?”
She thought.
“Sophia found Mom’s old notebook.”
My pulse quickened.
“What notebook?”
“Black leather. Mom carried it everywhere.”
I remembered it.
The woman by the window.
The notebook beside her coffee.
“Where is it?”
“Sophia said she gave it to Roman.”
I turned toward the glass.
Roman saw my expression.
Two minutes later he entered.
“What?”
“Where’s Elena’s black notebook?”
He frowned.
“What notebook?”
Lily stared.
“Aunt Sophia gave it to you.”
“No.”
“She said she did.”
Roman pulled out his phone.
Sophia arrived thirty minutes later.
She looked confused.
“I never gave Roman Elena’s notebook.”
Lily went pale.
“But you told me—”
Sophia stopped.
“No, darling. Vincent took it.”
Roman’s face hardened.
“What?”
“After the funeral. He said you asked him to collect Elena’s business documents.”
“I never asked him.”
Sophia sat slowly.
“Oh, God.”
Roman walked to the window.
He seemed to need physical distance from the betrayal.
Vincent had been inside everything.
His business.
His house.
His grief.
Perhaps Elena’s death.
I followed.
“You couldn’t have known.”
Roman laughed once without humor.
“I should have.”
“You trusted him.”
“Exactly.”
“Trusting someone isn’t evidence you deserved betrayal.”
He turned.
Our faces were closer than expected.
For a second the rest of the bakery disappeared.
His gaze dropped toward my mouth.
Mine probably did the same.
Then Lily called, “Please don’t kiss in front of me.”
We jumped apart.
Sophia laughed so loudly a customer outside looked through the window.
“We weren’t—” I began.
Lily raised one eyebrow.
Roman looked unusually uncomfortable.
I enjoyed it.
Later that afternoon we searched Honey & Rye again.
This time Lily stood at the window table.
“Mom said remember where we learned honey cake.”
“You learned here?”
Lily nodded.
“Not in the kitchen. You wouldn’t let customers back there then.”
“That sounds like me.”
“We sat here.”
She tapped the table.
I crouched.
Solid wood.
No drawers.
Nothing underneath.
Roman inspected the bench.
Then Lily whispered, “She dropped her ring once.”
“What?”
“It fell between the wall and the bench. You removed the panel.”
I remembered.
I fetched a screwdriver.
Behind the wooden panel was a narrow cavity.
Inside sat a sealed envelope.
Roman’s name was written across the front.
His hand trembled when he took it.
He didn’t open it.
“Why not?” Lily asked.
Roman looked at her.
“Because it belongs to all of us.”
That was new.
We sat together.
Roman opened the envelope.
Inside was a photograph.
Elena.
Vincent.
And another man none of us recognized.
Behind them stood a warehouse.
North Harbor.
On the back Elena had written:
Roman, if you ever see this, Vincent knows I found the second books. Don’t trust anyone who tells you the missing money is the real secret. Follow Mercer.
Below that:
Protect Lily. But don’t turn her life into a prison trying to keep her safe.
Roman read the final sentence twice.
Then closed his eyes.
Lily began crying.
He pulled her into his arms.
For several minutes no one spoke.
Then I picked up the photograph.
“Who’s Mercer?”
Roman looked at me.
“I have no idea.”
Sophia did.
Her face had gone white.
“I do.”
We turned.
Sophia whispered, “Thomas Mercer worked for Roman’s father.”
“What did he do?”
May you like
She looked at Roman.
“He made problems disappear.”
