Page 71

It wasn’t until late last night that she’d suddenly recalled that neither Delilah nor Celeste had been wearing one of her grandmother’s lavish designs. Delilah’s only jewelry had been the gaudy diamond rings that she’d collected since being married to Adrian, and Celeste had been wearing a simple strand of pearls along with her engagement ring.

It might have been an attempt at understated elegance, but Livia doubted they were capable of resisting the urge to show off their wealth.

So why not haul out the pretty baubles?

Livia’s first guess was that they no longer owned them. After all, if the Benoit fortune was gone then the fastest way to raise money would be to sell off the family’s prized possessions. Starting with the stuff that wouldn’t be noticed by anyone outside the Willows.

It wouldn’t directly answer any questions, but it might give a motivation to why Adrian and Winston were acting so weird.

Maybe they hired a private investigator to see if she had been smart enough to invest her trust fund into the stock market or real estate and now had a nest egg worth stealing.

Or more likely, they were trying to discover if she’d gone to a lawyer to set up a last will and testament. If something happened to her without a legal beneficiary then her share of the trust fund would go back to the Benoits. And as far as she knew they’d also get her house and business since they were her closest family. It wouldn’t make them rich, but it would keep the creditors at bay until they could get Celeste married and pregnant.

A wild theory, but one that would explain more than a few things that had happened to her over the past month.

Using the hidden door, Livia crept through the library and into her uncle’s office, silently shutting and locking the door behind her before moving to the globe in the corner of the room. Her hands were shaking as she reached out to place them on the sides of the globe, just like she’d seen her grandfather do. Then she gave it a twist, satisfaction stabbing through her as a loud click reverberated through the silence.

It sounded like the tripping of a lock.

Pulling on the top of the globe, she was prepared for it to separate from the bottom half, but she hadn’t expected it to be so heavy. Obviously it was from a time when craftsmen used solid materials that were built to last.

Grunting as she stumbled backward, Livia hastily set the globe on her uncle’s desk before turning back to peer inside the empty shell that remained on the wooden stand.

“I knew it,” she muttered, easily able to see that there were no black velvet bags or long leather boxes.

So what had happened to her grandmother’s emerald necklace? Or the ruby one? Or the diamond pendant with its matching brooch? She’d seen pictures of Delilah in the papers wearing the emeralds at one charity event or another. And that had been after her grandfather’s death.

That meant they’d been handed down.

She tapped her fingers on the edge of the bottom globe. It was possible her uncle had moved them to a different room in the house. Or even took them to a safety deposit box at the bank. But Livia didn’t think that was the answer. Not when last night’s party would have been the perfect opportunity to show them off.

With her suspicions confirmed, Livia started to step back only to hesitate. There weren’t any jewels in the hidden safe, but there were several sheets of paper in the bottom along with a thick document, folded and wrapped in a faux leather cover.

With a quick glance toward the closed door, Livia reached in to grab the papers. She wrinkled her nose as she realized they were more unpaid bills, including two mortgage payments on an office building in Baton Rouge. Strange. The commercial properties had been paid off during her grandfather’s time as head of the family. It was something he bragged about with monotonous regularity. Which meant that Adrian had borrowed money against the property and was clearly struggling to repay the loan.

Dropping the bills back into the globe, Livia pulled out the leather-covered document. She’d already guessed what it was. She’d been in real estate long enough to recognize a deed of property.

She unfolded the stiff papers, her brows drawing together as she scanned through the legal mumbo jumbo. This wasn’t a deed for an office building or shopping center. It wasn’t even a rental property. It was a detached, single-family home in Slidell, Louisiana, that had been purchased almost thirty years ago.

Confused, Livia pulled out her phone to take a picture of the address.

Why would the Benoits own a house in Slidell? And why would the deed be hidden in the globe and not filed with the other legal paperwork?

It had to be because Adrian didn’t want anyone to know he owned the house.

She narrowed her eyes. Was it possible Adrian had purchased the place for his secret lover? It was hard to imagine her uncle having enough passion to go to the effort of driving to Slidell to meet with a mistress, let alone spending the cash to keep her in relatively decent comfort. But who knew what was hidden beneath his pretense of stiff propriety?

He could be a full-fledged freak as far as she knew.

Still she couldn’t make herself accept the easy explanation. There was something niggling in the back of her mind.

Something about the deed.

Livia sucked in a sharp breath. No, it wasn’t the deed that set off her alarms. It was the address.

Slidell. Just like the bank account he wanted closed and erased from records.

Were the two connected?