My grandfather did not look at the dancers when he pressed the scrap of paper into my palm. He looked at the heavy brass lock on the ballroom terrace doors, his fingers dry and cold against my wrist.
The music from the five-piece band carried across the polished parquet floor of our Greenwich home, but his voice was barely a whisper.
“Memorize this number, Emma, and do not show it to your father.”
I twirled my grandmother’s gold signet ring around my pinky finger, a habit that always returned when my chest felt tight. The metal was cool, worn smooth by decades of her own anxious fingers.
“Why do I need an attorney’s number, Grandpa?” I asked, keeping my voice low.
He did not answer me directly. He turned his head toward the corner of the room, where Grandma’s old upright piano sat silent, buried under three separate floral arrangements of white lilies. My mother had insisted on covering the dark wood to match the party’s theme, hiding the instrument where I had spent my childhood learning simple duets.
“Just keep it in your head,” he rasped, his eyes fixed on the hidden keys. “Ten digits. Start now.”
He leaned heavily on his cane, his small pocket watch chain glinting against his dark waistcoat. I knew he kept the watch in his pocket even though the brass face had stopped turning three years ago.
“Is something wrong with the estate?” I asked, stepping closer to him so the passing waiters would not hear.
“Your father is a man who builds on sand, Emma,” he said, his voice carrying a dry, flat rattle. “And sand has a habit of shifting when the wind rises. Rebecca Shaw is the only person who will tell you the truth when the circle closes.”
He patted my hand once, a brief, dry touch, then turned toward the foyer.
I watched him go, his shoulders slightly hunched under his tailored suit.
I repeated the first three digits under my breath, matching the beat to the drums of the jazz band.
Two, zero, three.
The guests moved around me in a blur of silk and diamonds, their laughter sounding loud and hollow against the high ceiling.
