Now, eighteen years later, she was standing beside Emily in the original workshop, watching the young woman examine her father's photograph.
"Emily," Eleanor said softly.
Emily looked up.
"Yes?"
"There is something I should have told you."
Emily's expression became attentive.
"What?"
Eleanor sat beside her.
"When your father died, Arthur received a telephone call."
Emily froze.
"From whom?"
"Victor Sterling."
Emily stared at her.
"What did he say?"
Eleanor hesitated.
"He wanted to know whether Arthur had received Daniel's documents."
Emily felt her heart beating faster.
"Which documents?"
Eleanor shook her head.
"I don't know. Arthur never explained."
"Did he answer?"
"Yes."
"What did he say?"
Eleanor closed her eyes.
"He said that the documents were safe."
Emily looked down at the photograph.
Her father had discovered something.
Arthur had protected it.
And Victor had spent eighteen years trying to find it.
Emily suddenly understood why the company mattered so much to him.
Maison Aurelia wasn't simply a business.
It was a place where evidence had been hidden.
Evidence that might expose something Victor Sterling had done.
She looked toward Eleanor.
"Why didn't you tell me before?"
Eleanor's eyes filled with tears.
"Because I was afraid."
Emily said nothing.
Eleanor continued.
"I loved your grandfather. I loved your father. And after Daniel died, Arthur became obsessed with protecting you."
She took Emily's hand.
"He believed that if Victor discovered what you knew, you might become a target."
Emily swallowed.
"Then perhaps it's time we stopped hiding."
Eleanor nodded.
"I think you're right."
For several seconds, they sat in silence.
Then Emily stood.
She looked toward the old workbench.
"Mrs. Whitmore?"
Eleanor smiled faintly.
"Yes?"
"Thank you."
Eleanor frowned.
"For what?"
"For being honest."
Emily walked toward the staircase.
And Eleanor watched her go.
She knew the young woman was frightened.
She knew she was grieving.
But she also knew something Arthur had recognized long ago.
Emily Carter had inherited more than a company.
She had inherited the courage to protect what mattered.
And that courage was about to change everything.
Victor Sterling sent the invitation at noon.
It arrived in a black envelope.
Inside was a card bearing his personal signature.
Miss Carter,
I believe we should discuss the future of Maison Aurelia.
My office. Tomorrow. Ten o'clock.
Victor Sterling.
Emily read it twice.
Then she laughed.
Sophia looked up from her desk.
"What?"
Emily held out the card.
Sophia read it.
"Are you going?"
Emily nodded.
"Of course."
Sophia frowned.
"Alone?"
Emily smiled.
"No."
She placed the invitation beside the photograph of her father.
Then she opened her laptop.
For the next several hours, she reviewed every available record connected to Victor Sterling.
She examined acquisition agreements.
She studied corporate filings.
She contacted the company's legal advisers.
And slowly, a pattern emerged.
Victor had acquired several businesses through companies that appeared financially independent.
But the same consulting firms repeatedly appeared in their records.
Northbridge Advisory.
Richard Hayes's company.
Emily felt something cold settle inside her.
The missing eight million dollars might not have been the beginning.
It might have been the final piece of a much larger arrangement.
She called Thomas Bennett.
"Can you trace the payments?"
Thomas answered immediately.
"I'm already working on it."
"How long?"
"Two days."
Emily looked at the invitation.
"Then we have two days."
Thomas hesitated.
"Emily, be careful."
She smiled faintly.
"I intend to be."
After the call, Emily opened her father's notebook.
She read the final sentence again.
The original agreement is hidden where the first diamond was found.
She looked toward the workshop.
Then she remembered something.
Arthur had once told her that the first diamond wasn't the only thing hidden in the Founder's Room.
There was a second compartment.
One that Daniel had created.
One that Arthur had never opened.
Emily stood.
Sophia looked up.
"Where are you going?"
Emily grabbed her coat.
"Back downstairs."
She smiled.
"I think we missed something."
And for the first time since entering Maison Aurelia, she felt certain that the truth was no longer hidden.
It was simply waiting for someone brave enough to uncover it.
The second compartment was hidden beneath the wooden shelf.
Emily found it after nearly an hour of searching.
A small brass plate had been attached to the underside of the shelf, almost invisible beneath years of dust.
She pressed it.
The shelf shifted.
A narrow drawer slid outward.