Maria lowered her gaze.
“That’s the problem.”
“What problem?”
“They’re gone.”
“When?”
“I returned six months ago.”
“How long after your first visit?”
“Two weeks.”
“And the room was empty.”
“Yes.”
“The cabinet?”
“Gone.”
“Did anyone know you’d gone there?”
“I don’t think so.”
“That usually means yes.”
She looked annoyed.
“You don’t know everything.”
“No,” I said. “But I understand secrets.”
She held my gaze.
“So do I.”
For reasons I couldn’t explain, that response almost made me smile.
Almost.
I studied the photograph once more.
Me. Vincent. Gabriel. My father’s driver.
A night missing from my memory.
“Why did you apply for a job here?”
Maria’s expression softened into something resembling shame.
“Because I thought the answers might be inside your house.”
The truth settled quietly between us.
She hadn’t come for money. She hadn’t come seeking favors.
She had come looking for information.
“You searched my home?”
“No.”
I lifted an eyebrow.
“I intended to.”
“But?”
“But then I began working here.”
“That generally happens after someone gets hired.”
“That’s not what I mean.”
I waited.
She glanced toward the hallway where Sofia had disappeared.
“Everything became real.”
I didn’t understand.
She must have noticed from my expression.
“Before I came here, you were just a name. A photograph. A rumor connected to Gabriel’s past.”
Her gaze returned to mine.
“Then I met you.”
“That convinced you not to search?”
“It made the decision harder.”
“Why?”
“Because I couldn’t decide what to believe anymore.”
For a moment, neither of us moved.
Then I asked, “What did you believe before?”
“That you might have been connected to Gabriel’s death.”
The words should have made me angry.
They didn’t.
They only left me tired.
“And now?”
Maria’s voice dropped lower.
“Now I think you may not even understand why Gabriel was afraid.”
That unsettled me more than any accusation could have.
Because I suspected she might be right.
Sofia was asleep when Maria carried her into the small suite near the east wing.
I stood near the bottom of the staircase and watched them disappear.
The house became silent again.
It had always been silent.
Until that night, I had confused silence with peace.
I entered my office and locked the door.
Then I opened a drawer beneath my desk.
Inside rested an old leather notebook that once belonged to my father.
