"Where in Grayhaven?"

Damian looked at him.

"The library."

Victor frowned.

"I've seen no music box."

"Because it isn't displayed."

Damian's voice weakened.

"It's behind the fireplace panel."

Dr.

Shaw stepped forward.

"You are returning to bed."

Damian gave her a cold glance.

"You poisoned me."

"Yes."

"And now you're ordering me around."

"Also yes."

Marcus almost laughed.

Dr.

Shaw pointed toward the room.

"If you collapse, I will personally sedate you."

Damian looked at me.

"We need the music box."

"Why?"

"Because Daniil carried that key for a reason."

Victor said, "Grayhaven will be occupied."

Marcus nodded.

"Father's people."

I looked at them.

Then at Lila sleeping peacefully in the waiting room.

"No."

Damian watched me.

"We don't go back."

Victor frowned.

"Emily."

"We don't risk everyone for a box."

"But Daniel hid the key."

"And Daniel spent his life trying to escape your family."

My voice trembled.

"If he wanted something found, maybe he intended it for Lila."

Damian nodded slowly.

"Which is exactly why Father wants her."

I hated that he was right.

Marcus rubbed his chin.

"We don't need to enter the house."

Everyone looked at him.

"The library has a service dumbwaiter."

Victor blinked.

"You are joking."

"I never joke about architecture."

Damian sighed.

"Explain."

Marcus described an old mechanical lift running from the library to a basement storage room.

The basement could be entered through an exterior coal door hidden behind the greenhouse.

"If Father occupies the mansion, his attention will be upstairs."

Victor nodded.

"I can get in."

Damian said, "No."

Victor looked at him.

"You don't trust me."

"Correct."

"I know the house."

"So does Marcus."

Marcus shook his head.

"I have to stay here."

He glanced at Lila.

"Someone needs to protect them."

I looked toward Victor.

"You go."

Damian stared at me.

"Emily."

"I don't trust him either."

I met Victor's eyes.

"But he owes Daniel."

Victor gave a single nod.

"I do."

He left before dawn.

Those two hours were among the longest of my life.

Damian slept under Dr.

Shaw's supervision.

Lila woke and ate crackers from a vending machine.

She asked for her rabbit.

I realized we had left it in the van.

Marcus retrieved it.

At 4:17 a.m., Victor returned.

His suit was soaked.

There was blood on his forehead from a shallow cut.

But he carried a small wooden box.

Damian sat upright.

Victor placed it on the table.

The box was dark walnut carved with tiny stars.

I inserted the brass key.

It turned.

The lid opened.

A delicate mechanical melody began.

Damian closed his eyes.

"Our mother's song."

Inside the box was a folded letter.

And beneath it, a flash drive.

I unfolded the letter.

The handwriting was Daniel's.

My Daniel.

Emily,

If this ever reaches you, then I failed to keep the past away from you.

I covered my mouth.

Victor looked away.

I continued reading.

My name was Daniil Volkov before I became Daniel Carter.

I wanted to tell you many times, but every time I imagined doing it, I saw fear in your eyes that wasn't there yet.

I was selfish enough to want one more ordinary day.

Tears blurred the page.

Lila touched my arm.

I kissed her forehead and kept reading.

There is something my father wants that he believes belongs to our family.

It does not.

It never did.

I took proof before I disappeared.

If our child is ever threatened, the proof is inside the drive.

Do not give it to Damian unless you believe he has changed.

Damian went completely still.

Victor looked at him.

I read the next line.

Do not give it to Victor unless he finally learns that love and fear are not the same thing.

Victor closed his eyes.

And if Father is alive, understand this above everything else.

He is not coming for money.

He is coming for a ledger.

The room seemed to tighten.

Damian whispered, "What ledger?"

I turned the page.

The answer was not there.

Only one final paragraph remained.

Emily, I loved you more than the quiet life I pretended we already had.

If Lila is a girl, tell her I wanted to name her after my mother, Lilia.

If she is a boy, please do not let Victor choose the name because he once wanted to name a dog Napoleon.

Victor gave a broken laugh.

Damian covered his mouth.

I could no longer see through my tears.

The letter ended with three words.

I came home.

For several moments, nobody spoke.

Then I looked at Damian.

"Do you have a computer?"

Marcus handed me a clinic laptop.

We inserted the flash drive.

It contained one video file.

The timestamp was five years old.

I clicked play.

Daniel appeared on the screen.

Older than I remembered him on our wedding day.

More frightened than I had ever seen him.

But alive.

My hand flew to my mouth.

"Emily," he said.

His voice shattered something inside me.

"If you're watching this, I hope I'm somewhere beside you complaining about how unnecessary this recording was."

He gave the crooked smile I remembered.

"But if I'm not, listen carefully."

Damian stepped closer to the screen.

Daniel continued.

"Our father, Mikhail Volkov, built his power using a private ledger that records names, payments, hidden accounts, judges, businessmen, police officers, and politicians he corrupted."

Victor whispered, "The black ledger."

Damian looked at him.

"You knew?"

"I heard stories."

On the screen, Daniel said, "I found evidence that much of the money was stolen from families who never belonged to our world."

Damian's face hardened.

"Father used shell charities."

Victor nodded slowly.

"I knew about some."

Daniel continued.

"I copied everything."

The video flickered.

"Mikhail believes the original ledger contains account access codes."

Damian whispered, "Does it?"

Daniel looked into the camera.

"No."

Victor frowned.

Daniel smiled.

"Mother removed them before she died."

Damian stared.

"Our mother?"

"The codes were hidden somewhere Mikhail would never look."

Daniel's face softened.

"With the child he threw away."

Victor whispered, "Daniil."

I understood.

"The watch."

Damian looked at me.

"The key opened the music box."

I nodded.

"But the codes aren't here."

Daniel continued.

"If my daughter exists when this message is found, there is one last thing you must know."

My heart pounded.

"The ledger is not hidden in Grayhaven."

Damian leaned closer.

"I gave it to someone who would never understand its value until the right person explained it."

The screen went black for three seconds.

Then another image appeared.

A photograph.

My breath stopped.

It was me.

Five years younger.

Standing outside the tiny apartment Daniel and I had shared.

I was holding a plain brown recipe book.

The video resumed.

Daniel smiled sadly.

"Emily always hated that book because I never cooked anything from it."

I stared at the screen.

"No."

Marcus looked at me.

"What?"

I could barely speak.

"I still have it."

Daniel continued.

"The recipes are a cipher."

Damian's eyes widened.

"The ledger is encoded inside the book."

I stood.

"My apartment."

Marcus immediately reached for his keys.

"No."

Everyone turned.

I looked toward Lila.

"Not my current apartment."

I swallowed.

"The storage unit."

After Daniel died, I could not bear to throw away his belongings.