Chapter 2 — The Piece That Never Belonged
The living room remained silent long after Ethan placed the red puzzle piece into his father's hand.
No one breathed.
No one moved.
Richard stared at the tiny wooden piece as though it weighed a thousand pounds.
It wasn't part of the colorful dinosaur puzzle scattered across the marble floor.
Its shape was different.
Older.
The edges were worn smooth from years of being carried.
His fingers tightened instinctively.
"Where did you get this?" he asked, his voice barely above a whisper.
Ethan looked toward his mother before answering.
"I found it inside Grandpa's old music box."
Emily's face went pale.
"What music box?"
"The one Grandma told me never to open."
Across the room, Victoria's elegant posture collapsed for the first time.
"That's enough," she snapped. "He's just a child. He doesn't know what he's found."
Richard slowly stood.
"No."
His eyes never left the red piece.
"I know exactly what this is."
Twenty-five years earlier, his younger sister Lily had owned a handmade wooden puzzle built by their father.
There had only been one red piece.
The final piece.
The day Lily disappeared from the family estate, that piece disappeared with her.
Police searched the grounds for weeks.
The child was never found.
Victoria had declared her dead within a month.
Richard was only twelve.
He had cried until he could no longer speak.
Now...
The missing piece rested in his palm.
His mother had spent twenty-five years insisting it no longer existed.
Emily suddenly remembered something.
"The music box wasn't in your mother's room."
"It was hidden in the attic."
Richard turned slowly toward Victoria.
"Mother..."
"Why was Lily's puzzle piece hidden in our attic?"
Victoria didn't answer.
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For the first time in decades...
Fear appeared in her eyes.
