Chapter 4 - The Brother Who Carried the Silver Key
Celeste Bellandi had never told Adrien she had a brother.
Now that brother had appeared in the same restaurant where the triplets finally spoke.
Samuel Reed sat across from investigators, his face pale.
He'd been questioned after attempting to flee the dining room.
The silver key lay inside an evidence bag.
When Adrien entered, Samuel looked toward the floor.
"Where's Celeste?" Adrien demanded.
The investigator raised a hand.
"Mr. Bellandi, let us handle the interview."
Adrien stopped.
Then stepped backward.
He'd spent most of his life believing his name entitled him to answers.
Now he was learning that forcing people to speak rarely produced the truth.
Samuel's attorney sat beside him.
After consulting privately, Samuel agreed to provide a statement.
"Victor hired me years ago," he began.
"Why?" the investigator asked.
"Because Celeste wanted to stay connected to her family."
Adrien frowned.
"She told me she was an only child."
Samuel looked up.
"Because Victor told her you wouldn't marry someone with my history."
"What history?"
Samuel swallowed.
"I served time for a financial crime I didn't commit."
Adrien stared.
"Victor arranged it?"
Samuel nodded.
"He promised to clear my name if I kept working for him."
The room went silent.
Then Samuel explained the night Celeste disappeared.
Victor had discovered she'd been reviewing suspicious transfers from the Bellandi family's charitable foundation.
She confronted him.
He threatened her.
And when she tried to tell Adrien, someone intercepted her message.
Samuel said he'd been ordered to bring Celeste to the basement room.
"I didn't know what he planned," he whispered.
Adrien's hands tightened.
"But you helped him."
Samuel lowered his head.
"Yes."
For a moment, the room felt unbearable.
Then the investigator asked:
"What happened to Celeste afterward?"
Samuel's voice broke.
"Victor moved her."
"Where?"
"I don't know."
Adrien stared.
"You don't know?"
Samuel shook his head.
"He stopped telling me anything after she escaped the first place he took her."
Adrien went still.
"She escaped?"
Samuel nodded.
"Once."
Hope and terror collided inside Adrien.
"Then why didn't she come home?"
Samuel began crying.
"Because Victor threatened the children."
Silence.
Then Samuel explained the tapping game.
Celeste had used it with the triplets since they were babies.
Three slow taps.
Two quick.
A secret family signal meaning:
I'm here. You're safe.
The night Victor took her away, she'd tapped the same rhythm against the basement door.
The children had answered.
But when Victor discovered the game, he punished anyone who used it.
Evelyn listened to the recorded interview later, with legal permission.
Tears streamed down her face.
The children hadn't forgotten how to speak.
They'd learned that silence could keep them safe.
Then Samuel revealed something even worse.
Victor hadn't taken Celeste only to silence her investigation.
He'd needed her signature.
"On what?" the investigator asked.
Samuel swallowed.
"A trust agreement."
Adrien frowned.
"What trust?"
Samuel looked toward him.
"The one your father established before he died."
Adrien went still.
"My father left everything to me."
Samuel shook his head.
"Not everything."
Then he whispered:
May you like
"The Bellandi family's protected estate belongs to the triplets."
And Victor had spent two years trying to take it.
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