Chapter 5 - BEHIND CATHERINE’S PORTRAIT
The blue room had once been Catherine’s private sitting room.
After her death, Richard left it almost unchanged.
Blue velvet chairs faced tall windows.
Shelves held architecture books and family albums.
Catherine’s portrait hung above the fireplace.
Police escorted Vivian and Marcus away from the room while Daniel activated the emergency protection order.
Marcus was released after officers documented the stolen watch because the broader investigation was still beginning.
Vivian remained in the mansion temporarily but was forbidden from entering Richard’s bedroom, office or the blue room.
She shouted that Isabella was stealing her home.
Richard flinched at the sound.
Isabella placed herself between them.
“You will not speak to him like that again.”
Vivian laughed.
“You think a folder makes you powerful?”
“No. Evidence does.”
Inside the blue room, Isabella removed the portrait.
The envelope was gone.
Behind the frame, however, she found a narrow wooden panel matching the wall.
Richard’s injured hand trembled as he pointed to the bottom corner.
“Your mother designed it.”
Isabella pressed the carved rose in the molding.
A hidden compartment opened.
Inside was a small recorder, an old brass key and a sealed document bearing Catherine’s signature.
The recorder contained Richard’s voice.
He sounded stronger than he did now.
“If Isabella hears this, Vivian has discovered the transfer restrictions.”
He explained that Marcus had tried to persuade him to sell three protected properties. When Richard refused, company reports began disappearing.
Then his medication changed.
He became dizzy.
Lost hours.
Woke in rooms without remembering entering them.
Richard believed Vivian was trying to make him appear incompetent while forcing him to sign documents during periods of sedation.
“I should have called Isabella sooner,” he said. “I was ashamed.”
The recording stopped.
Isabella closed her eyes.
Her father had known he was in danger.
He had also known the distance between them might prevent her from believing him.
The sealed document was an amendment to the Vale Legacy Trust.
It named Isabella as emergency successor trustee.
It carried Richard’s signature and Catherine’s original trust seal.
Daniel examined it carefully.
“This freezes every transfer made under coercion.”
Vivian’s deed to the mansion was immediately suspended.
So were Marcus’s company appointments.
But the brass key did not fit anything in the room.
Richard stared at it.
“Catherine’s box.”
“Where is it?”
His eyes filled with frustration.
“I can’t remember.”
Vivian had taken more than his freedom.
The drugs had damaged his confidence in his own memory.
Then Isabella noticed three words engraved along the key’s stem:
VALE ARCHIVE 17.
The key belonged to a private bank vault.
May you like
And according to Daniel, Catherine had sealed that vault before her death.
👉 The hidden amendment stopped Vivian from taking the mansion, but the unopened vault held the original document that could expose why she had married Richard in the first place.
