The Blue Salon
Chapter 04 - The Blue Salon
The blue salon had been locked since Eleanor’s husband died twelve years earlier. Adrian said the room held nothing but old furniture and grief. Eleanor’s message suggested otherwise.
June found the key hidden in a sewing box that had belonged to Adrian’s grandmother. She, Claire, and Lily entered through the service corridor while Adrian met lawyers downstairs.
Dust covered the piano. Blue velvet curtains blocked the morning light. On the far wall hung a portrait of Eleanor in her thirties, wearing the same tortoiseshell glasses she had later redesigned as smart frames.
Lily noticed the portrait was crooked.
Behind it was a narrow safe.
Claire tried Eleanor’s birthday, the company’s founding date, and Adrian’s birthday. None worked. Lily studied the keypad and whispered, “Try the day she hired Grandma.”
June laughed despite the fear. Eleanor remembered every employee anniversary. June had begun work on April 17.
The safe opened.
Inside were original Northstar contracts, a flash drive, and a handwritten letter addressed to Claire. Eleanor wrote that she had initially believed rumors portraying Claire as a fortune hunter. After reviewing the company’s accounts, she realized those rumors had begun inside Adrian’s office whenever Claire asked questions.
The contracts showed that Adrian had routed clinic funds through consulting companies controlled by his college friend, Miles Rowan. The money financed private investments and covered losses from a failed luxury development.
A second document was more shocking.
Eleanor had prepared a new succession plan. Instead of transferring her voting shares directly to Adrian, she intended to place them in an employee and patient trust until the fraud investigation ended.
The plan would take effect at midnight on her birthday—unless Eleanor died or was declared mentally incapable first.
June sat heavily on the piano bench. “He wasn’t waiting to inherit. He was racing the clock.”
Footsteps sounded in the corridor.
Claire shut the safe and slipped the flash drive into Lily’s apron pocket. The door opened before they could leave.
Miles Rowan entered with two private security guards.
“You shouldn’t be in here,” he said.
“Neither should you,” Claire replied.
Miles smiled. “Mr. Whitmore asked me to secure his mother’s confidential property.”
The guards moved forward. June stepped in front of Lily while Claire held up her phone.
“This call is live with Detective Morales,” she lied.
Miles hesitated.
That single second was enough. Lily darted beneath the piano, through a narrow door once used by musicians, and into the service passage.
She ran with the flash drive pressed against her heart.
May you like
Behind her, Miles shouted for the guards to stop the child.
For the second time in one day, the smallest witness in the house became the person carrying its biggest secret.
