The Dollhouse Secret
Chapter 06 - The Dollhouse Secret
The recording ended before Vivian answered. The rest of the files required a password, and Nora’s letter offered only one clue: Ask Grace what her mother called the first house.
Adrian returned to the hotel while the city was waking. Grace sat at the breakfast table drawing a yellow cottage beneath an enormous blue sky. When he asked about the clue, she smiled for the first time since his return.
“Mom called it Sunflower,” she said. “The first house you designed for her.”
SUNFLOWER unlocked the drive.
Dozens of spreadsheets appeared, documenting payments from Hale Development and Grace’s trust to companies that existed only on paper. Julian had used inflated construction invoices to steal millions. Vivian had helped move the money through charities and luxury property accounts. Worse, a draft affidavit declared Adrian mentally unfit due to stress and medication. If filed with the forged trust amendment, it could give Vivian temporary control of both the company and Grace’s inheritance.
The plan depended on Grace being out of the country and Adrian being publicly discredited.
Grace had found the flash drive weeks earlier after Julian dropped it beside the dollhouse during a private meeting. She gave it to Nora, who copied the files and returned the original before anyone noticed. Nora hid the copy in the locker, but Vivian discovered that Grace knew more than she admitted. The punishments began soon afterward.
Adrian took Grace’s hands in his. “You were very brave, but you should never have had to be.”
“Are you mad at me for taking the key?”
“I’m mad at myself for not seeing what was happening.”
Grace looked down at her drawing. “Vivian said you would choose the company because grown-ups always choose money.”
Adrian closed the laptop. He canceled every meeting on his calendar and instructed the board to suspend all transfers approved by Julian. But Maya warned that moving too quickly could cause Vivian to destroy evidence or claim Adrian had manipulated the records.
They needed the original ledger and a recorded confession.
Adrian decided to return to the mansion and pretend he believed Vivian’s explanation. Grace would remain safely with Maya and Elena, whose family had agreed to shelter her. Before he left, Grace handed him the drawing of Sunflower.
May you like
On the back she had written, “Come home again.”
Adrian placed it inside his suit pocket, directly over his heart, and walked back into the house where his wife was waiting.
