Chapter 21: The Second Key

Caroline had mixed feelings as she stepped into her aunt’s office and saw her father, Gasper, sitting there. The child in her wanted to run over and throw her arms around him. She wanted to let him make her feel safe and tell her everything would be okay. Yet the rest of her felt as though that relationship died when he faked his death, and she couldn’t see how they’d ever revive it. He was a stranger to her now.

Eloise stood back in her position by the door, and Caroline walked over to the free seat next to her father, not waiting for an invitation. She got the impression from the stiff way her father and aunt sat that they’d been discussing her before she entered. The concept was hardly surprising. She leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms over her chest, waiting for them to speak.